MaggieMD
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Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:57 am
Location: Southern Maryland

Fusarium wilt versus blight

I have a problem with most of my tomato plants -- from my reading, and pictures on the internet, I think I either have early blight or fusarium wilt. A similar thing happened to some of my tomato plants last year, leading me to think it's a soil borne wilt. The bottom leaves turn yellow (sometimes with brown spots) then they gradually wilt, the entire stem turns yellow, then brown and finally it withers and drops off (or I cut of pull them off and put them in a locked garbage can). My garden is very weed free, because I use landscape fabric and soaker hoses. I garden in Southern Maryland.

The loss of foliage causes some sun scald and green shoulder on a lot of the tomato fruit. And there is definitely reduced yield. But usually the tops of the plants look healthy and green, and are still producing flowers. I'm wondering if I should move the garden next year, which I will if it's fusarium, or if it' a blight, maybe there are other treatments (I'd like to stay organic -- I've been using only Neem as a fungicide). Some of the tomato plants are affected worse than others.

Are there symptoms that will determine definitively if it's blight or fusarium wilt?

One amusing side to this story is that a volunteer tomato plant popped up in the overgrown flower bed near my garage (obviously there was a late bloomer of a seed in the cell packs I emptied there after transplanting in the spring). That volunteer plant (on the other side of the house from the garden) is the healthiest looking plant on the property! I haven't watered, weeded, fertilized or staked it. GO FIGURE! This annoying fact intensifies my belief that there is something wrong in the garden...

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hendi_alex
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Planting location for tomatoes, potatoes, peppers should be rotated every year or two. I have been grossly negligent in this and am paying the price as every year am plagued by what you describe and I assume is fusarium wilt. Even planting resistant varieties is little help at this point. Although this disease is prevelant in the soil throughout my yard, I planted a row of tomatoes in a previously unused parcel and there are only very minor signs of the wilt and it is progressing much slower than in the long time gardening beds. Your experience with the volunteer plant is totally expected as there may be none of the infectious agent in the soil at the flower bed area or it could be there but in much more limited amounts. I will address the issue of crop rotation next year and will establish gardening beds in three areas several hundred feet apart from one another.

Anonymous

It does not sound like Fusarium Wilt to me but you have to be the judge. You can check by sacrificing one of the plants:
"
If the main stem is cut, dark, chocolate-brown streaks may be seen running lengthwise through the stem. This discoloration often extends upward for some distance and is especially evident at the point where the petiole joins the stem.
"
[img]https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/images/3122_2.jpg[/img]
RE: https://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/3000/3122.html


DEFINITELY move the garden bed or at least move the tomato & other solanaceous plants to another location next year.
Rotate at least every two years. The spot that might be infected will be unusable for four or five years for tomatoes, peppers, etc.(nightshade family) if it is so. You can solarize but the fungi are quite hard to remove|kill. Solarization or fumigation(nasty chem's) are the only choices to speed up the removal process.

Don't be too upset|depressed as there are a number of similar diseases that are transmitted by aphids and whiteflies. It could be one of them. The "brown spots" are a clue that something might have been chewing on the leaves.
Unfortunately, IIRC, a blight also causes that too. Can you see concentric circles in the spots on the leaves? That is a classic symptom of early blight.

Maryland has some great resources online. I suspect the County Extension Service is good too. You can take stem plus leaves sample to them for them to analyze. Well, perhaps call them first and ask. If lucky, they might even have someone in the office who can just look at the sample and tell you without having to send it to the lab folks.

I also know what you mean about the "volunteer" being so healthy without any care. I've had that too.
BTW, tomatoes can be grown in flower beds too. All the smells in there confuse the bugs and keep the plant healthier. Interesting conversation piece too. ...

Have Fun!

MaggieMD
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Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:57 am
Location: Southern Maryland

Thanks all. I am definately overdue on the rotation -- it's been five years in the same plot. I will have to move the entire double fence (we have deer and bunnies) too, but I think it's worth it.

I have seen those brown streaks on some of the stems -- no concentric circles on the leaves. I have visited he extension seervice, and tomorrow one of the research farms is sponsoring a tour. Maybe I'll bring a sacrifice to them and see what they think. I t hink I am most sad about the damage to the fruit, from the sun scald. :(

What diesaes might be transmitted by whiteflies?

My cucumbers seem to be doing fine in the same garden, by the way.

And when I move the vegetable garden, maybe I'll plant some flowers around it to confuse bugs!

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hendi_alex
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I had a volunteer cantalope sprout in my artificial bog this year. Plus have read a few posts which helped jog my memory. Will include some garden plants scattered among the flowers in my annual wildflower bed next year. The effort couldn't hurt anything and might even bring a few surprises!

Anonymous

" from the sun scald. "
Maggie, cover the plants with white sheets if you have nothing lighter. Spun cotton liner used in clothes works better - I was told WalMart carries the stuff(sorry no name). Commercial products such as ARGIBON also work for that(not much else IMHO but good for shading). Lowes sells shade cloth. I am sure Home Depot does too as well as "Garden Centers"(albeit at higher prices.)
The plants will get plenty of sunlight as long as the cloth is 70% trans or better. FTM, even 50% transmission is okay as long as you orient the cloth to shade during that scald period typically 1300GT -1500GT. Don't worry about it... oldtimers used sheets.
(don't wrap the plant unless you want to cook it &|R keep ALL the bugs, good and bad, away...)
The advantage of the commercial stuff is that it is VERY light -no need to hold it up, only down so it won't blow away. ;)

Whiteflies bring a virus that stunts growth and causes blooms to fall. I got them last year ... did not neem regularly and failed to put-out the shiny objects, :roll:.
On the bright side(yuck-yuck) I did find that shiny objects _do_ keep the whiteflies confused and away. Plants with huge aluminum sheets pointing at them: no whiteflies. Plants adjacent without shiny reflection, fewer but still there. Other plants: hopeless.

Oh, if you want the name(s) of the *possible* transmitted diseases I'll have to research it in notes. It IS available via Google tho' ... ;)
It is a communicable where they pick it up from another plant, IIRC. That goes on the table of gifts we do not want.
Why cannot bugs bring good things like vitamins and so forth?
NAR...

Have Fun!

GT == God's Time

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hendi_alex
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"Why cannot bugs bring good things like vitamins and so forth?"

Don't rinse your greens and the bugs WILL bring good things like vitamins and so forth. I used to make sure those leaves were ever so clear of any kind of critter. Now it is a quick wash, maybe a soak, and anything that wants to stay along for the cooking is more than welcome to. I'm sure there is always a little extra protein and vitamins in our kale and salad greens.
Last edited by hendi_alex on Tue Aug 05, 2008 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Anonymous

I meant to the plants, :), of course.

I don't like that kind of mush. Protein comes from other sources. Clean greens or no greens here.
...well, a bit of sand is tolerable as long as I get it and not the guest(s).

Have you ever squashed a harlequin bug? No I don't want it for dinner. YECH!

But I did see a 4" grasshopper the other day that could have been a meal unto itself - huge sucker!

Have Fun!

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hendi_alex
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All a person would have to do is sell the idea to the rich and rich wanta be's, and they would be talking about different varieties of harlequin bugs like they talk about different varietal grapes, wines from different regions, and wine from different vintners.



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