Tomato Pest and Diseases
Tomato Pests and Diseases
Whitefly
Whitefly are the most likely pest to affect your tomatoes. The adult
flies (they look like tiny moths) lay eggs on the underside of leaves.
The growing eggs feed on the leaves, leaving a sticky secretion which
attracts other diseases.
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As soon as you see the eggs, try spraying with water to wash them off and
remove others by hand.
If the attack looks like getting out of hand,
there is no alternative to spraying - your garden centre will have
several types of spray available.
Click here for more details on
Whitefly. |
Tomato Blight
This is caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans which is also the cause of
potato blight. The signs are brown marks on the leaves which quickly increase in size. If
left, any developing fruit starts to turn brown and rots.
Click here for our page devoted
entirely to identifying and treating tomato blight.
Red Spider Mite
These are normally only a problem in dry times. The mites are not
visible (they are too small), but the leaves become mottled and
yellowing. The solution is is to spray the plants with a fine mist of
water as often as possible - red spider mites hate moist conditions.
Click here for more details on
Red Spider Mite.
Aphids (Blackfly and Greenfly)
Planting Marigolds really does attract beneficial insects such as
ladybirds and hoverflies and these love to eat blackfly. Spraying
the plants with water also works - it simply knocks the blackfly off the
plant. Where neither of these methods work, its down to the garden
centre for a chemical spray - most work well.
Click here for more details on Aphids.
Foot and Root Rot
Foot and Root Rot in tomatoes is often caused by irregular watering, the base and roots of
the tomato plant begin to rot causing the leaves to discolour and the
tomato plant may eventually collapse.
Click here for more details on
Foot and Root Rot.
Mosaic Virus
There are many varieties of mosaic virus which can affect tomatoes but
they can all be identified by leaves which turn yellow, then bronze and
become distorted. This is a very infectious virus which can be transmitted
by humans from plant to plant.
Click here
for more details and a distinctive picture of Mosaic Virus.
Occasionally tomatoes grow into freakish shapes!
Recommended Varieties Of Tomatoes
The following varieties of tomato are recommended by the GardenAction team for growing
outdoors (click the variety for a picture).
| Type |
Variety |
Fruit Colour and Size |
Comments |
| Bush |
Fantasio
F1 |
Red, medium size |
New from
Suttons
in
2006, Tasty, early fruiting, outdoor tomato plant with very good
disease resistance. Rated best resistant tomato for blight.
|
| Bush or upright |
Gardener's Delight |
Red, bite-sized. |
Well-proven, excellent flavour, good disease resistance, early cropping, good
for containers. Available from
Suttons.
|
| Bush |
Red Alert |
Red, bite-sized |
As for Gardener's Delight - excellent. |
Upright
|
Sungold
|
Yellow/orange, bite-sized
|
Sooo sweet and delicious! Great for tubs, early cropper.
|
| Upright |
Marmande |
Red, large |
Delicious taste, few seeds, shape is irregular. |
END OF TOMATO ARTICLE
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