Tomato plant not looking good ~ Help

Hello all,
This is my first year trying my hand at growing a few veggies. I started 3 weeks ago with starters from my local farmers market. I had 2 types of tomato, 1 pepper plant, and 1 zucchini. As of today, I have lost the zucchini to slugs and earwigs, the slugs have turned their attention to the pepper plant, and my tomato plant is starting to get weird spots on it. It is starting with the leaves on the lower, closer to the ground, out shoots from the stem.

This is what it looks like. The affected leaves are a lighter green in appearance to the upper more healthier looking leaves. Is this a pest, a disease, or a deficiency of some sort in the soil?

Thank you

I'm not the expert here, but I can tell that they are going to need more information. Location? Soil type? Planting style (container, pots, square foot?)

For me, I have found that Ortho bug killer, 20lb bag at Wal-mart, containing "bimethrin" is very effective at controlling most garden bugs in my part of Texas. Sevin dust never hurts, and Gordon's Garden is also cheap and effective.

Using a combination of Ortho on the soil, Gordon's Garden and Sevin dust on the leaves seems to get just about everything.

TRG

It's 'bacterial spot' infection caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria. I've isolated thousands of strains from leaves looking just like that. Farmers will pull plants if the infection is isolated. If they see it spreading they'll treat with copper and/or antibiotics. Typical chemicals are, ampicillin (50 ug/mL) or gentamycin (50 ug/mL), that's micro-grams not milli-grams. Farmers will also apply a copper solution (100 ug/mL) but too much also affects the plants.

If you choose to leave the plant it will have reduced yield and ugly fruit, but a plant that young may just die The tomatoes are edible but they look nasty. Xcv is not a human pathogen. Xcv will also infect pepper plants too so keep a close eye on it.

My advice is to find a new spot to grow and not plant tomatoes or peppers in that area for 2-3 years. Also, put some straw down as mulch to keep wind blown dirt down to a minimum.

You may want to try Serenade on it:
http://www.groworganic.com/serenade-garden-disease-control-biofungicide-32-oz-concentrate.html

That stuff has halted many disease outbreaks in my tomatoes. I used to use copper and/or sulfur fungicide with limited results but the Serenade worked wonders.

My pepper plants have this. Brand new raised bed using Miracle grow garden soil. Is my bed no good?

Maybe. If you bought starts then they could have been infected from the day you bought them. If you started with seeds they also could have been infected. Infection spreads fastwthen it's hot, humid, and overhead spraying is done. You could keep the water on leaves down to a minimum which creates a less favorable environment for the bacteria.

Low nitrogen or potassium and high magnesium or calcium have been implicated in greater susceptibility and exacerbating the problem. With Miracle grow soil it may be Mg2+ and Ca2+ that's causing problems but I don't really know what levels they're at.

There are resistant varieties of peppers but I've been out of plant pathology for 5 years now and can't recall the resistant varieties. An ag extension agency may be able to help you source some resistant cultivars.

Mancozeb is another chemical that's used to fight bacterial spot which you could give a try. Mancozeb should be available at garden centers or online. You could try and see if chemical treatments fixes the problem. Be sure you remove leaves before they fall because they will be chlorotic and necrotic if the disease progresses. Don't compost the leaves either, just throw them away.

Long term, the easiest way for a home gardener to deal with bacterial spot is to rotate crops. So, for 2-3 years grow something besides peppers or tomatoes in the beds that have infected plants.

Thanks.

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