Diseases and pests of tomatoes: causes and methods of control

Much to the chagrin, due to diseases of tomatoes, summer residents often can lose most of their crop. To prevent this, we will talk about the most common problems of tomatoes, explain how to deal with them correctly and consider preventive measures for pests, viruses, and various fungi and other pathogens of horticultural crops.

There are the following signs of tomato diseases:

• change in the nature and rate of growth;
• the appearance of the shape and color, uncharacteristic for a particular variety;
• the presence of visually noticeable signs of exposure to pathogenic microorganisms (sporulation, gum, slugs, etc.).

The causes of diseases can be very different. For example, oedema is a sign of waterlogging, cracking of fruits becomes a result of temperature changes, but most often the cause of problems with tomatoes are pathogenic microorganisms and infections. Let us dwell on them in more detail.

The most common lesions of a tomato caused by fungi include the following:

• Late blight. Caused by phytophthora fungus, which affects the ground part of plants - black small areas appear, which soon begin to rot. If time does not engage in the treatment of this disease, the plant may die very quickly. A dangerous fungus most often settles in the soil, so in the fall it should be removed completely fallen leaves, and in early spring to disinfect the seeds and soil.

• Alternaria The second name of this disease is dry spotting, which manifests itself quite early - even before the seedling picks into the ground. The main symptoms of the disease include the appearance of dry round spots with strongly defined borders, as well as massive yellowing of the leaves.

• Anthracnose. The fruits of a plant of different degree of maturity are subject to this affliction. This fungus can cause significant damage to the crop, if not get rid of it in time, moreover, it is able to be transferred to eggplants, potatoes and some other vegetable crops. The danger of anthracnosis is that the signs of infection appear only on ripe fruits, until you remove a tomato from a bush, you will not be able to detect it. First, there are subtle grooves on the tomatoes, and as they grow, there are rings and cracks, where the pest falls once again and the process of decay is only aggravated.

• White spotting. The defeat of this fungus often takes up to 50% of the entire crop, usually septoria affects the leaves, they develop brown spots that increase, and then lead to the death of the entire leaf.

• Gray rot. There are cases when gray rot destroyed the entire crop in large farms, therefore, with the early signs of the disease, all necessary measures should be taken immediately, otherwise the ailment will spread very quickly throughout the entire sown area and destroy not only tomatoes, but also plants grown in the neighborhood. The first symptom of the disease is a fracture of the petiole, fungi settle in it and soon on the site of infection you can notice gray-brown spots, which are usually located close to the stem and are rapidly increasing in diameter, reaching 5 cm after only a few days. Then the stain turns yellow, and this is a symptom of the fact that the colonies of fungi inside the stem have grown and blocked off the access of the necessary plant water to the leaves and to the ripening fruits.

• White rot. This disease makes itself felt in the form of cracks and wet spots, from which rot begins.

• Mealy dew. Well-known and one of the most common ailments tomato caused by fungi. A sign of defeat is white bloom, which occurs on the leaves, while on the stems and roots it is almost absent.

• Verticillary wilting. Such a disease is relatively harmless, it does not cause significant damage to the crop.Expressed in the form of necrosis on old leaves, but can lead to the death of the root system. The peak of the activity of the fungus falls on the period of formation of the ovary - in the early stages the plant looks faded in the daytime under the sun, but soon the symptoms spread to all shoots and the leaves remain only at the top. Tomatoes are deprived of protection and can burn under the hot sunlight.

• Cladosporiosis (brown spot). In most cases, brown spot affects greenhouse tomatoes, in open plantings the disease is almost not found. The greatest activity of the fungus reaches at the stage of maturation of the crop. The disease spreads extremely quickly, putting at risk the most ripe fruits.

• Root rot. This disease is often called “black leg” by the people, while at the bushes just above the roots blackening appears and soon the plant fades. If the plant is treated with medicinal preparations in time, then any damage to fruiting can be avoided.

• Cancer stalk. This disease almost does not occur in open soil conditions, it does not spread in glazed greenhouses, but in greenhouses with a film coating, the entire harvest can quickly disappear. Fungi affect primarily the stems - they form brown growths from which liquid is released.

• Fusarium wilt. Fusarium is a difficult disease that is quite difficult to detect in the early stages. At the same time, the whole plant can be infected even at the seed stage, but the main symptoms appear only at the stage of formation of the ovary. If the lower leaves of the seedlings suddenly turn yellow and this process gradually moves to the upper leaves, then it is very likely that you are faced with fusarium. The causes of damage can be different - this is a lack of light, and excessively frequent planting, and an overabundance of fertilizers containing nitrogen. The treatment is carried out with the use of chemical compounds, prophylactic disinfection of seeds is actively used.

