Good point! Although strangely, my tomatoes plant grow better in the bigger wider pots with the same soil (no crop or limited crop rotation) than in the smaller pots that I renew soil every year.
I notice that fungus problem appear usually after fruits production or consecutive rainy days.
“what did the garden center say?”
It’s just mildew!!! I hope I didn’t kill it myself with my hissy fit!
What did they recommend you to do?
Nothing - she said I could pull of those leaves but in all the stems look healthy!!!
I read that spraying a teaspoon of baking soda with 0.5 liter or 2 cups of water each week is effective. The other home made spray is milk, baking soda and dish detergent with water.
Anybody tried these method? Useful?
Ok, another question. I have a tomato ring around my tomatoes and two stakes. The plant is already so heavy the the stems are falling over with weight. I tie them to the cage or stakes, but I may need a couple more stakes. My tomato plant is in a large pot. Is it safe to put a couple more takes at the edge of the pot to avoid the roots? Such a brown thumb!!
Don’t worry too much if stakes touch the roots, it will be fine. More problem if stems are falling over actually.
Try to stake/support them more than you think is necessary. Maybe a piece of trellis behind the pot? When happy they grow so fast and are, hopefully, laden with heavy fruits.
I’m already disappointed with my grafted big red, 2 ripened and looked beautiful but… mealy texture. All my hopes now pinned on my mortgage lifter plant.
Stakes will be fine, just don’t tie the stems too tightly…old nylons ( odd chance you have any) or flexible vinyl tape are useful for tying. I’m surprised they didn’t tell you to to use something for the powdery mildew–like copper fungicide.
UGH, I hope I didn’t make them too tight!
We don’t get much fungus here ( 102 today, but a dry heat…), but neem oil worked to keep it from spreading on my peppers.
Well, I now have something weird on my basil. Black on the underside and yellowing on top. This is not mine but what it looks like. Maybe mildew here too?
I think that might be a bacterial problem. Are the plants in a planter or in the ground? If in the ground be careful you are splashing too much water from the ground onto the plant and/or use mulch or burlap bags to help keep soil borne diseases off of your plants.
Gourmanda- the basil is in a pot
Well then I don’t have an answer. Our basil (in the ground) sometimes looks like that but it’s usually really late in the season.
Unfortunately that looks a lot like downy mildew:
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/NewsArticles/BasilDowny.html
As the article says it’s become a problem on the East Coast since around 2008. I had a plant develop it a couple of years ago, but discarded that plant and haven’t seen it the past couple of seasons, knock wood. The seedling could have been infected when you got the plant - even the seeds if you started from seed. If you scroll down they do have suggestions for treating it - neem oil being an inexpensive easily available organic one.
Thanks ratgirlagogo. I was afraid of that. My last basil plant got eaten by bugs not me. Now I guess I’ll toss this one too. I hate spraying basil with anything that may ruin the flavor.
I’ll make a general reply, but mindful of various angles in previous replies.
Heirloom tomatoes like Cherokee are not very commercial specifically because of their non-resistance to various ailments. Sounds like you have powdery mildew.
This year has been bad in the midwest-- for me, at least–because of the heavy rains, which generate mold and fungus problems and also a kind of bursting in the fruit when swamped with water after a few days of dryness. This year is the first in ten years that I have almost never watered my tomatoes, from lack of need. It’s just rained almost all the time.
About heat: my experience is that tomatoes enjoy heat, but controlling sunshine is needful at times, and high heat is very damaging at the blossoming stage. I’m no pro, but that’s my two cents, FWIW.
