Everyone loves tomatoes, especially homegrown vine ripened ones. However, tomatoes, like humans are prone to certain diseases that could overtake them and kill them. Here is an explanation of the most common ones.

First, there is Early Blight. Early Blight is a disease that will affect foliage, the fruit, and the stems of the tomato plant. It causes the leaves to die and this means that the fruit can die from exposure to the sun. Crowded or undernourished plants are more susceptable.

Next there is Gray Leaf Spot. This disease will hurt the leaves of the tomato plant. It first attacks the oldest leaves. It kills off the leaves from the inside out. This will keep fruit from growing.

The third disease is called Leaf Blight. Leaf Blight will attack both fruit and leaves of tomatoes. This type of disease spreads rapidly. This is actually what caused the Irish Potato famine.

Another disease is the Septoria Leaf Spot disease. This is the same type of disease as Late Blight. It affects the oldest leaves and then the newer leaves.

Southern Blight is another disease that affects tomatoes. It is a white moldy substance on the bottom part of the stem closest to the soil. Most often these plants that are affected will just collapse.

The next type of disease is Verticilium Wilt. Although the name says wilt the leaves of the tomatoes that have this disease do not actually wilt at all. This disease will keep the tomatoes from taking in the water and nutrients it needs to grow and be healthy.

Athracnose is a disease that affects the tomatoes themselves. It is just a fungus that eats out the tomato fruit. This fungus will grow more rapidly in rainy weather. It also happens to affect extremely ripe tomatoes more so pick your fruit on time!

The next disease that affects tomatoes is Bacterial Speck. As the name suggests this is a bacteria that affects the fruit of tomatoes.

Blossom End Rot is another disease that affects the tomatoes themselves. This disease pretty much keeps the tomatoes from getting the nutrients that they need to thrive. Obviously, looking at the name, it easy to tell where the disease begins. This disease is easier to prevent than cure. Make sure your soil has an adequate supply of nutrients, especially calcium.

The next type of disease that affects tomatoes is Buckeye Rot. Like Blossom End Rot this disease affects the fruit of a tomato plant. This type of disease happens most often in the southern part of the United States during the rainy season. It works the same way as Blossom End Rot.

Another disease that hits the fruit of tomatoes is Gray Wall. This is actually a disease that affects the ripening of the plants. It will be the worst during a cool temperature season.

Homegrown tomatoes are always the best tomatoes to eat. However, when you fruit is affected by one of the horrendous diseases listed above you could have more problems on your hands then you hoped for and no fruit. However, you are now on the road to the most powerful equipment to fight them, knowledge.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 6th, 2010 at 2:10 am and is filed under Gardening Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.