My tomatoe plants suddenly have developed white spots on the leaves, some leaves have dark purple edges and the tops of some plants are shrivelled.
I kinda hope I just messed up and the plants got sun scald and it's not a fungi infection? But I'm really not sure, so any input would be appreciated.
Facts about the plants:
*The one in picture is cherry tomatoes, but few others are affected as well
*Northern Europe (Baltic states), they are planted in a greenhouse
*Soil ph is 6-7
*They have been planted in tomatoe soil
*I'm pretty certain they have not gotten any water on the leaves while watering
I had to leave for 2 days and because weather forecast was on the cold side, I left the greenhouse fully closed. I came back to see the leaves spotted (they were fine when I left). It is possible that over the days when I was away weather was sunnier than expected; and the greenhouse was very humid when I got back.
If it is just a sun scald, how do I treat the plants?
And if it turns out to be fungi, is there any hope to save the plants?
by Spigana
4 Comments
This is sunburn. Not much to do, the burned leaves will not recover but are still offering some benefit to the plant so leave them on. If you still have really hot bright sun ahead of you, then shade them if you can while they adjust, other than that the new growth should adjust on its own. That has been my experience, but there are more educated mater’ experts in this sub.
Upload picture to Google it will tell you anything you ask …. https://images.google.com/
Looks like a sunburn. Was it very wet in the green house and the plants got drops on them for some days? In image 3, cut off one of those leaves and carry it away from the plants. Then smash it in your hands and see if it just cracks like a dry leaf or if it dusts like a fungus (that would be late blight then). The dust would be the spores, which you do not want to get on your plants, so wash your hands thoroughly if you find fungus, then just cut back all those leaves where you find that it is dusty. The plants look fine in general, so they would recover from many things (they intentionally drop part of the leaf to kill off the fungus), even late blight if you keep it healthy and dry.
They aren’t, but they will be. I mention this because the tone of your post suggests you are not prepared for your tomatoes to become infected with fungi. It almost always happens unless you live in a VERY dry climate (my brother used to live outside Phoenix, and had very little difficulty with fungus on his tomatoes, but even heat tolerant varietals ended their season by late May). Most tomato growers most places in the world will see their plants increasingly ravaged by final infections late in the season. Many will still be able to continue producing lovely fruit and, with diligent pruning of infected leaves, may survive for months with a slow-burning infection of late blight or equivalent.
But it will happen.
Be prepared.