Which Wilt virus is in my area?

[bigbubbacain]

In the past I've read in various discussions where it's been stated that we don't have Verticilium or Fusarium Wilt disease in my area, which is Zone 9A - south of Houston Texas. Is this really true? If it's not Verticilium or Fusarium Wilt, then I guess I'm still trying to determine what it is that kills a few of my plants every year, usually early or in the middle of the season. It looks and acts like some kind of Wilt, because it dries out the phloem tissue and turns it brown. Then some of the lower leaves and lateral stems will yellow, whither, and die. I don't have black spots on the leaves so I don't think it's TSWV.

Am I wrong about the prevalence of Verticilium Or Fusarium in my area? Is there something else that looks like one of these?

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[Fert1]

I know from my own experience that it can be difficult to discern one wilt from another. In addition to Verticillium and Fusarium, I know there is a Spotted Wilt Virus, a Bacterial wilt, and a Southern Wilt if I remember correctly.

For what it's worth, since wilt invaded my soil, I've discovered container growing, and my plants in containers actually do better than the ones in the ground ever did. They produce fruit earlier and more of it, and they're the lushest, greenest, stockiest things you've ever seen. So I would encourage you to consider container growing if you are losing too many plants to the wilt. Just make sure that nothing that has come into contact with contaminated soil ever touches your containers. I bought a new trowel and cages, etc. to prevent contaminating the containers.

I'm still not 100% sure which wilt my yard has, but it's awfully virulent and would kill everything except the cherry tomatoes, and some of them didn't fare too well against it either. SunGold seems to withstand it just fine though.

[feldon30]

Bacterial Wilt is a possibility.

[nctomatoman]

The two that I am most familiar with - Fusarium and Bacterial - are pretty easy to tell apart. Fusarium shows itself by turning the infected foliage bright yellow prior to getting wilty, and often only hits part of a plant. Bacterial is more devastating - foliage stays green (little to no yellow), but also then goes brown, wilts, plant goes down fairly quickly - and a cut branch put into water leeches out the white bacteria. I've not had to deal with Verticillium wilt, or nematoes (to this point, anyway)

[bigbubbacain]

Thanks for writing Fert1.

I too have had previous success with container growing, but these days container growing is for my winter crop in the greenhouse. I have 2 humongous raised beds and I'm trying to eliminate the clutter of containers I already have in my garden.

[bigbubbacain]

Thanks Morgan and Craig!

I guess Bacterial Wilt is the culprit. The descriptions match my symptoms. Because of my space limitations, my only choice is to grow in the same raised beds year after year. Is there anything I can do to help minimize this problem?

[Fert1]

I think Bacterial wilt is one of the worst ones if I remember correctly. I read up on all the wilts to try to figure out which one I have. The closest I've found online is something called "fusarium crown wilt," but I could be mistaken. I've given up trying to figure out what it is, and have accepted the fact that I must grow everything in containers, except SunGold. I am trying a wilt-resistant variety of Rutgers this year to see if it can make it. We shall see how that experiment works out. It's got 27 tomatoes on it already, so I will be very upset if it wilts before it can ripen them.