Very often, tomatoes are encountered in bacterial infections. The soil, especially open, is literally overflowing with the most diverse causative agents of plant diseases, which often lead to the death of tomatoes. Summer residents often encounter such a difficult situation: plants suffered a fungal disease, but were cured, began to develop, form young foliage and inflorescences, and unexpectedly new symptoms of the disease appear that differ from earlier ones. This suggests that the plant is faced with a bacterial infection, which can destroy in the shortest possible time even the strongest bush.

The types of bacterial infections are as follows.

• Bacterial mottling. This disease is immediately noticeable - on the leaves you can see oil stains, which later acquire a slightly more brown color, after which the leaves begin to curl and quickly die.

• Bacterial cancer - This is a terrible disease, which manifests itself already in the fruiting stage - it often takes up to a third of the total harvest. The first sign - the drying of the bush, due to the fact that the plants' vessels are blocked by bacteria. A little later, brown-red ulcerations form on the entire shrub, which cause the stem to dry out, and cracks form on it, through which the fluid leaks.

• Bacterial wilt - a very dangerous infection of tomatoes, which can destroy absolutely all the plants grown in an open area, and the infection occurs almost immediately. At first, the tomato begins to fade, and after a short time, weak brown stripes can be seen on the foliage. If you cut the stem, you can see that it becomes empty, inside - yellowish rings, when pressed on which brown liquid is released - these are dying vessels of the plant.

• Wet fruit rot. In greenhouse conditions, this damage does not cause any harm to the plants, which cannot be said about the seedlings in open soil. The disease affects the fruit by penetrating the pulp. As a result, after only a week from the tomatoes, only the peel remains. Carriers of the disease are flying insects.

• Necrosis of the stem - This is a fairly common disease of tomatoes, which are grown by inexperienced gardeners. In the first stages, brown spots appear on the stalks of bushes, which soon begin to crack, making it difficult for water to flow into the fruit.

• Black bacterial spotting - A serious disease that can in the shortest possible time to destroy the entire crop. The causative agent is a bacterium called Xanthomonas vesicatoria. Symptomatology is pronounced: oily specks of dark olive color are formed on the stems and leaves, which darken more and more rapidly every day and spread throughout the bush. Unlike fungal lesions, the spots do not merge into one, but on the contrary, as if crushed into small ones. As a result, the whole plant seems to be covered with a rash. All this leads to a gradual drying of the leaves and the stem and the rotting of the fruit.

The third extensive group of diseases of tomatoes are viral lesions. These include the following:

• Seedlessness. The scientific name of the disease is aspermia, its main signs will be increased bushiness, stem weakness and underdevelopment of the generative organ. When aspermia flowers begin to grow together, shrink and change color. Carriers of the disease are birds, so the main measure to prevent seedlessness is to protect plants from pest invasions.

• Bronze. Unpleasant virus, which, unfortunately, every year only gets stronger. Often such a disease destroys the entire crop of tomatoes in the country. The lesion, as a rule, affects young fruits — rings form on their upper parts, which gradually acquire a brown color, and after 7-10 days chlorotic dying tissue forms around them.

• Yellow leaf curl. This disease is not terrible for summer residents and all those who grow tomatoes for themselves. But for farmers who sell vegetables, such a virus can cause a lot of trouble, because tomato spoils the trade dress rather badly - fruits become ribbed. This virus is carried by the whitefly, it is not transmitted through seeds and sap, so the whole fight against the disease should be reduced to the removal of insects.

• Bushiness apex. This disease makes itself felt even in early spring at the seedling stage - it was at this time that small white dots begin to form on the lower leaves, which gradually grow and turn brown. Following this, the main central vein grows coarse, and the leaves themselves coagulate and twist around their axis.

• Mosaic. A characteristic sign of the disease are dark and light areas scattered on the leaves and fruits in random order. In addition, the virus is accompanied by leaf deformity and necrosis of the formed fetus. The disease is transmitted by contact, so it is easily spread from one bush to another.

• Leaf filament. The signs of this viral damage are leaf deformation - they are stretched and thinned, while the ovary stops on the bush and the top of the plant dies off completely. The virus is extremely dangerous and often leads to the destruction of the entire crop.

Very often, flying pests are the cause of tomato diseases. Often, gardeners do not even know about their negative impact on tomatoes, however, “the enemy must be known in person”, because only in this case there is a chance to develop in time a set of effective measures to quickly save the tomato.

As you know, insects can not only fly through the air, but also live in the thickness of the earth. Often gardeners are faced with a situation where tomatoes begin to die, as they say, on level ground - the plant is rapidly fading, and the cause of the illness is incomprehensible. Meanwhile, the cause of this unpleasant phenomenon can be a tiny worm, eating the roots of the bush.

