 Plant Diseases in Arkansas
Garden Plots – Tomato Spots
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Audio/Video Script:
Steve Vann
Assistant Professor - Urban Extension Plant Pathologist
The vegetable growing season this year for many growers in this particular
area has been rather bumpy. Got off to a bumpy start. And this is due, in fact,
primarily from the recent weather patterns that we’ve been having. That is the
cool temperatures and excessive amount of rainfall.
Now these two weather patterns will aggravate, or bring on several diseases
that we might see on tomatoes.
For example, this particular disease that we’re looking at on the leaves on
tomato is caused by a bacteria. And this particular bacteria is going to thrive
and spread very easy when the leaves are quite wet. And this is true in the case
of many other organisms that cause our leaf spots on our vegetables.
So the fact that we’ve got lots of moisture on the leaves, we’ve got cool
temperatures. These two weather conditions lend itself to a lot of disease
outbreaks on our vegetables.
Not only will this particular bacterial disease affect the foliage of the
plant but it can also damage the fruit, as we see here. The initial symptoms we
normally see on developing fruit are small circular lesions which oftentimes
become brown and scabby when they get older.
One of the best ways that our home gardeners can minimize many disease that
attack the foliage of our vegetables is to practice techniques in which those
leaves are dry. In other words, our goal is to maintain dry foliage. And one of
the best ways that our home gardeners can do this is to water your plants by
means of a drip tube or a soaker hose. In this particular way, the leaves will
remain drier for longer periods which will discourage many of our diseases that
attack the foliage.
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To learn more,
contact your county Extension agent, and follow the links in this section.
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