Let’s talk general solutions to tomato pests and diseases...
First and most importantly, grow a healthy tomato plant.
We covered this elsewhere on the site, review if necessary.
Like us, tomato plants that are weak and frail usually get sick.
Say your once healthy tomato plant looks a little sick. What to do?
Discolored leaves falling off, wilting, bugs. Whatever. We think,
“Let’s ask the experts." Some expert somewhere must know the
answer. The internet has what seems like 100s of possible cures.
We post a picture of the problem and get 50 different remedies from
50 different people. Then we take a leaf to the local nursery for help.
The local nursey is ready to sell us a slew of products that might help.
Sometimes we leave thinking maybe we may know more than the
nursey employee. That’s how we normally proceed on sick plants.
So what should we do about a sick tomato?
First, we don’t always need a specific diagnosis. We need to do
more of those things that generally fix sick tomato plants. When
tomato leaves are dying and falling off the tomato, usually it’s a
"fungus” problem. We don’t need to know the specific fungus.
There are 100s and 100s of different types of fungus. I don’t spend all day trying to figure out which specific fungus it is. First do
something that generally treats/cures fungus and sick tomato plants in
general. That’s what you’re going to read about in this section.
When your tomato plant has bugs? Take you garden hose and spray
off the bugs. Do it in the morning so your plant has all day to dry.
If your tomato plant is really bad?? Pull it out and put in another new
healthy little guy. You’re not running a tomato hospital.
In this section you will read a few of the common problems with
some helpful solutions on powdery mildew fungus, fungus in
general, spider mites, blossom end rot, root knot nematodes.
I don’t generally use pesticides, never needed to. Even with some
disease every year, we always have plenty of tomatoes.