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#99006 Jul 28th, 2007 at 04:35 PM
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Friends I need help.......can you identify what this is. We're leaning to blight, but maybe it's not so I'll wait for your help.

These first 2 pictures are my potato plants. What's wrong?

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This next picture is a tomato I found, there are not many like this one and the plants grow in the greenhouse, not near the potatoes at all.

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This is a zucchini leaf. What's happening?

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I'm having so many problems this year with bugs and now this. I even had to spray my flowers which I've never done before.


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The last pic of the tomato is BER (blossom end rot). It's caused by a lack of calcium in the fruit due to "improper" watering. lol - and sometimes they can be picky about water. Too much or too little water will effect the amount of calcium in the fruit and cause problems with the cell structure on the bottom of the fruit.

The zucchini looks like it's got downy mildew, caused by water on the leaves, and something looks to be munching on it. I'd check under the leaves and see if you find any little itty-bitty green specs or any other bad looking bugs like caterpillars, slugs, etc.

I can't help you out on the potatoes though. Sorry!


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pictures of mineral deficiencies in potato plants
Do you use compost in your veggie bed? It may help. Maybe nitrogen deficiency? {look at the link} I'd use manure tea or scratch manure into the soil around the plants and see if it helps any. You can buy bagged cow manure at most garden centers.


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Ladies you are my lifesavers. Thanks so much for your help. kissie

Sarah, I was thinking of blossom end rot, for I'm only getting a few bad tomatoes on some of the plants. My watering system may be the problem as I've been having extreme heat in my greenhouse these last few weeks and I'm trying to help the tomatoes along with keeping the roots moist. I'll be looking into calcium for sure.

Cindy, with the info' you gave me I now know my tomatoes do not have blight. They're still healthy plants with just a few bad tomatoes. I'm also kind of saying the same for my potatoes, they're not turning black, just brown and yellow.

Wrennie, the link you gave me is wonderful. I'm almost convinced I may not have blight in the potatoes, but more some kind of deficiency. We will be watching some more to see what will happen.

I've been so worried about blight for I know it is one of the worst diseases to control.


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Does anyone have pictures of what blight looks like on potatoes?

Is it the same as with tomatoes, once the tomatoes get blight the leaves and fruit turns black, wither and die off?


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Tomatoes: you gotta spray blossom end rot spray. You can never depend on the weather and even perfect watering and mulching may not be enough. I am spraying today- I hadn't thought of it before. Your tomato plants are probably healthy though.
Zucchini: that is pretty much what mine look like. I am suspicious that some patterns on the leaves are normal. But looks like a bug is chewing a little. I would spray an organic funguscide and pesticide like soap shield and pyola. The plants seem to be doing ok. The only thing I worry about is squash vine borer. Had it last year and this year covered the stems in compost. Still one little plant got it and the bugs weren't there anymore so now I am worried. Not like my plants are producing much anyway.
potatoes: have your plants flowered yet? If they flower and put out their little berries it is time to die, but yours don't look that far along. So I would say it isn't fungus but a mineral deficiency. Again though, it looks pretty mild. Don't worry too much.

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Thanks Tamara, I didn't realize you could get a blossom end rot spray. Our hardware store here in town doesn't carry anything like that. Do you have a special name for what you're using?

The blossom end rot is actually worse on the zucchini, I've lost so many zucs because of this.

Yes my potatoes have flowered and when we dig them up there are some beautiful potatoes underneath. Like you said I'm kind of leaning toward a deficiency of some kind we'll find out for sure though.


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I can't remember the name of the spray. There is one pretty common one at nurseries. I do prevent BER with calcium tablets planted with the plant. Some people use powdered milk. I like the tablets; they break down slowly and have both calcium and magnesium. You should try a soil test. I linked the one I use.

blossom end rot spray
soil test kit

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This is the spray I use actually.

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Thanks Tamara, that's what others have said too. And now that I read your post I gave our garden nursery a call and asked about the calcium tablets and she told me just to use tums. Crush them and spread the powder at the base of my plants. Isn't that interesting!!!!


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I was actually talking about the kind of big tablets people take. I had some extra a few years ago that I couldn't swallow and so I threw them in the ground and they seemed to like it. Next year I will add to squash and cucs as well. (I already do peppers). They have magnesium in them too.

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I didn't have enough powder to do all my tomatoes and zucchini so with the new bottle of "Tums" I'm going to give 2 tablets to each container and see what turns out better, the powdered way or the tablets.


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