Bacterial wilt resistant rootstock

[b54red]

Since finding the triple fusarium resistant rootstock two years ago I have had so much more success with my tomatoes. It is so nice to have most live for the whole season instead of yellowing up and wilting anywhere from one month to 3 months after setting them out. I give a lot of my plants away when I have surplus grafts and the only complaint anyone including me has had is concerning bacterial wilt. Despite their strong resistance to fusarium and nematodes they are still susceptible to bacterial wilt.

Does anyone know of a rootstock that is resistant to RKN, all three races of fusarium and also bacterial wilt and where they can be purchased? Even though I don't usually lose more than a couple of plants per season to bacterial wilt I would like to see if it is possible to close this one weakness in my grafts. One of the gardeners I share plants with has a real problem with bacterial wilt in his garden so it would be a good test of any rootstock claiming resistance.

Bill

[Fusion_power]

It depends on what you are defining as bacterial wilt. I have seen some tolerance in S. Habrochaites, but it is only tolerance, not a high level of resistance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralstonia_solanacearum

[friedgreen51]

Hi Bill,
I don't know of a bacterial wilt resistant rootstock, but I had a huge problem with this last year. After much reading I came across several articles that said that this is a huge problem in South East Asia. Research there has shown that growing brassicas (mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) in the infected soil reduces the bacterial wilt. I also found one article that stated that plots that had chopped stems and leaves from radishes or mustard greens incorporated into the soil before planting tomatoes or potatoes reduced the incidence of bacterial wilt by 50-70 percent
I planted turnip greens in my infected bed this fall. This spring when I set out my tomatoes I used my Vita-Mix blender and chopped up mustard green leaves and stems with water and incorporated this into the planting hole for my tomatoes. I thought it was worth a shot. I don't see how it could hurt and it is not expensive.
Will report back later in the growing season to see if these plants succumb to bacterial wilt.
Deborah

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by friedgreen51

Hi Bill,
I don't know of a bacterial wilt resistant rootstock, but I had a huge problem with this last year. After much reading I came across several articles that said that this is a huge problem in South East Asia. Research there has shown that growing brassicas (mustard, cabbage, cauliflower, etc.) in the infected soil reduces the bacterial wilt. I also found one article that stated that plots that had chopped stems and leaves from radishes or mustard greens incorporated into the soil before planting tomatoes or potatoes reduced the incidence of bacterial wilt by 50-70 percent
I planted turnip greens in my infected bed this fall. This spring when I set out my tomatoes I used my Vita-Mix blender and chopped up mustard green leaves and stems with water and incorporated this into the planting hole for my tomatoes. I thought it was worth a shot. I don't see how it could hurt and it is not expensive.
Will report back later in the growing season to see if these plants succumb to bacterial wilt.
Deborah

I have to report what I know from a friend on another site who did this. She incorporated a great deal of mustard into her raised beds, and started seed for a Feb. plantout, which she did. She reported that some of her plants have just succumbed to bacterial wilt, unfortunately. She was soooo disappointed.

[JamesL]

Bill,
What about RST-04-106-T?
https://extension.tennessee.edu/publ...ts/SP370-C.pdf
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/mobile/...ductinfo/2812/

[b54red]

Originally Posted by JamesL

Bill,
What about RST-04-106-T?
https://extension.tennessee.edu/publ...ts/SP370-C.pdf
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/mobile/...ductinfo/2812/

That is one of the new rootstock I am trying out this year and I was unaware it had bacterial wilt resistance. The other new ones are Maxifort and Estamino. Multifort is the one I had such success with last year and half my grafts will still have this rootstock at least for the spring and early summer. By June I will be able to use more of which ever one seems to do better when I do some grafts for fall plans.

Bill

[Stvrob]

Im growing a few Neptunes this year to see how they fare. They are bred for BW resistance, but the Nematodes are beginning to drag them down unfortunately.

