Need help id'ing this disease

[mdvpc]

Whatever this is, it took multiple numbers of my plants down this summer-never seen it before. Any ideas? Since I live in the desert Southwest, we have little rain, and have not had a problem with disease.

[nctomatoman]

Can't tell exactly from the pics - the closest thing I've seen is Tomato Spotted Wilt, but can' tell the color of the leaves (if there are purplish brown spots, for example).

[mdvpc]

Thanks for your input. Here is a closeup of the leaves. I wondered if it was salt because we have so much salt in our water, I have used a product in the past to flush the salt out.

[amideutch]

Michael, I would definately have your water tested or buy a kit and do yourself. Is there any agriculture going on in your area? Ami

[Lee]

From your last picture, it doesn't look like TSWV to me....
Tough to say though....

Lee

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by mdvpc

Thanks for your input. Here is a closeup of the leaves. I wondered if it was salt because we have so much salt in our water, I have used a product in the past to flush the salt out.

Michael, if you've had problems in the past re salt and you used a product to flush it out is what you see now the same as what you saw before that led you to do something about the salt?

And now I forgot to go back up and look again to confirm that these were outside plants. Yes?

[mdvpc]

Thanks for the help on this-the water is terrible here. During the summer, some of it even comes from the Rio Grande. Its full of salt and very alkaline. I haven't been using the Clearex this summer on any consistent basis. The plants are outside. I have never had this happen before, except maybe once this past winter in the greenhouse with one plant. I have never consistently used Clearex to flush the containers.

[amideutch]

Michael, any chance of having a well dug? Ami

[mdvpc]

Ami-Great idea, but I dont think you can get a permit to dig one here in the city limits. Plus, we live on a mountain, and it would be a loooooong way down to the water table. I will talk with one of my business partners though-he has a winery down in the valley, and had a well dug.

[biermaster]

I have started my Fall plants and have had several do this same thing. I had thought that it was due to the sun. I had planted them a couple weeks ago when we had some cooler weather, less than 100 and the evenings were cloudy so I put out plants that I had started. I grow in containers. Now 3 weeks later, I have pulled 3 plants as they would start looking like that at the top and then do down hill from there. I had originally thought that it was caused by fleas and sprayed accordingly. I plant 2 plants per container and the other one is looking ok so I do not think that it is a salt problem. I have been watering with rain water, so if it is salt then it is not from watering. I even had a mature plant that I had cut back that was doing well that looks like the last picture. I pulled it out yesterday. When this stated, I did replant seed so maybe I will be able to put in some replacements.

[mdvpc]

Bier-With me, the plants looked good for about 4 weeks, from transplant, then they started with the problem.

Ami, I can get a permit for a well-cost is $4,000.00+ and they cant get the equipment into my yard to do it.

Just finished talking with the Zeba folks-very nice. David told me that the Zeba could definitely hold the salt from the water in the container and cause this problem-he explained it in scientific terms, and no way I could post it here-I understood one thing from the discussion-that the salt in my water probably is being retained in the container, and flushing the container might help or might not. He is going to talk with some folks and see if they can come up with a solution to be able to stop the salt from binding wth the Zeba. He will be back in touch. Told him I used Clearex this week, but too early to tell.

Talked to Ben at the Clearex folks this week also. Clearex is a product designed to flush salt out of hydroponic systems and containers. Ben said this might work, and the purpose of Clearex is to push the salt as far away from the roots as possible. However, with the Zeba, it may not be able to do the job.

So thats where I am this beautiful Friday. Funny that the problem has not occurred in my peppers or eggplant.

[amideutch]

Michael, see if you can get ahold of a TDS meter that measures the conductivity of you water. They read out in ppm or micro siemens and tell you the salt content or total dissolved salts in your water. Hydroponic growers and aquariam stores normally have them. In the mean time I'll do some checking on different methods of water filtration and maybe you can find some cheap tanks to store rain water. I know, what rain. Ami

[mdvpc]

Ami-You are right-what rain? We have about 7 inches a rain total in a year. I am going to talk to the guy that does the water for one of my law partners that owns a winery here to see if he can suggest some filtration. Let me know if you run across anything. The water utilities documents 130-168 milligrams per liter of salt in the water for the water source that comes to my house. EPA guidelines are 20 milligrams per liter-so you see, we have a lot of sodium in our water.

[mdvpc]

I pulled a Kimberly container, washed the roots off very good. Then I transplanted the plants into a new container with new potting soil and no Zeba. A little experiment to see if the plants recover.

[captnkirk]

I hadnt heard tylcv was a problem in az but thats what it looks like to me.I have had alot of plants with it in the last 2 years here in florida and it sure likes it .If the top of the plant is stunted and the leaves are mottled and have a yellow outline that would be my guess.