GARDENING: High humidity, poor airflow could rot your tomatoes – Odessa American

Floyd is a horticulturist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. He can be reached at 498-4071 in Ector County or 686-4700 in Midland County or by email at Jeff.Floyd@ag.tamu.edu

Floyd is an Agri-Life Extension agent for Ector and Midland counties. To learn more, call the Ector County Extension office at 432-498-4072, or the Midland County Extension office at 432-686-4700, or email jeff.floyd@ag.tamu.edu.

Posted: Sunday, June 18, 2017 3:00 am

GARDENING: High humidity, poor airflow could rot your tomatoes By Jeff Floyd Odessa American

One problem with growing tomatoes in heat like ours is a strong desire to give the plant a drink, even though it may have plenty of water available in the soil.

When overwatering overlaps with poor airflow, tomato plants may develop a fungal disease called leaf mold.

Leaf mold fungus (Cladosporium fulvum) usually appears as blotches on the lower leaves where air movement is low and humidity is high.

At first, the upper surfaces of older leaves display a diffuse mottling followed by a fast spreading network of patches that eventually turn yellow and develop a felt-like covering of grayish spores. Warm temperatures and foliage that remains wet for a long time increase the likelihood of leaf mold. Once spores develop, the disease rapidly worsens with the fruit and stems potentially affected as well.

Although the disease favors warm weather, temperatures above ninety-five coupled with low humidity will reduce its prevalence. Increasing the airflow within the canopy will help reduce the humidity within the canopy of the tomato plant and help dry out the fungus. Airflow can be improved by avoiding planting tomatoes too close to one another.

Purchasing healthy transplants at the nursery is the first step in having a good tomato harvest. Sprayed weekly or every ten days, fungicides labeled for leaf mold may help reduce the spread but will not eliminate the disease. Crop rotation also reduces the likelihood of tomatoes getting leaf mold. Rotating crops in a way that ensures no single family of vegetables is planted in the same location more often than every third year effectively solves several garden problems.

To learn more about having a successful tomato harvest this year, contact the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office at 498-4071 or email jeff.floyd@ag.tamu.edu.

Posted in Gardening on Sunday, June 18, 2017 3:00 am. | Tags: Texas A&m Agrilife Extension Office, Jeff Floyd, Pecans, Pruning, Prune, Soft Landscape Materials, Landscape, Gardening, Gardener, Food, Integra, Repeat Applications, West Texas

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GARDENING: High humidity, poor airflow could rot your tomatoes - Odessa American