The Dreaded Wilt is Back

[Fert1]

The past few years, my tomato plants have been hit by some sort of disease that I've been unable to identify. I've called our county agent, but it was not helpful. Taking a plant in for testing is not practical for me. He's only in the office 1 day a month, it's during normal work hours, and it's hard for me to get the time off. Plus he tells me it has to be a freshly dead plant, just pulled from the ground. So I have to rely on symptoms. Whatever it is, it follows the same pattern each and every year, but does not 100% fit any descriptions I've found on the web.

The plants will look healthy for the most part but wilt overnight. This year I tried to watch for any early symptoms I might have missed in previous years. My first plant to succomb first stopped growing, no new leaves or blossoms, but looked healthy enough other than that. Then there were some solid yellow leaves toward the bottom, but not a massive amount, and all the rain could possibly cause that. Then the top of the plant wilted as they always do.

There are no browning of veins as you would expect with Fusarium or Verticilium, no ladder-like appearance as with pith necrosis, no spots like Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, no ooze as with Bacterial Wilt. The plants just wilt from the top. The stem of the plant is hollow at the top, but not at the bottom. If left in the garden, some plants will try to recover toward the end of the season and put out new growth, but they never have enough time left at that point to produce anything. Most just die outright anyway. Some people online mention having plants that wilt during the day but perk up in the evening. Whatever mine get, they stay wilted, no perking up in the evening.

In looking at photos of plant diseases, I have seen what somewhat resembles yellow leaf curl in some affected plants. Can that cause this type of wilting? I've also considered some sort of boring insect, but when I dissect the plant, I don't find anything like that or any evidence where anything bored into the plant.

Whatever it is, a friend of mine who lives 2 miles away, got the same thing in her garden at the exact same time it first showed up in mine. It was a very wet summer that year, and I was plagued with whiteflies for the first time.

None of my beefsteaks are setting fruit this year, and I'm wondering if that is an early sign of the disease as the temperatures here haven't been bad until just recently.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Ideas? I live in SC if that helps.

[hasshoes]

I'm a newbie, but I bet if you posted a photo someone could help :-)

[Fert1]

Originally Posted by hasshoes

I'm a newbie, but I bet if you posted a photo someone could help :-)

I would, but I don't have access to a good digital camera. Maybe one of these days I will. Leave it to me to have plants that develop something odd and difficult to diagnose. It's been the story of my life. If it's truly bizarre, it will happen to me.

[hasshoes]

you don't need a good one. . .mine's from 2001!

you should get a friend to take a shot or get take a reg camera photo and get a cheap cd of to put online. . . if people can't save your plants, then at least maybe you can find out what's wrong for next year!! :0)

[Fert1]

Yeah, this does seem to be a recurring problem, whatever the heck it is.

I have a camera phone, but the photo quality isn't great, and I'm not sure how to get photos from there to my computer yet. I need to read that manual one of these days. LOL!

[hasshoes]

For most camera phones you can send a photo straight to an email account. If you take a picture, sending it should be under Option that pops up or in the camera menu, and it should have the option to send to an email :-)

[Fert1]

I tried to email one to myself once already, and it never made it, so I obviously did something wrong. Guess my brother is right. When all else fails, read the manual, (what he tells his kids).

[Fert1]

It's taking more of my plants! Waaaaah! First it was my Lucky Cross. Now my Cherokee Chocolate and Indian Stripe have wilted overnight.

The Indian Stripe was a small plant, so I decided to dissect it and look for any signs of an insect. I didn't find any insects, but the bottom 3 inches or so of the stalk was completely hollow, brown and dry with only a thin husk-like outer shell remaining, and there were vertical slits on it, almost like someone had taken a knife and cut it. Slightly above that section, the plant tissue looked healthy and normal for all I could tell.

Can disease do that? I really don't know what to make of this at all. I'm guessing disease caused the hollow dry stem, and it just got dry and cracked along the naturally occuring tissue fibers that run vertically. I may have even cracked it myself while pulling it out of the ground.

[hasshoes]

I'm sorry--- that's horrid!!

Could it be this:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/t...stems/24a.html

[Fert1]

Originally Posted by hasshoes

I'm sorry--- that's horrid!!

Could it be this:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/t...stems/24a.html

That photo does indeed look closer to what I'm seeing than anything else I've found so far. I must do some further research on that. Thanks for pointing that out to me.

Granny, I agree that it sounds like the problem is likely in the soil. Thing is, I don't plant in the exact same spot every year. So if my soil is infested, it must be the whole darn yard. I intentionally did not plant all my plants in the same location this year either. And so far the dead plants have all turned up in different sections from one another, which makes me wonder if the disease is airborne or insect borne. If that's the case, changing the soil probably will not help at all. This is very frustrating! I had considered trying straw bale gardening, but it gets so hot here in the summers, I was afraid it would just dry out too easily.

Whatever it is, my cherries, (so far - knock on wood), seem to have a resistance to it. They are usually the only thing left standing by August. That's why I think it has to be disease rather than insect damage, although insects may be spreading it. Next year, I may only plant cherries.

[Granny]

Fert1, you say this has happened several years in a row now. It sounds to me like whatever is causing your problem lives in the dirt you plant those tomatoes in and keeps coming back year after year. Not sure what can be done for this year but -

Are you planting the tomatoes in the ground? If so, I would plant them somewhere else. Also I would be really careful to completely change out any soil that you are using in raised beds or buckets/grow bags. Wash and sterilize the grow bags (buckets, wood of the raised beds) with a 10% bleach solution.

You might also look at other materials you might use - mulch for example. Look for the commonalities between the years and eliminate them.

[Granny]

Fert1, you might think about quickly acquiring a tomato that you can raise in a pot in the yard as a "test subject." If it is indeed insects, then that tomato should end up with damage too. If it is the soil, then the tomato should be fine as long as you use dirt from elsewhere & a new, sterile pot.

RE whatever it is being all over your yard, I would think that whatever is causing this would likely be a bacteria or a virus. Those travel. You mow, you rototill, you dig here or there. For that matter, you dig up one of those diseased tomatoes and then put the spade in the shed till the next time you use it - without sterilizing it. Some of the micro-organisms that live in soil can stick around for a really long time.

[Fert1]

Yeah, I may try an experimental pot or straw bale or something next year. It's torture growing these from a tiny seed into a big, lush, healthy looking plant, then having it die overnight. Every time I go out and find a new dead plant, I just feel like screaming. They may come and take me away in a straight jacket one of these days. LOL!

[rsg2001]

Are you absolutely sure it isn't bacterial wilt? I had one last year that croaked overnight with very similar symptoms. It was the only one out of about 25 plants. You may be experiencing it over and over because it's soil borne now.

[Fert1]

Bacterial Wilt was my first thought the very first year the wilt showed up. I'm not seeing the typical oozy stuff though. I even did the test where you stick a cut piece of stem in a clear glass of water. I left it there overnight and the water stayed fresh and clear. I don't think it's quite virulent enough for Bacterial Wilt anyway, as some plants try to make a comeback really late in the season, (too late to matter).