• Khrushch - this pest is also known as the Maybug. A cute and bright insect that so often touches people with its bright color actually represents a danger to any kind of tomato.

• Drotyanka - it is a larva of a nutcracker, it has an orange color and oblong shape. Such pests devour not only the roots, but even the stems of a tomato, so the plant must necessarily be processed from these insects.

• Medvedka - a rather unpleasant-looking insect, it reaches ten centimeters, has powerful forelimbs, which it mainly uses for digging up moves in the soil. This pest can lay a huge number of eggs, so already after three weeks they represent a real colony, which in a few days eats away the roots of all the seedlings.

These insects are very small, but they live in large “families” therefore, when viewed visually, they are fairly easy to see.

• Aphid lives in colonies, has a gray or green color and settles on the back side of the leaves of tomatoes. The danger of aphids is that these insects suck out all the vital sap from the plant, and as a result the foliage begins to die and fall off.

• White fly - A small butterfly that likes to lay larvae on the leaves of tomato bushes. Like aphid, they use plant sap as a food source, which ultimately quickly destroys seedlings.

• Scoops - pests are the larvae of butterflies less than 3 cm long, they devour the leaves very quickly and can destroy the entire shrub in a short time. However, they harm not only the leaves, but also the fruits themselves.

• Spider mite most often attacks plants in hot dry weather. This parasite settles on the foliage and as if envelops it with its web, while to maintain its strength and activity it sucks all the juices from the leaves, which again causes wilting of the leaf plates and plants.

• Thrips - insects that eat the stems and leaves of tomatoes. At first they look like small light yellow stripes with dark dots, which rather quickly lead to drying of the whole plant.

The shortage or excess of minerals, as well as improper irrigation regime create conditions in which plants become especially susceptible to fungal, viral and bacterial infections.

Let us dwell on the problems that may be associated with the lack of certain trace elements.

• Nitrogen - It is the main substance necessary for normal growth and development of tomatoes.With a shortage of this element, flowers and ovaries become small and skinny, and when it is abundant, on the contrary, bushiness increases, the plant concentrates all its forces on the growth of green mass and, as a result, there are not enough nutrients to form fruit, which leads to a serious reduction in yield .

• Boron it is necessary for tomatoes at the stage of pollination of a flower, it is a member of carbohydrate and protein metabolism and contributes to the development of resistance to a number of dangerous varietal diseases.

• Iron - microelement necessary for the plant, the deficiency of which causes chlorosis on the leaves. The reason for this imbalance may be excessive liming of the soil, since calcium, as is well known, interferes with the absorption of iron by plants.
• Potassium - It is a trace element that causes the resistance of tomatoes to adverse natural factors and most common diseases. If its content in the soil is sufficient, then the plant has a lot of strength, looks strong and healthy.
• Calcium plays a special role for the health of the root system of a tomato, its lack often leads to the defeat of a bush with vertex rot.

• Magnesium - necessary for tomatoes throughout the growing season.

• Manganese plays a very important role in photosynthesis, is used by the plant for high-grade carbohydrate and protein metabolism, with a deficiency of an element, the plant exhibits symptoms similar to that of viral mosaic.

• Molybdenum necessary plant for processing and assimilation of nitrogen and phosphorus.
• Sulfur participates in the biosynthesis of amino acids important for the health of the hive. If its content in the soil is not enough, the bushes become small and tough.
• Phosphorus It is absolutely necessary for tomatoes to form a strong root system, and in addition, it is responsible for the resistance of the bush to mechanical damage.

There is no single method for treating diseases of tomatoes — for every illness, the medicine must be its own. At the same time, there are a number of recommendations, the adherence to which will significantly ease the course of the disease, prevent infection of neighboring bushes and get a good harvest.

If you are dealing with pests, then the enemy can be defeated with the help of mechanical digging of the soil, in addition, a rather good effect is provided by the land mulching along with sawdust, which were previously soaked in urea solution. Also on the shelves of supermarkets for summer residents there is a wide range of ready-made products that effectively destroy all the larvae of vegetable parasites. These include drugs such as "Antikhrushch", "Rembek" and many others.

Quite effectively proven methods of pest control, based on the use of noise or strong smell. Many gardeners bury near the holes of the head sharply smelling onions or pieces of rotten meat with an unpleasant aroma. However, there is a more pleasant way - marigolds, planted next to the tomatoes, because they also scare away the pests that do not tolerate their specific smell.

In order to destroy, for example, Medvedka, to begin with, it should be lured, for this purpose, rotted manure or ordinary beer is used - insects "go" to their smell, after which they can be destroyed mechanically. In addition, there are chemicals that rid the soil of these uninvited guests. These include "Thunder" and "Medvetoks."

