Correct "Pulling" technique for viruses?

[hasshoes]

Do you need to remove the roots as well or can you just cut off the plant and pour some boiling water on the root area?

I've lost almost a whole row (and a few on the next rows over). . . but have a few that oddly seem to be making it. (Though they are certainly on high alert pull watch)

I'm worried that if I pull the roots I might splatter disease on the few survivors.

I don't really know how viruses work. . . should I be more concerned about the potentially healthy plants roots growing into infected plants roots and getting sick?

Which is better?

I'll probably lose the whole row to mosaic, but I'll take what odds I can get.

I went crazy with the Neem oil (as I like to say :0) . . . so I'm pretty sure there are no more bugs around immediately to spread anything. Tomorrow I may have a new informative thread to start. . . "how plants look when killed by neem" Hey. . . it was dark. . . all I could find was a watering can.

[Moonglow]

hi, heather. i do not know the answer, but i'm also on a disease watch on my tomatoes.

thanks for starting the thread.

sincerely,

annapet

p.s.
i'm a neem fan, too, though i have not used them on my tomatoes yet.

[dice]

The roots can carry virii, but I don't know if there is any one
correct procedure for disposing of them.

Some virii need extreme treatments to eliminate completely
(strong methyl bromide soil drench, etc). Sometimes you
have to kill all of the nematodes, infected fungal spores, etc
down to 3-4 feet deep.

Research with Tobacco Mosaic Virus infected tomato plant
debris added to compost piles found that "biological factors"
(bacteria and fungi eating the virus-infected material) were
more important than the maximum temperature of the compost
in eliminating the virus. When the virus was just stored at the
maximum temperature reached in the compost pile, it survived,
but plants planted the next year in a mixture of peat and the
finished compost were not reinfected.

So, mixing in lots of compost or compostable material (like
manure, leaves, etc, that will provide food for bacteria and
fungi over the winter) may be more effective than drenching
the soil where the infected plants grew with hot water.

[Robert Brenchley]

How long can the viruses survive outside the plant? If they get into the compost, would they then be able to reinfect it?

[hasshoes]

That's very interesting dice. . .

You know. . . I pulled pretty much a whole row *except* the two next to the original funky plant (though they are still on extreme pull watch, so far they look totally fine.)

When I was worried about the one stumpy looking plant. . . I really drenched the two plants next to it (leaves and soil) with Actinovate before leaving town for the week.

Of course it could just be chance, but I'm wondering if it helped protect those two plants. Of course, maybe the bugs just didn't like that stuff. . . I did put extra Serenade on those two as well.

[dice]

How long can the viruses survive outside the plant?

The research summary that I read said the virus survived for
75 days at 47C, which was the maximum temperature reached
in the compost pile (I am guessing it was in a petri dish with
agar or something in a lab). I get the impression that virii can
survive quite awhile in dead plant material, and that some
plant virii are carried by soil nematodes, infect fungal spores,
etc. And of course they can live in/on insects, which are the
usual vector for infecting tomato plants in a garden or
container that has previously been free of the virus.

If they get into the compost, would they then be able to
reinfect it?

That probably depends on what all is in the compost and
perhaps on what virus it is exactly. In the test above with
Tobacco Mosaic Virus, other organisms in the compost
apparently eliminated the virus completely, as plants
subsequently grown in that compost were not reinfected.

I have never been a fan of adding infected tomato plant
material to compost, which seems to be just asking for
trouble, even if other organisms in the compost are likely
to eliminate the disease. (If it is not added to the compost
in the first place, that would seem to be ahead of the game
in avoiding the disease when the compost is later added
to the garden.)

Other people feel that adding infected plant material to a
compost pile is similar to creating a vaccine: the compost
will build up a population of organisms that prey on whatever
organism causes the disease.

In this case, though, the question is how to disinfect the soil
where infected plants have grown. Amending the soil with
compost loaded with bacteria and fungi that will eliminate
the disease organism is a lot friendlier to the soil than killing
everything alive down there with methyl bromide.

If you have a limited supply of compost, an alternate approach
could be drenching the area with compost tea (where the
molasses or other sugar source added when brewing it has
allowed the population of bacteria and fungi in it to grow
rapidly; a gallon of compost tea could have the bacterial
and fungal population of several cubic feet of raw compost.)