Please tell me this isn't THE END!!!

[shlacm]

Okay, here is my one plant that seems to be at death's door:
Yellow Submarine 001.jpg

Yellow Submarine 002.jpg

Is it....... fusarium? Is it something that will soon wipe out my entire garden?

[nctomatoman]

It's not Fusarium...the first signs of that are bright yellow foliage that wilts even when watered. Not sure what it is (many others here are better at disease ID than I am).

[carolyn137]

Two suggestions.

First, if it's just one plant with rapid wilting of green foliage consider mole or vole damage to the roots b'c I don't see any problem with the leaves.

Second, consider Bacterial Wilt, you can Google that, etc., which is also characterized by rapid wilting with green leaves.

Did you raise the plant or buy it and if the latter where from?

[shlacm]

Well, it certainly could be Bacterial Wilt!!! That plant (as well as the ones on either side of it) has been in the ground for about 6 weeks! I grew it from seed. Also, it's in a raised bed, so while moles are possible, it seems unlikely as I have seen no signs of them in our yard whatsoever (they probably can't tunnel through the solid rock!).

What should I do? I'm assuming I should probably pull it... what about the surrounding plants? Will they be okay? Is there anything I can do?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by shlacm

Well, it certainly could be Bacterial Wilt!!! That plant (as well as the ones on either side of it) has been in the ground for about 6 weeks! I grew it from seed. Also, it's in a raised bed, so while moles are possible, it seems unlikely as I have seen no signs of them in our yard whatsoever (they probably can't tunnel through the solid rock!).

What should I do? I'm assuming I should probably pull it... what about the surrounding plants? Will they be okay? Is there anything I can do?

Yes, you should pull it but not before you make the diagnosis, which is not that hard to do as described in the following link;

http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/rsol/T...to_Module.html


There are other causes of rapid wilting but I can't remember any others where the foliage remains green, other than damage to the roots by something eating them or disturbing them in some way.

So here's a general search for diseases that do result in wilting and you can take a look at those links as well. Many have to do with Bacterial Wilt and many also describe how to take a piece of stem to make that diagnosis.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...bacterial+wilt

[Heritage]

shlacm,

You might also see those symptoms if you over fertilized, especially if you allowed fertilizer to touch the plant.

Also, over watering in soil with poor drainage would look similar.

Good luck!

Steve

[chalstonsc]

shlacm,
Does not look like the bacterial wilt I unfortunately have had too many times....

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by chalstonsc

shlacm,
Does not look like the bacterial wilt I unfortunately have had too many times....

THe few times I used too much fertilizer the foliage turned yellow.

This is one of the links from the general link I gave above which talks about the common causes of wilting with tomatoes:

http://msucares.com/lawn/garden/msga...05/050620.html

As I understand it this plant is the only one in a raised bed that has had symtoms, and assuming that all the plants in that bed received the same amount of water, fertilizer, etc., I think we can discount some of those possible varaibles.

Based on feedback and pictures from others who have had plants go down with Bacterial WIlt as well as the pictures and descriptions in my tomato pathology book, I think I'm still holding out for Bacterial Wilt although there certainly are other possibilities.

When the water test for streaming bacteria is done as described in the first link I gave above, that may help/

Two things I know about that test as well as BW. First, that one has to take a stem from low down on the plant to test and there have been times when someone has done that test and apparently taken side stems and while the plants did have BW, the test didn't show it.

Second, Verticillium is a disease that can affect a plant or two at random and BW can do that as well.

So we shall see.

[shlacm]

I went out to kill it twice today and didn't have the heart to do so once I discovered it has set fruit! Since there is only one main stem, I can't do a viable test without killing it and of course, the little side branches came out "negative" with the test. I have no replacement for it... I may repot it and isolate it from the others to see if it can pull through.

As Carolyn guessed, it has not been over-fertilized. I suppose it's possible it has been over-watered if it somehow ended up in a poor draining spot, but it perked up slightly after a very heavy rain, so I doubt that's the problem... Bacterial Wilt still seems to fit pretty well.

On the other hand, while out examining my plants today I managed to find "signs" of various fatal diseases on most of them and decided that perhaps part of the problem is that I'm looking too closely, lol! Newbie paranoia?

[shlacm]

OH! Another possibility... though I think unlikely for this particular plant given it's location! A couple weeks ago my husband sprayed the poison ivy, oak & sumac in our yard... after we realized that the yard is FULL of it (neither of us knew what poison sumac looked like before and I can't get poison ivy, so it wasn't something that seemed a priority until our 3 yo got into some and I had to scrub him head-to-toe!). He was supposedly very careful to avoid my plants, but...

Also, it seems to me that even though it can take weeks to affect poison ivy, etc, that tomato plants would respond far more quickly as I don't imagine they are as "tough."

Anyway, I think this is unlikely, but maybe......

[tam91]

You don't have any walnut trees anywhere nearby do you? Juglone, released from the roots of walnut trees, will cause the green wilting. They'll perk up perhaps in the morning, and after a bunch of water, but wilt again.

The roots can extend a long ways from the tree, I've read 50 feet at least. The tomato plants do fine, until they grow big enough that their roots are deep enough to contact the walnut roots.

I discovered this one year (not a happy camper), it's why I now grow in containers.

[shlacm]

Well I cut it down and put several pieces in water: no streaming... so, I stuck the whole plant in waqter to see if it will root and perk up by some chance... since I have no replacement!!!

[Mark0820]

Shlacm,

Did your plant perk up when you put it in water?

I have a plant where two sets of leaves started to wilt. I cut them off, and today I saw a third leaf set that is wilting. I'm not sure what it is, but I hope it stops wilting. All of the foliage is green, so it is not Fusarium wilt. There is a lot of chewing on the leaves, so I sprayed it.

At this point, it doesn't appear to be bacterial wilt because the entire plant isn't wilting (but I'll watch it and see what happens).

This is a first for me. I have never had any wilting on my tomato plants.

[shlacm]

Well, it did... for a while! It was rooting so well in water that I moved it to moist soil, and it continued to do well for a few days, but ultimately died. I pulled up the original roots and there were virtually NONE!!! Around the same time a plant two spots away began to do the same thing! It was MUCH larger and I have lots of "suckers" I'm trying to root from it, so far it doesn't look promising. When I pulled it, there was a huge mass of roots... so, there goes that theory!!! So far, the other plants are doing fine... we'll see! I replaced those two with Matt's Wild Cherry and Coyote... I figure the Matt's was just about the only thing I didn't kill off last year, so if it dies a similar death... !!!

[KLorentz]

Sure sounds like moles. I don't know if this will work for moles but in Cali where we had gopher trouble we planted new trees and also roses in baskets made of chicken wire.Something to keep in mind for the future.


Kevin