Cladosporium of tomatoes: treatment, signs, varieties with immunity

The article describes tomato cladosporiosis: treatment with different methods of control, methods of determining the disease by characteristic features, resistant varieties.

Like any plants, tomatoes are susceptible to various diseases. There are many common diseases for tomatoes, however, most often tomatoes suffer from cladosporiosis. Next, we will focus on exactly what signs are characteristic of this disease, and how to protect plants from this insidious disease.

Cladosporium disease of tomatoes: signs of the disease

Cladosporium of tomatoes: photo

The people of the cladosporium are used to call it brown spot. In general, tomato cladosporia is a fungal disease. Plant leaves are susceptible to this disease. In an enclosed space, this disease is more common than in tomatoes grown in the open field. For example, plants grown in a greenhouse or greenhouse are more susceptible to fungal attack. In order to fight the disease, it is necessary to understand and know what brown spot looks like on a plant.

Cladosporium fulvum Cooke is a fungus that causes this tomato disease. A distinctive feature of the microorganism is its resistance to frost, prolonged drought, as well as a fairly long period of existence, up to about 10 months.

During contact of the fungus with the plant, its surface is affected. Fungal microorganisms mature directly on the outgrowths of the mycelium, unlike other spores that develop in the cladosporium. Therefore, the fungus can reproduce asexually. These spores are very light in weight and look like dust particles. Therefore, the cause of tomato disease can be anything here. Even when you process or water tomatoes, fungal spores can get on the surface of leaves or stems. In addition, pathogens are well transported by air. In addition to all this, the insidiousness of the disease lies in the fact that the fungi themselves can live without a plant. They can overwinter, for example, in the soil, and in the spring they attack new shoots and seedlings.

After the fungus gets on the leaves or stems, it waits for the right air humidity. When it reaches about 90 or 95 percent, the conidia will wake up and start growing and multiplying rapidly. Therefore, approximately closer to the middle of the season, when ovaries and flowers appear on tomatoes, the first signs of the disease appear.
It is at the very moment when the plant is actively forming ovaries, you can notice small yellowish spots on the upper side of the leaves. Such spots have different shapes and sizes. However, they are immediately visible in comparison with the rest of the green mass. If you tear off the sheet and look at its back, you will see a bloom of white. These are conidia. If you do not take action at this stage, then the spots will darken and take on a brown color. In addition, the texture of the spot will change. It will harden and grow all over the leaf. This is how fungi germinate. Over time, the leaves turn yellow, wither and crumble. By the way, it is worth noting here that most often the fungus is colonized on weak plants with low immunity.

When the plant begins to lose leaves, the processes of photosynthesis will also be disrupted, since they occur precisely in the leaves. This violation will damage the formation of the tomato fruit.

In addition to leaves, fungi often settle on flowers and even on plant ovaries.
The disease is gradual in nature, so you can save the plants if you notice the first signs of the disease in time. If the conidia grow strongly, the bush is likely to die. Here, experts distinguish several stages of the disease.

It is necessary to carefully examine the bushes during the period of the beginning of flowering of the tomato. It is necessary to inspect the leaves. If the fungus is present, then such a leaf will be speckled with light green spots. On the back of the leaf, the spots will be gray in color.
At the next stage of the disease, the fungus spreads to the top of the bush, and in this case, almost all leaves of the diseased bush are covered with spots. The stems, as well as the fruits at this stage of the disease, remain intact for the time being.

After the stage of appearance of yellow spots, there will already be brown spots on the leaves. They are especially clearly expressed on the reverse side of the sheet. This suggests that the conidia have sprouted.
Then, since there is a violation of the process of photosynthesis, the plants gradually die, the leaves begin to dry out slowly and eventually fall off. If the disease has already reached this stage, then the means of combating the disease will not bring the desired effect. The spots are transferred to the fruit, and they already become unusable.

Thus, if the earliest stage of tomato cladosporiosis begins during the flowering of the bush, then the peak of its activity occurs exactly when the fruits begin to form. If you see brown and dark brown spots on the fruits of a plant, this suggests that the plant is likely to die soon. In addition, if even one tomato bush is infected, you may soon see symptoms of the disease on neighboring bushes and throughout the rest of the ridge.

