When Brown Spots Threaten Tomato Plants

 

Once June hits in Southern California, we’re usually well into 80-degree temperatures and rain is a distant memory from March.  However, this June has been different.  We had several late spring showers (they're forecasting rain again today!) and temperatures have hovered in the low 70’s with more clouds than sun.  When I saw a break out of brown spots on some of my heirloom tomato plants, I suspected this damp, cool weather might be behind them – and turns out – I was right.

 There is a very knowledgeable man at the Japanese nursery I got to in Tarzana.  He took one look at the blighted leaves I’d brought and quickly pinpointed the problem as a fungus created by the unseasonably cool, damp weather.  Tomatoes like hot dry conditions.  He recommended a fungicide – a spray oil basically.  The products that work, according to my expert, typically contain Neem or Petroleum oil.  He also suggested laying down a mulch, which can help cover up the fungus so it doesn’t get to the plant as easily (leaves with the fungus drop and contaminate the soil, which then, spreads it to the soil).  So I’ll take both preventative measures, and then hope for a more natural solution: the sun.