Last year, the drought brought unique challenges to our tomatoes. This year, it looks like the wet and relatively cool weather will bring another set of issues. Although we had been receiving quite a bit of rain, our tomato plants were handling it fairly well until last week. That’s when we had a hail storm along with .8” rain and ferocious winds. Some tomatoes lost “limbs.” The very next night we received another 1.7” of rain that came down hard. I’m afraid all of this moisture is now causing some wilt/disease issues. This morning I cut off the yellowed, diseased areas of the plant in hopes of stopping further contamination.
After pruning the diseased areas, I sprayed the plants with a copper soap I bought from our local nursery. This liquid fungicide works best if applied before a huge rain, but I figure better late than never. It seems that northern Missouri could be in for a wet summer, so I may not be too late after all. I mixed two ounces of the concentrate in a gallon of water. I’ll continue to spray weekly and after a heavy rains.
I hope I can control the disease, but it really depends on the rains. If we continue to receive heavy rains, I don’t think there is a whole more I can do. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and cheer on the little green tomatoes that are setting.
whatsinyourgarden 