You nurture your tomato plants until you have beautiful fruit maturing on the vine.Upon closer inspection, you discover that somet
06.06.2023 - 19:35 / gardenerspath.com / Helga George
How to Identify and Control Septoria Leaf Spot on Tomatoes Septoria lycopersiciSeptoria leaf spot can cause serious losses in tomato plants. Learn how to identify the symptoms of this fungal disease and the cultural controls you can use to prevent or minimize infection, in this guide.
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As if there aren’t already enough diseases to worry about when you’re growing tomatoes, add Septoria leaf spot to the list.
This can be one of the most destructive diseases of tomato plants, and it is a particular problem in areas prone to extended periods of wet, humid weather.
Both Septoria leaf spot and early blight manifest as spots on the leaves, but it is easy to tell them apart if you know what to look for. We’ll help you to do this, so you can determine which plan of action to take.
Neither your greenhouse seedlings nor your full-grown plants are safe from Septoria, and this fungus can strike at any stage of development.
Here’s everything that you will find in this guide:
Septoria Leaf Spot SymptomsSmall spots on the lower leaves of your tomato plants will be the first indication that they are infected with this fungus.
If infected, the undersides of the leaves will have many small, water-soaked spots that are about 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch in diameter.
These spots will have a dark brown margin and gray or tan centers. The lesions may merge together into larger spots as they mature.
Mature lesions will have a lot of dark brown structures in their centers that look like flecks of black pepper.
These pycnidia are the fruiting bodies of the fungi that produce the spores, and they are visible to the naked eye.
This fungus rarely infects
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