Fusarium Wilt

[carolyn137]

Just a few comments.

Someone early in this thread said that Fusarium does not infect the seeds, and that fermenting the seed is what to do. And that is correct since Fusarium is only found on the outside of the seeds.

Pathogens such as the common bacterial ones as well as those viruses looked into,as well as Viroids, and now the Potato Spindle Virus from Australia, which also infects tomatoes,is also here in the US.

Some say they follow up with a bleach treatment,I never did as is true with many of my tomato friends as well.

Fact is, that several of us researched the oxidative methods of Oxyclean, Comet, etc, no one,to date has shown that it works for TOMATO seeds. Other seeds like pine cone,yes.

Carolyn

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Starlight

When that Dynamite food came out, I had several free samples of it. Me personally I didn't care for it. Didn't do a thing for me. I used to use Osmocote for in ground plants and then I switched to Vigrow (sp) from Home Depot. it about 8 bucks cheaper than Osmocote and seems to work better.

If you have a thrift store near by, get a cheap piece of sheer curtain material to provide a bit of shade for those plants at least til they get bigger. If you have any in the house, maybe your wife won't notice if one or two missing for a few months.

Gonna keep my fingers crossed for you. Hopefully something will grow or work out.

I have around 20 bed sheets that I use for shading. Our first born grandson named them dragons because they look sort of like Chinese dragons when being used.

From my personal experience on using organic fertilizers - I haven't seen any difference in the brands. I mostly just wanted to use it up to get it out of the garden tools and garden related barn.

Originally Posted by swellcat

Really?

Might work for someone with a Green Acres or King Ranch spread, but, can't the land-challenged enjoy a tomato, too?

Good luck with the new seeds and inspirations.

Originally Posted by Rockporter

I have that same question. My understanding is to rotate your crop and not plant again in the same spot for the same year. If that works great, but I have space challenge too and I can't see going even that long without planting again in the same spot without at least twice per year. I can rotate once and then I have to rotate back to the same containers.

It's a little closer to Green Acres out here. The 45'x45' main garden will be used to grow things that are supposed to kill RKN starting this fall with the second winter of growing Elbon Cereal Rye. This PDF explains it. http://30r8p93i26e4rjv9qo3ulokei.wpe...Cereal-Rye.pdf

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by MissS

Well I hope that the address I had was correct, because, you have 4 packs of seeds on their way to you from Seeds and Such.

Nobody here is more deserving of these seeds that YOU. I hope that they work out and give you something that tastes like a tomato. If not, Oh Well.......

The tomato seeds from Seeds n Such arrived today. Along with a couple free packs of seeds.

Hybrid Turnip Royal Crown
Swiss Chard Celebration

Thank you very much

[AlittleSalt]

One of the Campari F2 plants has blooms on it already. I first saw them a few days ago when our high temperatures were around 100F.

[AlittleSalt]

I'm revisiting this thread. The other raised beds are showing definite signs of Fusarium. I've had to pull a few plants, and there's no sign of RKN in the roots. There are a few tomatoes and lots of flowers that have been there for over a month with no growth of the plant or tomatoes being produced. They're still covered in flowers though.

[MissS]

I sure am glad to hear that there are no signs of RKN in these beds. It sounds as if RKN is the devil to beat. Fusarium can be dealt with by growing plants that are resistant to it.

I still am so very sorry that you are having such disease pressures trying to grow some decent tomato plants.

[Worth1]

How are the onions doing in it or garlic.
Worth

[AlittleSalt]

I haven't grown onions in the raised beds yet, but I will be this coming year. Squash grew alright in one of the raised beds - but nothing to brag about. I planted Okra in the raised bed beside the one with squash - I had an okra plant grow about a foot tall... yeah, that was out of 18 plants. I'll have to grow okra in a large pot with store bought soil/mix.

[AlittleSalt]

It has been a while since I last posted about tomato plant growth and development. A lot of what I've been posting has been going on in my family's lives, but I haven't forgotten the tomato plants I'm trying to grow. Out of 12 plants growing, only one Big Beef F1 VFFNTA is looking (Okay - is saying too much) The Fusarium3 has really distorted all the other plants including another Big Beef F1 and some other OPs.

It would be so easy to quit gardening, but I won't quit. I may need to take a year to see how FFFN plants grow in ground and of course some cherry tomatoes. Money is going to be extremely tight for a long time. I need for the FFFN tomato plants to grow and produce in ground.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

It has been a while since I last posted about tomato plant growth and development. A lot of what I've been posting has been going on in my family's lives, but I haven't forgotten the tomato plants I'm trying to grow. Out of 12 plants growing, only one Big Beef F1 VFFNTA is looking (Okay - is saying too much) The Fusarium3 has really distorted all the other plants including another Big Beef F1 and some other OPs.

