My wife's tomato plant is infested by what, exactly.

June 8, 2020 8:48 PM

Any suggestions as to what it is and how to deal with it would be sincerely appreciated. Here's a picture of the offensive growth.
posted by ptm to Home & Garden (9 answers total)

Talk to your local cooperative extension. It looks like they have a Master Gardener program with a plant clinic.
posted by zamboni at 8:56 PM on June 8, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm wondering if they are caused by flea beetles?
posted by porpoise at 10:19 PM on June 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

What’s your geographic location and could you take a higher resolution/closer picture of the leaves?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:00 PM on June 8, 2020

On first glance it looks like white fly damage- but really bad white fly damage. Holes in the center of plants usually means larvae of some sort- but the amount of caterpillars to do that much damage would be noticable. I think? What attacks tomatoes really depends on region.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:08 PM on June 8, 2020

It looks like a fungal rust to me. Have you had a lot of rainy weather?
posted by aetg at 2:54 AM on June 9, 2020 [2 favorites]

I agree with aetg. It looks like rust due to overhead watering (or rain) followed by cool weather. Can you water from the base rather than having water hit the leaves? Remove the damaged foliage to prevent spreading.
posted by eleslie at 5:24 AM on June 9, 2020

N’thing fungal rust.
posted by spitbull at 5:41 AM on June 9, 2020

Does anyone who has access to the garden use tobacco? This looks a lot like tobacco mosaic virus to me.
posted by saveyoursanity at 10:00 AM on June 9, 2020

Best thing for rust is to prune away the infected leaves as quickly as possible. And, no joke, distance this tomato plant from any others near by. The spores can spread quickly.
posted by SPrintF at 3:32 PM on June 9, 2020