These vegetables all have similar disease problems. Each year plant tomatoes in a new location away from areas where tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes or peppers have grown in the past. Thoroughly burying the residue will keep the spores below the soil surface and away from tomatoes.Ĭrop rotation is another means to help reduce disease in tomato plantings. At the end of the growing season all tomato refuse should be removed and discarded, composted (if the pile is hot enough to kill the spores) or tilled into the soil. Proper sanitation measures can keep spores from infecting the next crop.

During the next growing season overwintering fungal spores are splashed from infested tomato or weed debris in the soil on to newly planted tomatoes restarting the disease cycle. Fungal spores can overwinter in infected plant debris and on weeds related to tomato, such as horse nettle, ground cherry, and night shade.

The first cultural practice is to remove old plant debris. There are a number of cultural practices that can be used to help reduce tomato disease in the home garden. Control Measures for Fungal Diseases in the Home Garden Over time, infected fruit will become soft and mushy. In moist conditions, white fluffy fungal growth will develop on infected fruit. On green fruit, buckeye rot will produce distinct brownish-black lesions that have a definite concentric or target-like appearance. Buckeye rot of tomato with distinct concentric rings on mature green infected fruit.īuckeye rot typically affects immature and mature green fruit that lay on the soil surface.

Should you cut off blight on tomatoes