Utilize fungicide at the first signs of disease While you can’t do many things to save your tomatoes once they were affected by late blight, there are a few things you can do to treat early blight. By Scot Nelson from Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (tomato_late_blight_fruit_damage), via Wikimedia CommonsMost of the time the tomato fruits affected by late blight get a bad smell and become inedible. The infections with late blight usually produce larger dark brown lesions (look like rot) on a random area of the tomato fruit and can rapidly extend to the whole surface of the fruit, destroying it completely. Plant diseases don’t affect people and the tomato fruits that only present an initial stage of the disease will only present a tiny black spot at the stem that can easily be removed. If the tomato fruit managed to reach its maturity and was only affected in a small manner, you can cut off the affected part and consume the rest.
More exactly, the tomato fruit will start to turn black at the lower main stem (the green tail that holds the tomato fruit attached to the plant).Įventually, the sick tomato fruit will fall on the ground. Later on, there will appear lesions on the fruit. In the initial stages, early blight will cause dark brown (or black) spots on the leaves of the plants (starting from the leaves at the bottom of the plants).Īfter some time, the affected leaves will turn yellow and either dry up or fall off the plant. When a tomato is affected by late blight, the entire plant along with its fruits can be destroyed in only a few days from the first symptoms. The evolution of late blight is much quicker than the one of early blight. It’s pretty easy to identify if your plants have been affected by early or late blight. The late blight is caused by Phytophthora infestans, a microorganism which prefer moist and cool environments. Utilize fungicide at the first signs of diseaseĮarly Blight is a plant disease caused by a fungal pathogen called Alternaria Solani.Īlternaria Solani is known to affect in particular the tomato and potato plants.īetween the two, late blight is the most devastating and can rapidly destroy your entire tomato or potato plantation.This means that the owner of this website might be compensated for any qualifying purchases made via these links. At first, I thought I’m facing with the blossom end rot, but the tomato fruit didn’t have the rot at the bottom, but to the stem that kept the tomato fruit attached to the plant.įinally, I saw a photo that matched exactly the symptoms my tomatoes had and I found out that my veggies are facing the tomato a disease called “early blight”.Īfter the research on what’s causing this disease, which are the initial symptoms and the treatment, I decided to write this tiny guide.ĭisclosure: This page contains affiliate links.
I first looked for images that resembled the characteristics of the affected tomatoes. I didn’t know the name of the disease so I started to seek for an answer using Google.
I never had this problem with my tomatoes before, so it was an issue I didn’t know how to handle.Īt the time I was able to identify the source of the problem, it was too late to treat the plants with an antifungal. This year, my tomatoes were struck by early blight.