[JamesL]

Bill,
Will be interested to hear your experience with both Maxifort and Estamino. I like them both, but I am also not fighting fusarium, etc.

[friedgreen51]

Hi Bill,
I know this is an older thread, but wanted to let you know that Florida 7514 seems to show good disease resistance to bacterial wilt and is resistant to 2 of the three fusarium races. It is a hybrid and has a huge yield of tomatoes. I plan on giving it a try as the rootstock for grafting next year. I planted 2 of the Florida 7514 in the garden this year and they have shown very good disease resistance, particularly to bacterial wilt, and are loaded with tomatoes. The are average in taste like most hybrids, but a good candidate for grafting.

[OzoneNY]

I know I got one of these wilt problems but I dont know which. Fusarium or verticillium or maybe something else?? How do I identify what my soil is afflicted with?

[friedgreen51]

Bacterial wilt starts in the top of the plant. The plant will usually be green, but the very tips of the plant will wilt. Soon it will move down and the entire plant will wilt. It usually affects a plant when it has produced tomatoes and it is fueled by hot and wet weather. Very devastating disease.

Verticillium wilt will have yellow blotches on the lower leaves. This may be the first symptoms, then brown veins appear, and finally chocolate brown dead spots. Wilt is the last stage. Very prevalent in the Northeastern US.

Fusarium often causes yellowing on one side of the plant or leaf. Yellowing begins with the older, bottom leaves, followed by wilting, browning, and defoliation. Growth is typically stunted, and little or no fruit develops. Brown, vascular tissue can be found when the infected stem is cut at its base.

[zipcode]

Armada is supposed to be resistant to everything a rootstock can be resistant to.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by JamesL

Bill,
What about RST-04-106-T?
https://extension.tennessee.edu/publ...ts/SP370-C.pdf
http://www.tomatogrowers.com/mobile/...ductinfo/2812/

Looks like a good one. I want to try some grafting here since I had BW hit some of my heirlooms this year. On a side note I found this article interesting and figured I would post it here. http://phys.org/news/2016-03-scienti...ting-snap.html

[b54red]

I didn't have a single plant with the RST-04-106-T root stock affected by bacterial wilt last year and none so far this year. I have found that unlike Estamino and Multifort the plants are smaller but most varieties produce much smaller plants but earlier and heavier yields with the RST rootstock.

Some varieties seem to do much better with the Multifort or Estamino rootstock. Either the plants are larger and healthier looking or they produce much larger fruit. I have two Brandywine Sudduths that are making much larger fruit on the Estamino rootstock even though they were much later to produce the first fruits than on the RST rootstock. I also noticed that my Delicious on Estamino and Multifort are much larger plants producing much larger fruits and a lot of them but they too were also later. When the season is over I hope to have better info on these incidents showing rootstock variables with some of the varieties. In general I would go with the RST rootstock but there are definitely some varieties that do better on other rootstock.

I tried a multitude of highly resistant hybrids as rootstock for a couple of years but found in general that the various varieties of scions did much better as far as production when grafted to true rootstock varieties. I did have a few exceptions but when I got really good results it seemed to be limited to only a couple of scion varieties. They did however work as advertised as far as soil born disease resistance and nematode resistance was concerned. My problem with them was that there were just too many scion varieties that did very poorly when grafted to them and I didn't have the time or patience to keep experimenting with using them. The one exception to this was Big Beef which seemed to work pretty good with most scions but it doesn't have enough resistance for my garden so it was not a good roostock for me.

Bill

[BigVanVader]

Great info Bill, Thanks. It sounds like RST may be better for early production and Estamino better for consistent full season production? Smaller plants are usually less work but I wouldn't want my beefsteak varieties to be much smaller since that would mean I need many more tomatoes to match weight. Please keep us informed on which you feel is best overall and/or which combination you suggest. I though you might find this interesting as well. http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/...7-c63859b808fe

Oh and here is a USDA list of all known rootstocks from last year

http://www.vegetablegrafting.org/wp/...ble-feb-15.pdf