Fusarium Wilt

[Cole_Robbie]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Can the F wilt be passed on through the seeds?

Worth

From what I read, yes it can. However, that does not account for the effects of processing the seeds, whether by fermentation or oxidation. I am going to buy an immersion cooker soon so I can give my seeds a hot water bath as well. I can't imagine the fusarium surviving both oxidation and the hot water bath. None of the seeds I started of my own showed any sign of the disease until I put them in the ground. I am thinking that if my seed was contaminated, I would have seen signs of it before then.

[AlittleSalt]

This PDF is only a couple of pages if you want to read it. http://203.64.245.61/web_crops/tomato/fusarium.pdf It ends with this paragraph,

"Avoid sowing seed produced from

Fusarium-infected plants. Commercial seed is generally tested for seedborne contamination."

This PDF was written in 2005.

[Cole_Robbie]

Another sign that my disease is not verticillium is that my Esterina has it. That variety is V resistant, but does not have fusarium resistance.

I think I can convert my high tunnel to aeroponics for about $1k. That's expensive, but pro mix would cost me 1/3 of that to grow in bags, so I'd recoup that cost in three years, comparatively. I should be able to get that $1k back in the first season.

[AlittleSalt]

Cole, it took some searching and a lot of reading the same things over-and-over, but I found a site that straight out says there is Fusarium Wilt in Illinois. https://ipm.illinois.edu/diseases/rpds/929.pdf Only citing this part says a lot. This was from 1990 - 27 years ago.

"Illinois now has over 4,000 acres of Fusarium-wilt infested

soil. If suitable resistant or immune varieties were

not widely available, wilt would undoubtedly be the most

damaging disease of tomatoes in this state."

I never doubted what you already knew. I knew there was something else wrong with my gardens too. In my case, RKN takes longer than Fusarium wilt does to mess up a plant. Fusarium wilt is why we are getting tell-tale signs so early in the season.

[Cole_Robbie]

Thanks for the link.

[AlittleSalt]

You know, the five stages - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are not just for the loss of someone. Along with acceptance, there is learning, planning, and just simply moving on. I did miss the stage of denial - I am currently in the stage of indecision.

There are so many things to think about, and I'm just a backyard gardener. There are so many growing for market like Cole.

Marsha and Bill have shown that not only is it possible to grow in areas that have soil borne problems, but they can grow the heck out of tomatoes there.

I need to look in the mirror. I have learned to live with a nerve disease, fibromyalgia, anxiety, and high blood pressure. I'm doing things that my doctors and pain specialist told me I couldn't do anymore.

Grafting and growing tomatoes in containers will be a new challenge.

[Cole_Robbie]

Agreed! Challenges keep life interesting. I look forward to grafting my outdoor plants and building a mad scientist aeroponic contraption for the high tunnel. It will be fun and engaging.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Agreed! Challenges keep life interesting. I look forward to grafting my outdoor plants and building a mad scientist aeroponic contraption for the high tunnel. It will be fun and engaging.

Cole, I would love a thread dedicated to your aeroponic operation. Blow by blow, photos, the whole thing. I don't know anything about it, but want to.

[swellcat]

I knew there was something else wrong with my gardens too. In my case, RKN takes longer than Fusarium wilt does to mess up a plant. Fusarium wilt is why we are getting tell-tale signs so early in the season.

Thanks for sharing the experience of the challenges in your plot; they appear to exactly mirror mine . . . with a possible couple of additions here, including alkaline, black clay that locks up nutrients. I'll keep adding the (almost) two compost piles cooked down a year, plus seek out more horse manure and maybe mushroom compost and try to germinate the Tagetes lucida seeds on hand.

Cutworms and weevils—devastating in prior years—nearly no-showed this season. The destroyers shifted from the very visible to, this year, the microscopic/invisible, root-knot nematodes and, I guess, Fusarium.

Seeing that others experience extreme challenges helps keep a realistic perspective, I think.

[AlittleSalt]

Sorry you have the same problem. Cowtown is about 40 miles north of us. We're on the Johnson/Hill county line. That could mean that Fusarium Wilt is in a wide area here.

[b54red]

I can tell you from my own experience and observation that a super mild winter like the South experienced last year is an invite for soil born problems to explode the next season. Even though we had a late killing freeze none of the cold spells got cold enough to freeze the ground nor did they last long enough to subdue some of the RKN and fusarium.

Back when I was growing heirlooms without grafting I can remember how excited I got about the coming tomato season when my raised beds froze solid and stayed frozen for over a week. I knew it would mean less early fusarium and less virulent fusarium at least until late summer. We don't have many winters where it gets down cold like that for very long and so it was rather notable that the next tomato season had far less fusarium than after our normal mild winters. The other good side affect of a very cold winter was far less pests early in the season and usually milder foliage disease problems early in the season.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

I pulled the first plant out of the main garden today. The plant was supposed to be Solar Flare, but it wasn't. While pulling the plant - the first thing I noticed was it has a healthy looking root system. Maybe solarizing and overwintering Elbon cereal rye did help get rid of some of the Root Knot Nematodes?

Then I cut the stem and there's the Fusarium Wilt.

[Cole_Robbie]

Those are nice looking roots.

I have one Taxi plant that seems very resistant to fusarium. All my others died, but this one plant looks just as good as my resistant hybrids. I'm wondering if it could be valuable as a seed selection. I would of course hot water bath the seeds before sprouting them.

[bower]

Cole, it sure sounds worth saving to me. Even if there is just a chance it is genetic and passed on resistance, worth it ! To try it out.

[b54red]

I never had a case of fusarium on a grafted plant from my saved seeds. I did try to save seed from fruits taken off plants that were not showing any of the early signs of fusarium. I also got fusarium with any new varieties I tried before I started grafting onto FFF tolerant root stock. I always ferment my seeds and just before drying them I swish them around in a diluted bleach solution then rinse them and let them dry. I am assuming that if the fusarium was passed on in the seeds I saved it would show up on the grafted plants. But you know what they say about assuming.

Bill