Tomato, Cucumber Problems in Romania

Friends in Romania sent me pictures of a tomato plant and a cucumber plant as examples of problems they're experiencing with fruits rotting before they ripen, and asked for my guesstimate as to the cause. They said they have already tried blue stone liquid (whatever that is!) to no avail. The only clue I can offer in the case of the tomato is that it isn't blossom end rot. For the same questions here in the U.S., I would suggest contacting the nearest USDA county extension office and/or the local chapter of Master Gardeners (an organization of volunteers who complete a series of courses and then provide their expertise in community service). What services or organizations might my friends turn to for help?

Yuska

Yuska, can you post the photos for us to look at. May be we can diagnosis and prescribe.

Nice to see your posting.

Here's the tomato - it looks bruised-

Here's the cuke photo. I don't see a fruit but the leaf damage is apparent - I have since sent this reference to them -

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/hortcrop/pp656w.htm -

and from it they have concluded it may be angular leaf spot.

Thanks for reviewing this!

Yuska

Thank you Yuska. I'm going to do a bit of checking here in the UK and see if I can turn anything up. I know that we are have a little trouble with an air borne bacteria that is causing some tomato leaf curl this year, but it isn't effecting the fruit. So I'll check the DEFRA website to see if they have anything else going about cukes and tomato plants.

This may take a few days - I have to slip the research in between seeing patients. But I will be back.

All the best, Laurie

Having said that, I just found this website http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/diagnostickeys/TomFrt/TomFrtKey.html I thought it very informative.

I'll look a bit further later on, but I do suspect the problem with the tomato is blight and the cucumber looks to me like wind damage - which could also explain absence of flowers.

Hope the website is of interest.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2009 2:41 PM

That old adage "Great minds run in the same channels" must be true! (chuckle) I also found that reference - and it will really be handy! Several of our universities do outstanding work in botanical fields and Cornell excels among the very best. The monumental work of plant classification known as Hortus was completed there. The Third edition is still a good reference but getting old - I doubt though that we'll see a Fourth.

Many thanks for your attention to this.

I do hope the blight is not late blight - I read recently it is hard to control because the spores scatter so readily. Also, it is the said to be the same or similar villain that caused the Irish potato famine. Currently both potato and tomato crops in the northeastern U.S. are under seige, and gardeners are suffering along with commercial growers.

Yuska

The good news is if it is blight, next year they might want to change to growing one of the blight resistant tomato plants. They really are quite good, but sadly not heritage.

sorry to hear about the growers in the NE are suffering. Not exactly what farmers need in this economic climate. A gentle kindly growing season would have been nice.

So far, over here we are having a marvellous summer (could do with a touch more rain, but for now I'm not complaining). tomatoes are setting, even outside, and fingers crossed, we might get by without too much blight here this year.