Fungal Diseases

 

Soil-borne fungal diseases can be a major problem of tomatoes. There are three steps to understanding and managing tomato diseases in the home garden. The first step is to understand the disease cycle of a typical fungus. The second is to recognize symptoms of important fungal diseases of tomato, and the third is to apply good cultural practices to help minimize the damage caused by these diseases.

Simply, fungi live and obtain their nourishment from infected host tissue. Fungi reproduce by spores, tiny microscopic bodies, which are spread by wind, water, or other mechanical means to a new host. On the host, spores germinate and infect healthy plant tissue causing symptoms including leaf spots, rots, and wilts that lead to premature defoliation and reduced tomato yields. Development and spread of fungi in the home garden is determined by rainfall, relative humidity, free moisture, and temperature.

Some of the most common fungal diseases that infect tomatoes grown in the home garden include Anthracnose fruit rot, Early blight, Septoria leaf spot, Late blight, and Buckeye rot all which produce distinct symptoms making them easily diagnosable by the home gardener.