Quote:
Originally Posted by happychick
We are living on a tiny lot, so I don't have tons of room to garden. I have 4 tiny beds (3 raised and 1 not) and plants in 2 of them have had bacterial canker. It's possible that one of the plants in 1 of the 2 uninfected beds actually did have it as well, but it started looking wonky and I immediately pulled it up, because I didn't want to give it a chance to spread if that's what it was. The other two plants in that bed never seemed to have anything wrong with them, though, so maybe not.
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I guess I really love tomatoes because I would not have pulled a plant if I saw a few leaves diseased with bacteria or fungus. Instead, I pluck off the worst leaves and spray the plants with daconil (a fungus blocker) again. Unless the leaves are touching between plants, I don't think bacterial canker would readily jump from plant to plant unless you have a lot of insect activity or heavy rains.
Bacteria and fungus are caused by the plants being watered at night and going to bed wet, or by soil splashback from heavy rain. Make sure you are using drip hoses to water the plants (not that they've needed much watering the past 2 months) and not using any kind of overhead watering. And I wonder if you have a thick enough layer of mulch. 2-3 inches of mulch are essential in S.E. Texas. I have a 2" thick layer of straw, but you can also use pine straw, hay, shredded newspaper and grass clippings (which aren't weed-n-feeded), or shredded or whole pine bark chips. Just something so that it is almost impossible for the soil to splash up onto the leaves.
Quote:
Originally Posted by happychick
Anyway, I really need to be able to plant in those two beds again. Otherwise, I'm only going to be able to plant maybe 5 plants, which really isn't enough for my family - especially sicne they'd all have to be determinates based on what we have set up in the areas we could use. Plus, this is my first year gardening, so you know, I have lots of problems and don't expect too much from my plants - still working out the kinks.  
So I started seeds for a fall crop. Is there anything I can do to make those beds useable again? Soil microorganisms that might outcompete the canker? Anything? |
This isn't like fusarium or verticillium whose presence is a foregone omen of disaster. Bacterial and fungal problems are always going to be in the soil, even your first year. The secret is to keep them in the soil and off your plants.
I plucked off 2/3 of the leaves off of one of my Kimberly plants which had some kind of bacterial speck or spot and it bounced back and gave me lots of fruit. And none of the surrounding plants were significantly affected. By the middle of the season, I've plucked off the bottom 8-12 inches of foliage off of all my tomato plants because of signs of early blight (fungus).
Spray with Daconil (chlorothanonil) every week. It's $12 for a 29% concentrate that you dilute down to 1 tbsp per gallon and apply with a $10 one gallon wand sprayer. The pre-mixed "Ready to spray" bottles are lousy. There are sprays for bacteria like copper sprays but they are not particularly effective and there is the concern of soil toxicity with copper buildup.
I know for a fact that my soil has septoria, early blight, and anthracnose in it. But I don't let it ruin my day.
Hope to see you at
South East Texas Tomato Fest 2008!!