It would be so easy to quit gardening, but I won't quit. I may need to take a year to see how FFFN plants grow in ground and of course some cherry tomatoes. Money is going to be extremely tight for a long time. I need for the FFFN tomato plants to grow and produce in ground.

Salt I hate to tell you this and maybe I am wrong but growing the FFFN plants will probably be a huge disappointment for you. I grew quite a few of those plants like that a few years back and they were barely edible. The taste was almost the same as the ones from the grocery store but a little better because they were left to ripen longer. I did grow one that I believe was called Red Mountain that was a little better than the others but as far as good home grown eating tomatoes all the ones I tried were miserable compared to the wonderful juicy ripe rich flavors from some of the better heirlooms. That experiment is what finally pushed me into grafting heirloom varieties onto FFFN root stock. Buying grafted plants if you are planning on growing more than just a few is just so expensive and most are not available on a root stock that has all the resistance that I needed and that it seems you will need in the future. I know that grafting seems a daunting challenge and it can be at times but it is well worth the effort and in the end cheaper than all the so called remedies for fusarium and RKN.

I did find that with okra if you mulch it very heavily and water it very well that the RKN problem will be less. I found Cowhorn to be the best variety in my nematode rich soil. The sandier the soil that you grow okra in the worse the nematode problem will be so adding organic matter is a big help. I have also found that the heavy mulching helps slow the nematodes attacking my cucumbers and squash. I added a bunch of peat and pine bark fines to some of my beds this past season and it helped maintain a higher moisture level in the beds and I had almost no nematode damage on my cucumbers and squash for the first time in decades. I am hoping that wasn't a fluke because they have been a real problem forever and it was sure nice to have my cucumbers last so long this year. I set out some fall cucumbers a few weeks ago and they are already producing despite the unrelenting heat and whiteflies. I am hoping they can hang on until it cools off and the whiteflies thin out.

Bill

[Worth1]

Spent hours trying to figure out a solution and haven't other than no hole containers and or grafting.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

This is the same thing as me sitting down and writing out my thoughts on paper.

Our main garden was 45' x 45'. It will no longer be used as a garden. The reasoning behind this that from 2011-2014 during a drought - it grew and produced very well. Tomatoes, squash, okra, you name it.

Then the 73+" of rain happened in 2015. Our average yearly rainfall is around 33". I feel that the ground staying wet all during the growing season is what kept the vegetables from growing right...or at all.

The 2016 garden suffered from the explosion of RKN reproduction during the previous year of way too much rain. Wet sandy loam = RKN overpopulation. I blamed the crop failure on the RKN while not knowing there was also Fusarium in the soil as well. The garden did produce tomatoes, but nowhere near as many as it should have.

The 2017 garden was the biggest waste of time. Over the past four years - The garden has gone from being something to be proud of - to being a depressing eyesore. For months now, I've seen that garden as nothing but a place to mow with a 45' x 45' fence in the way.

However, a new factor has developed very recently. Our son wants to put a house there one day for his family of 4. That garden once again will have a purpose. It is now a source of newfound hope.

All of the above means I will be gardening in our raised beds instead. That means growing 10 + or - tomato plants instead of 100+... And I'm perfectly happy about that. We didn't need that many tomato plants in the first place.

Grafting is a viable option. Containers with store bought soil/mix is another thought. I could even build the containers with wood that I already have that needs to be used anyway. That would cut the cost in half basically.

[Worth1]

Who knows, in a thousand years the same place may be a landing pad for flying saucers.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Who knows, in a thousand years the same place may be a landing pad for flying saucers.

Worth

Maybe they already have landed there? It's not RKN and Fusarium - it's little creatures from planet x in the soil

[AlittleSalt]

Here it is November 11, and normally, I would be getting interested in looking up tomato varieties to start indoors in January.

I don't want this to sound depressing (Even though it will in a way). I am finding it difficult to get into the thought of growing tomatoes in 2018. However, I am interested in growing crops in our raised beds to combat the RKN and Fusarium. I know plants that will grow in both conditions and are documented to help fight RKN...I'm not sure about fighting Fusarium though. But the plants will grow in fusarium contaminated soil. Most are flowers.

I don't know if any of you have read the thread called "Coming Home" http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=45993 , but that is where our money is being spent to make things better for our family. It is not a one way street, and is helping this place in ways that I haven't talked about on that thread. I will be adding to that thread a lot. Because of this, I don't have money for pots and artificial soils. I never wanted to grow tomatoes that way in the first place.

However, this thread is about Fusarium wilt. I want to do everything I can to help everyone who has Fusarium in their soil. I want to give you other options that works.