Tomato Plant Disease

Tomato plants can fall victim to a large variety of diseases.  One of the most common is Early Blight.  The leaves turn yellow and become mottled with brown or black, target-like spots.

It is caused by a fungus and it is aggravated by water on the leaves and/or damp soil (poor draining).  It attacks the lowest leaves first and can spread and kill the plant if ignored.

I'm using an allegedly organic fungicide that I bought at Armstrong Nursery.  Mother Jones suggests simply removing the infected leaves at the very first sign of disease, which I have also done. (Like the leaves in this photo - long gone - actually left them at Armstrong when I went in for the diagnosis) So far so good.

I'm not sure if I have Early Blight or Gray Leaf Spot, a disease which is caused by a different fungus but has very similar symptoms and can be treated in pretty much the same way.  I don't really see the "concentric, target-like circles" of Early Bight so think its probably Gray Leaf Spot.

I thought I'd share this because it's a very common problem.  If you see it immediately removed the infected leaves, let the soil dry out if it is damp, don't let water fall on leaves when you water - water from below.  And treat with a fungicide.

By the way Early Blight is different than Late Blight, which is the disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine (and attacks tomatoes as well as potatoes).

Here's a photo of something going on with the zucchini leaves.  Also some kind of fungus.  I removed the leaves and sprayed with the fungicide and that seems to be doing better too.

Lots of problems I have been having I believe have been caused by too much water.  I've let the soils dry out a bit and everything is looking better.

To end on a more upbeat note, here's a photo of the strawberries, which was taken a couple of days before I laid the sugar cane straw as a mulch/ground cover.  The perfect shape and color, not to mention smell, texture and taste of the strawberries never ceases to amaze me...