The danger of most of the diseases of tomato is due to the fact that they are quite difficult to identify in the initial stages.Damages become noticeable when the plants start to die, in this case only chemical reagents that destroy the pest and its larvae can correct the situation.

However, many refuse to use such funds because of the fear of nitrates, pesticides and phngicides in the fruit.

The choice of drugs is great: "Kvadris", "Tattu", "Acrobat MC", "Gold MC", "Kumlus", "Jet", "Tiovit" and many others. They should be used at the very first signs of the disease. In the case of bush healing, it is recommended to repeat the treatment 3-4 times per season.

Experienced gardeners also recommend spraying the seedlings immediately after picking, for this purpose suitable preparations like "Integral" or "Pseudobacterin". They will save seedlings from many fungal diseases.

An alternative can be biological methods of plant protection, which are antibacterial compounds with microorganisms. These are absolutely safe and completely environmentally friendly means that not only effectively fight against plant damage, but also significantly reduce labor costs, since microorganisms take only one treatment to treat bushes, and all further treatment of a plant is taken by the microorganisms. Such compounds include soil fungus (trichodermin), the use of which will allow for the whole season to forget about what are spoiled tomatoes and pests of tomato bushes.

If you notice that one of the bushes is sick, you should treat not only the affected plant, but all the others, since it is highly likely that they are already infected, but the disease has not yet manifested itself during an external examination. Timely treatment will allow you to suspend the pathological process and get a healthy bush.

If it is not possible to cure the plant, then it should be uprooted and burned, and the seedlings located at a distance of 10 meters should be treated with the Fitolavin solution. If you add some liquid glass to this solution, you can spray all the bushes growing nearby with this mixture - this will create a thin film on the leaves and stems that will save the plants for a couple of weeks from the spread of fungal and viral infections.

As they say, the disease is easier to prevent than to treat it. And in the case of tomatoes, this statement largely corresponds to the realities of life. A great help in the struggle for healthy and strong bushes of tomatoes is timely prevention, which includes a whole range of activities.

All fallen leaves, uprooted plantings and other types of plant debris in the fall must be collected and burned. It is advisable to do this away from the garden.

With the onset of autumn, the parasite larvae begin to dig in the ground, so it makes sense to dig up a site with fungicidal agents and sawdust before the onset of frost, which will allow to destroy most of the pests that could cause significant damage to the crop next year.

Tomatoes should not be planted after peppers, eggplants and potatoes - these plants are subject to the same diseases, so many can pass on "inheritance" from their predecessors.

Particular attention should be paid to the seeds. Firstly, it is desirable to purchase them from a trusted manufacturer, Secondly, even if you are sure of the quality of the seed, it is necessary to disinfect them.

For disinfection use:

• dark potassium permanganate solution;
• the drug "Fundazol" or "Benazol";

Drugs dissolve within an hour, after which they are washed abundantly under warm running water, you can even leave them under an open tap for 20-30 minutes.

It is necessary to observe the irrigation regime - the plants should not be overwetted, but drying should not be allowed. Eliminate the risks helps drain the site. In the case of the first signs of the disease should stop watering by sprinkling.

If plants are grown in a greenhouse, the maximum humidity should not exceed 75%. The room should be regularly ventilated, and the ground, which is used as soil, should be steamed in the winter, then frozen, and immediately before planting the seeds should be disinfected.

Planting should not be thickened, tomatoes are recommended to be planted at a distance of 50-30 cm from each other. If this norm is not observed and the plants are located closer to each other, then the probability of rapid transmission of the disease from one bush to another is high.

After the crop is harvested, it makes sense to treat the soil with copper sulphate solution, calculated at the rate of 1 cup per bucket of water. Under greenhouse conditions, it is also recommended to wipe the walls and frame of the greenhouse with this compound.

It is very important to observe the optimum ratio of nutrients in the soil and the level of its acidity. This is a good prevention of any viral diseases of the tomato.

Shortly before planting seeds or seedlings, the soil should be watered with a 25% solution of potassium permanganate, and just before planting, add a mixture of “Kornevina” with “Trichodermine” or “Fitosporin-M” to the well, which will not only improve the viability of the roots, but also give the plant additional immunity to pests.

Modern science is constantly working on the cultivation of hybrid varieties of tomatoes that are resistant to a wide variety of pests, and in this direction really significant steps have been taken. To date, many varieties that are resistant to the most common pests of tomatoes have been bred, so if you want to avoid problems with the crop, you should give preference to modern varieties of tomatoes.

On the disease of tomatoes "brown spot" and how to treat it, see the next video.