A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Giant white blotches suddenly appear on leaves.

My tomato plants have been recovering from transplanting and are starting to look rather good. I've been on my guard and have had a heightened state of awareness after the blight last year, and the more I learn about diseases the more I am aware about symptoms. I don't normally pinch, except for one reason; if I see a leaf or vine that seems to be diseased I will often pinch it.

I came out today and saw these large horrible large white blotches on my tomato leaves. I immediately and dutifully pinched off the affected leaves. I went and got my glasses so I could better try to analyze the leaves to try to determine what type of disease or infestation was causing the white blotches. After I got my glasses and examined the leaves more closely; I realized it was just bird poop. I just pinched about five healthy leaves because I had mistaken bird poop for a disease. Worse yet; it dawned on me that I did the same thing last year once or twice.

Bad eyesight, bad memory, and a little bit of paranoia/hypochondria has taken a little bit of a toll. Though it is a little frustrating, it is also humorous. Anyone else do the same thing or something similar?

Haven't done it in my short gardening experience, but I can sure understand how you could think it was something dreaded. I saw some on my phlox, but then saw lots more less vivid white and spread around and eventually realized I also was dealing with powdery mildew. Horrors. I bought some fungicide today and hope that takes care of the issue. In my inexperience, I am sure I've made lots of mistakes and watering phlox overhead is obviously one of them. They had just been transplanted and I was hoping to get water to their leaves. My kindness turned out to be a bad thing.