Suitable environmental conditions help the growth and spread of fungal disease, especially if the greenhouse is warm and humid. This should be taken into account during a rainy summer and be very careful about your tomatoes. In addition, the fungus actively spreads during sudden temperature changes. So the best thermal regime for the existence of conidia is a temperature of 20-25 degrees, as well as a humidity level of about 80%. If the air is dry, the humidity level is below 70%, then the fungus will not multiply so much here.

In order to recognize the signs of tomato cladosporium disease, you just need to carefully examine them. If during the examination you saw the presence of light or light green shapeless spots, you need to immediately take action, and not wait for the disease to spread. This disease can and should be fought if you want to save the tomato harvest this year, as well as next year.

Prevention of tomato cladosporium disease in a greenhouse

Cladosporium of tomatoes: photo

When tomato cladosporium has already attacked the plants, we immediately begin to ask about ways to combat brown spot and learn about the drugs that help to destroy it. However, the key here will be precisely the issue of preventing this disease on tomato bushes. In this case, you do not have to use chemicals to save tomato bushes, and you can also save the crop from being damaged by a fungus.

Therefore, the best method of protecting a plant, both from this disease and from any other disease, is preventive measures. Treatment of plants for prophylaxis is much easier than treating diseased plants, if at all possible.

As a preventive measure, so that the plant does not get sick with the described disease, it is necessary to create unfavorable conditions for the existence of the fungus. Thus, it is necessary to control the weather conditions here and avoid high humidity in the greenhouse, that is, the humidity level should not be more than 90%, it should not be too hot in the greenhouse, more than 25 degrees Celsius.In addition, you should get rid of last year's, possibly infected, contaminated residues of vegetables, weeds. In addition, the soil can be contaminated, as well as the greenhouse frame itself. Therefore, for the purpose of prevention, it is precisely a thorough harvesting after the harvest is carried out here. Here it is necessary to show diligence and not be lazy. Remove all residues of vegetables and weeds and be sure to destroy them. In addition, it is important to follow the rules of crop rotation. And if you see infected leaves, they also need to be plucked and destroyed. In order not to create a favorable environment for the life of the fungus, it is necessary to regularly ventilate the greenhouse. It is necessary to remove not only the soil, but also to process the greenhouse: both its frame and the top with the help of special solutions.

At the time when you plant tomatoes, you should keep a decent distance between plantings. Tomatoes should not grow densely, as in this case the fungus spreads much faster throughout the shrubs.
You can treat tomatoes with a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid or copper oxychloride.

Such drugs against fungal diseases as Fitosporin-M, or Pseudobacterin-2, as well as Integral are well suited. These can be purchased at any hardware store.
The level of soil moisture should be monitored. Watering should not be excessive.

Also, a preventive method is the purchase and cultivation of those tomatoes that have a high immunity to cladosporium disease.

All these preventive measures concern precisely those crops that are grown in greenhouses or greenhouses. And this is because if you grow tomatoes in the open field, then the environmental climate here is unlikely to be suitable for the reproduction of the fungi of this disease, so such tomatoes have nothing to fear. Especially if you are growing tomato varieties that are resistant to this disease.

Cladosporium disease of tomatoes in a greenhouse and soil: methods of struggle and preparations

Cladosporium disease of tomatoes in the greenhouse and in the ground: photo

If preventive measures have not been carried out or have not brought the proper result, and the tomato bushes have nevertheless become ill, then decisive action should be taken immediately to combat the disease.

Brown spotting negatively affects the size of tomato fruits and their taste. In addition, the bushes themselves may die. Treatment of tomato cladosporium disease here depends on the stage of germination of the fungus at the moment when you started to fight it. When you manage to notice the signs of the disease at the beginning of the defeat process, then most likely the treatment will be successful. If the spots have already taken on a brown color, then most likely all the measures taken will be useless. As mentioned above, the result of treatment here depends exactly on when you started it.

To eliminate tomato cladosporium disease, treatment can be carried out in one of two ways. You can use folk methods. Some, however, resort to chemicals. It is optimal to use both methods to get rid of crops from the described disease.

If the disease is in the earliest stages of plant damage, then here the use of folk remedies will be more effective than their application to an already sufficiently developed disease. If, nevertheless, you managed to detect signs of the disease at an early stage, then you can carry out the following processing methods.

