How To Prevent Tomato Diseases

Nothing can compare to the taste of fresh tomatoes, just picked from the garden. Most homesteaders have them in their gardens, and, for many, it’s a favorite vegetable. Juicy, ripe tomatoes are a real treat on hot summer days.

But what if instead of large, ripe tomatoes in your garden, you come across damaged, half-rotten fruits, or withered and half-dried leaves? You may have done something wrong in your plant care. Sometimes it’s fungal diseases or a lack of mineral substances, and sometimes it’s simply a matter of too much or too little watering.

Although the tomatoes in my garden were quite large last season, many fruits were affected by top rot, which is why I had to remove ruined fruits from the garden every day. Fortunately, this type of damage usually occurs at the beginning of the season, with the first fruits that ripen, while the fruits that arrive later are healthy.

I’ve put together some of the most common tomato diseases, and how you can protect your plants to ensure you have a good, healthy crop.

Tomato Early Blight – Alternaria solani

One common tomato disease is early blight. which causes wilting and drying of young tomato plants, significantly reducing their yield. The main cause of is a fungus that’s transmitted by infected seeds, so the disease can occur even during the production of seedlings.

You will recognize early blight by the appearance of dark freckles with black circles on the tomato leaves, which can spread to the fruit and cause it to rot.

The disease spreads more when the temperature is above 71 F degrees. You can prevent early blight by disinfecting seeds and using healthy seedlings, and if it has already appeared, use preparations to suppress it. Copper-based fungicides are usually used.

Blossom-End Rot

Blossom-end rot occurs at the top of the tomato fruit, which then decays very quickly. It’s not a disease, but a lack of nutrients, which results in the rotting of the fruit. The place affected by rot is dark brown or black and most often affects the first ripening fruits. Rot occurs due to a lack of calcium in the soil.

Also, if the pH of the soil is too low, calcium may be unavailable to the plant. Consider using a fertilizer that contains more calcium.

Even if there’s enough calcium in the soil, it happens when it doesn’t reach the fruit during dry periods. That’s why it’s very important that you irrigate tomatoes regularly during periods of drought, especially during the fruit development phase. Of course, excessive watering will not please the plant. When watering, take care to pour the water around the roots, without wetting the stem or leaves of the plant.

It is advised to immediately remove any diseased fruits that appear on your tomatoes.

Gray Mold – Botrytis cinerea 

Gray mold is a fungal disease that attacks numerous plant species. In addition to tomatoes, it can also occur in cucumbers, peppers, lettuce, and cabbage. The fungus Botrytis cinerea can occur on the stem, leaves, and flowers, and can also occur on seedlings. You can recognize it by the gray coating that appears on the fruit, and the tomatoes often drop off. The most common cause is frequent temperature changes.

If you grow tomatoes in a greenhouse or hothouse, your tomatoes are more likely to be affected because lower temperatures and high humidity favor the development of the disease. You can protect your tomatoes by maintaining the optimal temperature, ventilating the greenhouse, and lowering the humidity. Be sure to remove diseased fruits regularly.

Leaves Turn Yellow

This is one of the most common problems I have encountered when growing tomatoes. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, such as improper irrigation or plant disease. Sometimes it occurs early in the first stages of plant development when the first leaves that are formed turn yellow very quickly.

However, the most common reason why tomato leaves start to turn yellow is too much moisture. If the soil around the tomatoes is sufficiently moist, there’s no need to irrigate.

A tomato plant’s leaves can also turn yellow if you transplanted it recently—especially if it is transplanted from a greenhouse to the open air. That is why it’s best to transplant young plants earlier in the morning, while it’s not too warm, so that the plant has just a little more time to adapt to the new conditions. Never transplant it during the heat of midday.

Leaf Spot – Septoria lycopersici

Septoria lycopersici is a disease that primarily affects tomato leaves, but it can also occur on the stem. Tomatoes infected with this disease exhibit large brown freckles on the leaves, and later on the stem. The freckles on the leaves merge with each other and the leaves dry up and fall off. As soon as you notice that your tomato is affected by this disease, start removing the leaves.

The damage from this disease can be big because it can cause massive drying of the leaves. That’s why it’s best to make an effort to prevent disease by using healthy seedlings, and disinfecting seeds and soil. Also, it’s best to plant your tomatoes on a plot where tomatoes have not been grown for at least three years.

Wilting

Has it ever happened to you that, despite the best care, the leaves of your tomato look wilted? This is the first sign that your plant has been affected by wilt. There are two most common types: Fusarium and Verticillium wilt.

The first sign that you have Fusarium wilt is that the leaves begin to fall from the bottom of the plant to the top. Fungus in the soil enters the root and further into the whole plant. The infected root of the plant prevents the passage of water to the leaves, which makes the plant look wilted. If the soil is infected with this fungus, peas, green beans, cabbage, beans, and corn should be grown on it.

Verticillium wilt is recognized by leaves with yellow, V-shaped areas that narrow from the margin.

If your plant is affected by wilt, remove the plant from the garden immediately to protect other plants. There should be enough space between two plants so that they don’t infect each other if one is affected by a disease.

In addition to these diseases, the tomatoes in my garden were harmed by the rain that has been falling for several days without stopping. A lot of fruit rotted or split because of that, but I couldn’t prevent the rain from falling. One of the solutions could be growing tomatoes in a greenhouse or hothouse if you have the ability to do so.

The most important thing for me is that the tomatoes that I grow in the garden are not treated with various artificial/chemical means so we enjoy using them in our diet. And when I prepare tomato juice, I know that I will still enjoy its taste even during the winter, and remember that juicy, ripe tomato of summer.