So sorry to hear that. Non-stop rain can often be as detrimental as too little. I'm guessing that your plants have blight now, and once those fungal spores show up they just love wet leaves.

Don't know exactly what is affecting the peppers, but the tomatoes have a pretty clear case of early blight. You could spray them with a fungicide. Or, simply picking off and disposing of the affected leaves will slow it down. Depending on weather conditions, tomato variety, and how diligent you are, the plants might keep producing for a couple of months or more before the blight overtakes them.

Oh Noooooooo Do you guys have a certain fungicide you use? If I used fungicide what will that do to the fruit? Because the fruit is ripening especially on the tomatoes. Last year I lost all my front bushes to some sort of fungus/mold, but I got my lawncare to spray them.

In this area, at least, early blight appears in the gardens of almost everyone who grows tomatoes. Perhaps some people who are fanatical about spraying don't have it but, otherwise, it is ubiquitous and usually not that big of a deal.

Personally, I've weighed the idea of eating tomatoes that have been sprayed with a fungicide versus losing some production to blight and chosen the latter. But, we get more tomatoes than we can eat every year so loss of some production doesn't hurt much at all. The only real effort I make to avoid blight is to simply quit growing varieties that showed the most susceptibility to it in the past.

People who use fungicides have a number of options. Daconil, Maneb, and copper-based fungicides seem to be the most commonly used ones around here.

Here is a link with some good information:

http://extension.umaine.edu/ip...

Kent - when we had our vegetable garden we never spayed anything for any reason. It just feels wrong and anti-gardening to load plants up with poisons and fungicides. We also got more than we could eat so the minor loss of production was never a problem.

Now we have a grand total of four tomato plants growing in compost bins. Last year they did exceptionally well so maybe we'll be as fortunate this year...we hope! Here's just one bin showing two of the tomatoes along with a columbine that decided it wants to thrive there!

I've hit mine with organic pesticides before, not the maters more the broccoli/squash and had good results. I didn't know if there was an equivalent to that in fungicides, urs look great Purl, and Kent I lost about 6 bushes to funguses last year so I guess I hear fungus and freak. I was all excited about getting the dry weekend but now with the hurricane I'm going to guess that everything will get SOAKED. But yes I'd rather lose some produce over eating chemicals

Has anyone tried spraying aerated compost tea on leaves that are starting to suffer? I haven't, but I read that the beneficial aerobic compost microbes in the tea compete with many leaf pathogens.

I wonder if they help deter blight and leaf fungi? Probably you wouldn't want to spray leaves frequently, and would try to get them to dry well as soon after spraying as possible.

RickCorey said:Has anyone tried spraying aerated compost tea on leaves that are starting to suffer? I haven't, but I read that the beneficial aerobic compost microbes in the tea compete with many leaf pathogens.

I wonder if they help deter blight and leaf fungi? Probably you wouldn't want to spray leaves frequently, and would try to get them to dry well as soon after spraying as possible.

Compost tea and/or seaweed spray do help to bolster resistance. I use one or the other about once a week.

Like Pirl said, tomatoes in straight compost always seem to be the healthiest of the lot. I yanked a mid-June, self-sown seedling (like pulling a weed), tossed it in a pot of compost, and it's outpacing the ones I started early indoors and have babied for a couple of months now. It's the only one that's absolutely, perfectly healthy as well.

That's exactly how it happened with us in 2013, Chelle. I found one volunteer that was so robust I couldn't bear to throw it out so it got planted in the compost pile. We had more tomatoes from that single plant than any other tomato we ever had.

Well this morning I was busy picking off all the yellowing stuff, looks like the peppers look a tad bit better with the very dry and hot weekend. (The rains from the hurricane missed us). The grounds look pretty darn dry but nothing is really showing signs of drying up so I'll probably not water them at all supposedly we'll get rain on Thursday that means they'll have had no rain for almost a week.

That's good! Once a week deep watering is standard for most of us, I think. Now that your plants are very susceptible to continuing troubles, you might also consider watering only at ground level; keeping the leaves as dry as possible. My plants are still smaller than I think they should be, but they won't stop setting fruit. I'm still pulling peppers as soon as they're bite-sized , but if I want any mature ones I'll have to quit that soon...small plants, or not.

I have drip/rain barrel system in already that's what I was watering them with. But we normally get a really good rain at least once a week so I'm not really sure about using it now unless it doesn't rain for a while lol. That's great Chelle about getting fruit! I haven't picked any of mine yet some plants haven't even fruited (they have flowers). And others the fruits are very immature. All the plants are pretty small. Guess this is the year for cherry maters and yellow squash! lol. Off subject, but if anyone loves summer squash these babies are producing better than I have ever seen yellow squash produce! Today I picked about 12 squash off 2 plants and i picked about 10 squash off on Thursday http://www.rareseeds.com/lemon...

Those are cute, Curtis. I have seeds for it, but didn't plant it this year. Is it quicker to set fruit than the larger varieties? Maybe I could still get it in.

I have Costata Romanesco and (I think ) Verde Chiaro d'Italia coming on strong right now. If not the Chiaro, the second is probably my fail safe...Black Beauty. Costata Romanesco has the best flavor I've ever tasted in a summer squash, but it's not as prolific as Black Beauty.

Back to peppers...

The family says my early peppers are a bit bitter, but I keep telling them that they'll get better. For now, steaming is the key.

Chelle they do make fruit somewhat fast but not too much faster than the black beauty. I'm actually pretty disappointed so far in my black beauty. They taste very good just not producing too well, and now they're getting some fungus on them as well or something.

Went out and looks at my pepper plants took off some more leaves but in total it looks like the leaves aren't spotting or yellowing any more or less!

You might try spraying your BB with straight milk every three days. It helped control mildew here last year. No way to know if that's what it has, but it won't hurt it and it just might help.

Glad to hear that your peppers are holding steady.

Well, thankfully I can say that my first pepper is ripening! :)))) Haven't picked it yet but noticed it turning yellow today. Sadly 2 of my pepper plants have literally no peppers on them still (the ones I repotted). But the rest for the most part looks like I might get at least a few from this year. Kind of sad because last year I probably got around 500 peppers and made tons of salsa and hot sauce. I gave it all out for Christmas presents and only got good reviews. Looks like this year I'll have to think of something different to give out because I bet I'll only be able to make a few bottles of hot sauce. How is everyone elses doing?

Mine in the flower bed are still outperforming those in the veggie patch, but the slow-pokes are still trying to catch up. They're all healthy, but they're just so small! Much cooler summer than usual here...still, so I'm not expecting much. No color here yet...just green.

Glad to hear that some of yours are ripening, Curtis!