 Plant Diseases in Arkansas
Sun Scald on Tomatoes
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Dr. Stephen Vann
Assistant Professor - Urban Extension Plant Pathologist
One of the most common disorders that many gardeners, this time of year,
would be experiencing would be a disorder called Sun Scald. Basically this is
not an infectious problem on tomatoes in the garden, but it’s due primarily to
direct sun on the fruit as it’s developing on the vine.
This is a particular example of a tomato that has sun scald. And as you can
see there is a washed out bleached area, usually localized, on one side of the
fruit. Basically what brings on sun scald is the fact that the plant for some
reason or another is loosing its leaves. The leaves are going to shade the fruit
and prevent sun scald from happening. So as a result, you get intense sun light
on the fruit that causes this area to develop on the side of the fruit. Many
growers think this is actually an infectious disease, but this is strictly an
“a” biotic disorder.
As the fruit advances on, many times there will be several different fungal
organisms that will start to grow on this dying tissue on the fruit, giving it a
dark area like you see here on this particular tomato here. This dark area often
times will confuse many gardeners into thinking this is actually an infectious
disease, but truly actually it’s caused by the sunlight that damaging the fruit,
which is a result of a lack of leaves. And the loss of leaves can be caused by
several different things. May be caused by a specific type of infectious
disease, or in many cases, especially during this time of year, just a lack of
water can be causes those leaves to drop off.
So it’s very important to keep the leaves on the plant as long as you
possibly can to avoid situations like sun scald.
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To learn more,
contact your county Extension agent, and follow the links in this section.
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