Plant disease
Early blight
Brown bullseye spots that creep up from the oldest leaves first.
Early blight is in its active season now — scout your plants this week.
How to identify early blight
Early blight shows up as brown spots with dark concentric rings inside them, like a tiny archery target or a tree stump's growth rings. That ringed pattern is the giveaway.
It almost always starts on the oldest, lowest leaves nearest the soil and works its way up the plant. Infected leaves yellow around the spots and eventually drop, leaving bare lower stems while the top still looks green.
It is slower and far less deadly than late blight. Plants usually keep producing, but heavy leaf loss exposes fruit to sunscald and shrinks the harvest, so it is worth slowing down.
Attacks: Tomatoes, Potatoes
Life cycle: The fungus overwinters in soil and old plant debris, then splashes up onto lower leaves with rain and irrigation. Warm, humid weather with leaf wetness drives it, and it builds through the season on the same plant.
Signs of early blight
What you actually see on the plant — usually before you spot the pest itself.
- Brown spots with dark target-like concentric rings, lowest leaves first
- Yellowing around the spots, then whole leaves browning and dropping
- Bare lower stems while the top of the plant stays green
- Dark sunken spots at the stem end of fruit in bad cases
Organic control, least-toxic first
Start at the top and only move down if you need to. Physical and cultural fixes come before any spray.
- Mulch to stop soil splash
A layer of straw or wood-chip mulch under the plants blocks the rain splash that carries spores from the soil up onto the lowest leaves. This is one of the cheapest, most effective steps.
- Strip the lowest leaves and open up airflow
Pinch off the bottom leaves so no foliage touches the soil, and stake or cage plants with wide spacing so leaves dry fast. Trash the removed leaves, don't compost them.
- Choose resistant varieties and rotate
Some tomato varieties are bred to resist early blight; the catalog will say so. Rotate tomatoes and potatoes to a new bed each year so last season's spores in the soil have no host.
- Apply a copper fungicide if it keeps climbing
If cultural steps aren't holding it and the disease is moving up the plant, a registered copper fungicide, started early and reapplied per the label, can protect the upper leaves. It prevents new spots rather than curing old ones.
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One rule for any product you spray: follow the label. The label is the law, and it is the tested, safe rate for your plants — homemade mixes and dish-soap sprays are not, and can scorch foliage.
Prevent it next season
- Mulch under plants at transplant to stop rain splash from the soil
- Space, stake, and prune lower leaves for fast drying
- Rotate tomatoes and potatoes on a 2-3 year cycle
- Water at the base in the morning, never over the leaves
- Clear and trash all plant debris at season's end, where the fungus overwinters
Questions about early blight
Why are the bottom leaves of my tomato turning brown with rings?+
That target-ring pattern on the lowest leaves is classic early blight. Mulch to stop soil splash, strip the affected lower leaves into the trash, and improve airflow to slow it.
Is early blight going to kill my tomato plant?+
Usually not. Unlike late blight, it moves slowly and plants keep producing. The risk is losing enough leaves to shrink the harvest and sunscald the fruit, so slow it early.
Can I still eat tomatoes from a plant with early blight?+
Yes. The leaves take the damage; the fruit is fine to eat as long as it isn't itself rotting. Just remove and trash the affected foliage.
Plan a garden that fights back
Healthy, well-spaced plants shrug off pests that flatten a crowded bed. PlotToTable sizes your beds, spaces every crop, and flags the pests that hit what you grow.