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How to Identify Tomato Plant Diseases

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With good planting methods your tomato plants should grow up to be strong and healthy with vibrant green leaves and healthy fruit. Unfortunately things may not always go smoothly and your plants may catch one of many tomato diseases. Fortunately, with good tomato disease identification most can be controlled or treated if you spot them early enough.

Identifying Whether Your Plant has a Disease:

Most tomato plant diseases start appearing on the leaf first so you should be inspecting your plant leaves very regularly both topside and underside. You want to be looking for brown spots and yellowing of the leaves. Certain tomato diseases also affect the stem and fruit so you want to check these areas also. We will now look at the symptoms and related tomato disease most likely to affect your plants.

Symptom #1: Small Brown spots with dark outlines on mature leaves:

This is most likely a case of Septoria Leaf Spot. Typically the spots have a diameter between 1-3mm, sometimes circled by a yellow patch. If the number of spots increases the leaf will die and drop off. Fortunately this disease is rarely fatal to the plant and only affects the leaves. To treat Septoria Leaf Spot you should remove infected leaves, keep the plant dry if possible and prevent it touching neighbouring plants. Fungicides can also be applied successfully. Crop-rotation is a longer term solution recommended by experts – consider planting your tomatoes in a different location next season.

Symptom #2: Brown spots composed of circular rings that resemble a shooting target:

These concentric rings are a tell-tale sign of Early Blight. Unfortunately this disease can also affect the stem and fruit of your plant. You can use similar fungicides as used for septoria leaf spot. Remove any ripe or damaged tomatoes immediately to prevent spreading of the disease. Crop-rotation is a recommended solution going forwards.

Symptom #3: Small dark circular spots appear on the fruit only:

This is likely to be a case of Anthracnose – the most common fruit-attacking disease. It typically appears on ripe/over-ripe tomatoes. The fungus can remain in the soil and survive winters. Fungicides can be used to treat the plant and all ripe fruit should be removed as soon as possible.

Preventing Tomato Diseases:

Taking certain measures will go a long way to preventing your tomato plants catching diseases. Use disease resistant varieties of seeds and plants to reduce chances of disease. Also diseases flourish more when the leaves are wet – try to keep your leaves dry when watering and support your plant well so that the leaves are open to air and sunlight.

Tomato Growing Tips – Secrets in Raising Healthy Tomatoes

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Many successful tomato gardeners have created their own tomato growing tips based on their experiences. If you are just a beginner in the field of gardening and you want to grow tomatoes in your garden, here are some of the very useful tomato growing tips that you might want to consider.

Choose the right variety to grow: If you still do not have any idea, there are many different tomato varieties around the world. Different varieties also have different needs. Weather conditions, soil properties, and climate affects the way tomatoes grow. To successfully grow healthy and juicy tomatoes, it is very important that you should be able to choose the variety or varieties that are suitable for your place.

Soil Preparation: Before planting the seed or tomato plant, be sure that you already have prepared the soil to be balanced and suitable for your tomato seeds or plants. If you are starting from planting tomato seeds, be sure that you give the seeds enough room or space to grow. Avoid overcrowding them in a single spot. When they grow up and are ready for transfer, be sure that you have already prepared the soil where they will be planted. Till the soil, put fertilizers, and be sure that it has a proper drainage.

Plant Deeply: When transplanting tomato plants, be sure to plant them deeply. The suggested measurement is up to a few leaves. Tomato has the ability to grow roots within their stems. That is the reason why other gardeners dig a tunnel and lay their tomato plants. You do not have to worry about this idea as the tomato plants tend to grow upwards toward the sun.

Growing Tomatoes In Your Garden – Here Are The Basics

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For many people, tomatoes are often the first option when it comes to establishing a vegetable garden. Planting and nurturing your own tomato plants is not hard and the rewards of being able to eat fresh, organic tomatoes are immeasurable.

There are no fewer than 7,500 types of tomato plants to choose from, a fact that surprises most people. You may favour a smaller tomato such as Cherry tomatoes, purely for their taste, or you might choose the larger Beefsteak tomato, well suited to salads or making your own sauces. Given the ease with which can grow tomatoes, you can be sure of enjoying enough tomatoes at harvest time.

As a general rule, warm conditions are preferred by tomato plants to thrive in an outdoor garden because they are usually unable to withstand frost. The recommended growing temperature is between 18-30 degrees Celsius (65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day and no cooler the 15 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) during the night. Between April and June is deemed to be the best period in which to grow tomatoes, or October to December in the Southern hemisphere.

When planting your tomato seeds, be sure not to plant them too closely together. As the plants grow, the roots will expand beneath the soil, requiring plenty of room. There is the risk that growing plants too close together often may result in them sharing pests and diseases. Close planting could also suppress the growth of the fruit by becoming shaded by the leaves of nearby plants that are too close together.

Hanging Tomato Plants – An Option For Small Gardens

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Tomato plants are one of the easiest and most popular vine plants to grow but, as with all homegrown vegetables and fruits, it pays to do your homework up front to make sure you can successfully grow your own tomatoes or any other vegetables. Selecting the right location and using the right soil or compost mix will set you on your way to successful tomato crops.

One of the best options available to people with small gardens that will still allow them to grow a few tomato plants and enjoy the satisfaction of eating fresh homegrown tomatoes is to use a hanging planter, the planter can be hung in any convenient location, remembering of course that tomato plants need plenty of sun and plenty of water.

The main benefit of using a hanger in a small garden is that you need very little space in which to hang it and instead of spreading out to take up a large area they tend to hang straight down and occupy vertical space rather than horizontal space. So plenty of scope for the fruit to grow but in a long vertical line.

Growing Tomatoes Like A Boss

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Do you simply not like going to the vegetable store and buying tomatoes? Would you much rather grow them on your own, in your own garden and be sure they are one hundred percent safe and organic? What are you waiting for then? Tomatoes are very easy to grow. In fact, they are one of the easiest plants to grow in your garden. There are simply a few things that you must keep in mind and that is it! Juicy, delicious tomatoes in your garden!

You must know that tomatoes need space to grow. They need to spread out. Grow your plants at a distance of two feet from each other. Once you see tiny leaves sprouting, you should transfer them immediately. After two weeks you can put them in a container that measures approximately 4 inches. You should grow your tomato seedlings for a good 7 weeks indoors before finally transferring them into your garden.

Your tomatoes seedlings will need copious amounts of sun light. You should place them directly under sunlight for about 8 hours each day. Even while choosing a place in your garden for them to grow, you should choose a place that receives the highest amount of sunlight. Good sunlight exposure ensures the growth of nutritious and delicious tomatoes. This tip may sound bizarre but it has been proven that fanning the plants for about ten minutes every day is very helpful. This will not only provide good aeration but will also keep your plant away from fungal diseases. Tomatoes need a ground that is warm.