very fast killed plant, Red Pear italian

[FILMNET]

should i pull this plant out

close up

[OneoftheEarls]

snip off yellowish branches with scissors, check moisture at base... could be too dry OR too wet.

[hasshoes]

It could be something like bacterial wilt, I've never had that though so I don't really know how to ID it.

To check for bacterial diseases snip off a branch and look for a white fluid out of the stem. If nothing comes out immediately, put it in a clear glass of water and look for white gushing out then.

[FILMNET]

I hope it is to much water, we have had very little rain for 2 weeks here, so i have been watering my plants, I do remember seeing this plant a few days ago and it did not need any water as i walked by with the hose. I did give it a little ?????? Must be a place by the house which holds water or not as much sun. I HOPE so i cut branches off.

[hasshoes]

You should buy a cheap $10 or $12 moisture meter. They're not *super* accurate, but the extreme "DRY" or "WET" is right on. Or if you just shove your finger four or so inches down and it's still completely dry- then water. If it's really hot like lately you can water when it's only dry at the top two inches, but it's best to do deep waterings less frequently than small waterings often.

When your plant is bearing fruit, water less, or you will have a more watered down taste in the tomato.

[kdoble]

Over or under watering can mimic some diseases, so don't panic yet and as Hassshoes mentioned, you should get a water meter, especially if you're growing in containers. In the mean time, delicately check the roots for discoloration...if the roots are discolored, you may have root rot going on (especially if you did accidentally over water). Where did you get the soil from ~ just trying to help rule out fusarium wilt which is soil born and not likely if you used a commercial soil or composted soil.

[FILMNET]

I have one, I use it for pots only, the dirt is clean, full of compost , but this plant is in the same place i have used for tomato plants for 10 years. I planned to not use this place, so i dug out a new garden. But i did have 25 plants after give out 30 to friends. so i put 3 cherry plants in the old dirt. Italy Red Pear i have 2 of them, Thanks

[tjg911]

if you were down south i would not reply since i am not familiar with that climate but since you are in my area, more or less, with what i assume to be somewhat similar heat/weather i will comment.

when i put out plants and they are small (15-18") i'll water them if it's real hot otherwise i'll water them a few days later. later in the season like late june thru the rest of the season i may water them if it's hot and dry. other than that i seldom water tomatoes. regardless of heat and duration w/o rain i won't water unless it's been 2 weeks of high 80's or into the 90's and no rain for that 2 week period. if it stayed 82 for a month i wouldn't water but as you know it's never 82 in summer here except on a rare cool or rainy day. i do mulch with straw when i plant them out. the only exception would be if i fertilized with neptune's harvest by watering each plant vs spraying the plant. typically i spray them unless it's been long enough/hot enough to warrant watering them and then i'll do it by fertilizing.

tom

[amideutch]

That doe's not look like stress from over/under watering. Whatever it is, it is pretty aggressive to have advanced that far in a couple days! I would remove the mulch from the base of the plant and see what's going on there. Then I would remove all the leaves from the base of the plant up to the first fruit cluster and do as hasshoes has suggested and check for for bacterial disease. Maybe an foliar application consisting of a couple aspirin tablets in a quart of water might help. If it is diseased then there is not much you can do short of pulling the plant. Ami

[beeman]

This is the same problem as I get every year, year after year, but i thought it was Fusarium.
This year I tried a number of ideas, but the main one which seems to have fixed it is BioVam, as I now have a complete row that doesn't have a problem this year. Yippeee!
I believe it's the Trichoderma in BioVam that's done the trick for me.

[b54red]

If you lived down south I would definitely think it is fusarium wilt but that is very uncommon north of the Mason Dixon Line. Maybe it's another wilt that has a similar affect on plants? Maybe Carolyn will know.

[Timmah!]

I'm guessing bacterial wilt.

[mjc]

It almost looks like it was hit with an herbicide, to me...one half the plant is dead, seemingly overnight

[Timmah!]

I dunno, but isn't it swell how it frequently happens when you just get a bunch of pretty fruit set, making you joyously anticipate the flavorful bounty on the horizon?

[carolyn137]

I Don't know what you mean by rapid, but Bacterial Wilt is oine of the fastest to cause problems with profound wilting with green leaves that can happen overnight and with no significant wilting that precedes it. it just gets to a point where the bacteria are totally clogging up the transport system of the stems and leaves. And while it isn't a common disease it is found in MA and NYS and other states up here and can infect plants randomly so that it isn't uncommon to see just one plant affected.

I'd take an affected cut stem and put it directly in water and watch for the white streaming of bacteria that comes out. Heather, I know you said to not put it in water at first, but the bacteria just don't stream out unless given a matrix to stream into, lousy sentence that.

The only other thing I can think of is mole or vole damage to the roots which can kill a plant pretty quickly.

it doesn't look like a water problem to me when it happens that fast and it doesn't look like Fusarium or Verticillium which don't affect plants that quickly. There are pockets of Fusarium up here although it's rare and Verticillium is also up here as well.

But I think those yellow stems and leaves are just the result of the initial green wilted ones dying and nothing more.

OK, that's what I think.