Treatment with iodine chloride. With this solution, it is necessary to process the ground and the tomato bushes themselves. You should also control that the solution also penetrates deep enough into the ground. To prepare a life-saving remedy, you will need about 30 grams of the active ingredient, which should be stirred in a bucket of water, then adding four dozen drops of iodine.

Also, whey will also cope well with the initial signs of the disease. It is first bred with water and treated with shrubs.A liter of whey will be enough for a bucket of water.

Infused garlic will help a lot. To prepare a tincture, you need to insist one clove of a vegetable in ten liters of water. After the composition is ready, it will be logical to add a little more iodine.
Milk solution showed a good result in the fight against the disease. Here it is necessary to pour 400 grams of milk into a five-liter container with water and add iodine.

The solutions described above can also be used alternately with a weak manganese solution or with a decoction of ash. To prepare the potion, 350 grams of ash must be boiled for half an hour. Then the concentrate is additionally diluted with water.

Also, experienced gardeners advise, in order to improve the result of processing, it is good to add soap solutions. Through an experiment, data were obtained that on the land that was treated with water with the addition of soap, strong, strong and healthy bushes grew.

If you notice signs of the disease already in the later stages, you cannot do without stronger drugs with the addition of chemicals. The latter can be purchased at hardware stores.

However, caution should be exercised here, since all chemicals can be absorbed into the plant and also affect the fruits, the use of which will lead to serious harm to the health of people who will consume these fruits.

Therefore, here, in order not to be poisoned, these fruits that were collected after treatment with drugs should be removed after at least three weeks have passed. Only after maintaining this period of time, you can not fear for the health of the body.

Various preparations are used to treat plants, which are now sold in a wide variety. These will be fungicides with multifunctional complex effects.

It should be noted here that the preparation must be prepared before processing the plants, observing the rules of the instructions offered to each package. The processing of tomatoes with these preparations is carried out at least twice, with an interval of about two weeks.

Some, in order to fight cladosporia, use a special solution, which is prepared on the basis of colloidal sulfur.

To prepare this solution, you need to mix three tablespoons of powder with one tablespoon of copper sulfate and then add three tablespoons of polycarbocin.

All powders are mixed and diluted in a bucket of water. It is also good to add a couple of tablespoons of liquid soap before treating the plant.

Thus, tomato cladosporium disease is a rather serious disease that causes great damage to the crops grown. The disease not only negatively affects the tomato harvest, but can also lead to the fact that the bushes will die altogether, and you will not get the desired harvest. Therefore, careful examination, care and preventive treatments are very important here. If, nevertheless, this ailment attacked the tomato bushes, and not one, but several, then decisive measures should be taken immediately, without waiting for the disease to move to the next stage. Here you can not only save plants and crops, but also prevent it from spreading to other bushes.

Cladosporium-resistant tomato varieties

Methods for the prevention and protection of tomatoes from cladosporiosis were discussed above. Next, we will talk about what varieties of tomatoes are worth buying and growing so that you can not be afraid of the appearance of brown spot. Experienced gardeners recommend the following varieties of tomatoes, which are invulnerable to cladosporiosis.

• Our Masha F1. The plant is the leading variety, since it has the best yield indicators, as well as a high immunity to this disease.
• Space Star F1. These bushes are invulnerable to cladosporia. However, it is better to also process them without waiting for the onset of the disease.For processing, drugs such as Alirin B and Gamair are suitable.
• There is also a variety that is resistant to this fungal disease of the culture. This is Delicacy... Interestingly, the fruits of this variety have an unusual pink color.
• Vezha. This variety was bred by Belarusian breeders and has good immunity to this disease. Even if he gets sick, the disease goes away quickly enough. Fruits similar to those of the Nasha Masha variety, just a little smaller in size.
• Funtik or Eupator varieties are also distinguished by high immunity to the described fungal disease. The only drawback is the fruit, as it is usually not eaten raw.

There are also many other varieties that are planted to prevent disease.
Despite such a variety of varieties, scientists did not stop there, and continue to create and breed more and more crops that have good immunity to common ailments. If you buy such varieties and grow them on your site, then you don't have to worry about this ailment.

Cladosporium disease of tomatoes: treatment