Starting off with a bang

[b54red]

My tomatoes looked great with no signs of any diseases until about 10 days ago when our temps and humidity shot up. I have already had to pull 3 plants with TSWV and it looks like two more have it; I'll know for sure in a day or two. I only had a couple of plants get Fusarium wilt last year and I already have two severely hit by it and soon to join the trash pile. Early Blight has come on strong in the last few days despite weekly spraying with Daconil and almost no rain. Seems you don't need rain for rapid disease spread if your humidity is high enough. I pulled out the big gun yesterday while I still have some green leaves on some of the worst affected plants and sprayed them with a 7% solution of Clorox. This treatment is usually effective on EB but is of no use on TSWV or Fusarium Wilt. Just by pruning the diseased and dead foliage off, some of my plants have no stems below 2 ft. The worst is my Aunt Gerties Gold which now resembles a palm tree more than a tomato. I fear it is not long for this world and just a week ago it was one of my largest most beautiful plants.
Most of the commercial growers in this area have had to go to tomato varieties like Amealia in order to make a crop down here. I kinda knew what I was in for trying so many heirlooms in this area, but I do love the taste of so many of them. I'll know in a couple of months which varieties have a fighting chance down here and which don't. I tried to plant two or three of the highest recommended varieties in different parts of the garden to give them a fair shot. All my friends thought I was nuts planting so many tomatoes; but as I told them "by early summer there won't be nearly that many left standing".

[Timmah!]

Sorry to hear of your unfortunate cirumstance. =( It's really gonna hurt my feelings if that happens here, considering all the work I'm putting in this garden & the concrete block raised bed construction.

[raspberianred]

I would suggest that if you manage to keep any of the plants down- save the seeds! That way as each year passes you could eventually have your own heirloom tomato that can survive in your environment because it has evolved and adapted. That is my plan to get hold of whatever heirlooms that I can and just keep growing them from my own seed until it has adapted to my environment. At least this is my take on evolution.

[roper2008]

Sorry to hear that also. I did have a problem with late blight last year, but
no early blight. By the time it hit, I already had lots of tomatoes. I did notice
that the Kellogg's breakfast and Kellogg's survived the late blight. They did
not have much flavor because of the rain. In a drier year they probably would
have tasted better. It seems like you have two problems to deal with. Let
us know which ones survive and good luck.


Linda

[shelleybean]

Oh, b54red, I do feel your pain! I also have Fusarium issues and have had TSWV problems the last ten years or so. I was really hoping to avoid TSWV this season because we had such a cold winter throughout the South. I was hoping it would kill the thrips and we'd be in the clear this season. No such luck. Just found two infected plants. Both of my Fox cherries. I only had the two. I have one back up but it's six weeks behind the other plants I had in the garden. I started growing back ups a few years ago because of the TSWV. It's the only thing I can think of. I seldom find TSWV on the plants after the middle of June or so. If I can get through the next few weeks and keep what I have, I'll be happy. As for the Fusarium, I have gone mostly to older F resistant varieties. I have a lot of Atkinson this year. We'll see how it goes. I wish us all lots of tomato luck! The humidity plays such a large part. Keep us posted on the status of your garden!

[amideutch]

Red, the only way to beat Fusarian or any other soil borne disease is to inoculate your plants prior to or at plant out. Some products that do work are Actinovate, Soilgard, Rootshield and Mycostop. This new product I came across "Regalia" looks promising. Ami

[shelleybean]

I have previously used Rootshield and used it again this time when I planted out, so I'm hoping for a better season this year.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by raspberianred

I would suggest that if you manage to keep any of the plants down- save the seeds! That way as each year passes you could eventually have your own heirloom tomato that can survive in your environment because it has evolved and adapted. That is my plan to get hold of whatever heirlooms that I can and just keep growing them from my own seed until it has adapted to my environment. At least this is my take on evolution.

I started doing that last year with Paul Robeson, Omar's Lebanese, Marianna's Peace and a volunteer that was the most disease resistant tomato plant I have ever seen. I have started seed from all of them from my saved seed from last year. The volunteer I saved seed from is one of the best looking plants I have and no disease either. Now to see if it grows true and produces the good tomato it made last year.
I will save seed this year from all of the tomatoes that show good disease resistance and production. I will also save seed from any plant that tastes great to me and just hope it gets more resistant each year. I have high hopes for the Cowlicks Brandywine because of the glowing reports from some on this board. I have never been able to grow an OP Brandywine to finished fruit stage in many years of trying. The Cowlicks I have planted has set a few small fruit but it is already being hit by the EB rather hard. I don't know if it will make it to first blush or not.