Need help id'ing this disease

[mdvpc]

I have learned a lot since this problem started.

I had a good harvest this spring, and I used biota max and actinovate when I put the plants in, but eventually they showed the same symptoms. I ran out of actinovate, so only used it one time. I found out about a year ago that my ro unit was hooked up wrong-it was only irrigating my plants with partial ro water. I got that fixed and my greenhouse winter 2010 plants did pretty good. I used a product called Clearex, which is designed to clear salt from the medium. The problem is it kills the myco, so you have to reinoculate after using the Clearex.

I eventually found a plant pathologist with her phd in tomato diseases. She has a lab that she only works for the industry, but kindly agreed to analyze my problem.

Here is a part of her email to me about the culture results:

"We had water mold fungi, Pythium sp. primarily. This fungus loves high salts . . . which include fertilizers remember. "

So the suspicion I had about the salt content in my water was correct. My ro unit now has my ppm's down to about 13-15, with the city water at about 500ppm.

I talked with Louie at Natural Industries, and after talking to him, I ordered 2 of their products-Actinovate, which I had used before, but now will use religiously, and Actino-Iron. I also ordered a product called rootshield. All 3 products are supposed to suppress pythium spp.

I am also going to continue to periodically use Clearex and then reinoculate.

Hopefully this will solve my problems.

Photos attached from when my plants went down in June. Obviously, since I didnt have a culture from when this started, I cannot be 100% positive that this was the same problem as before, but hopefully it is. If it happens again, I will have her culture again.