Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (w/ Pix)

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Kazedwards

Well that's good to know. Still wish I knew what was up with it specially since I have a few plant doing it. At least it's not TSWV


-Zach

I didn't say curling leaves can't be a part of TSWV just that it isn't usually one of the early symptoms. On young small plants that get infected the leaves will sometimes curl inward and the new growth will take on almost a burned look with brown curling edges. On large healthy plants the first sign is usually slow growth and a slight rust appearance that can be any color from dark yellow to almost black looking flecks in the leaves. This usually shows first on a sucker or new growth and then spreads til the whole plant is sick and wilting. The fruit from such plants that can survive long enough for the fruit to ripen frequently have damaged areas and can be misshapen.

When I was out giving my plants a drink of TTF this morning I noticed an Indian Stripe plant that is quite young that looks like it may have TSWV. I will probably be able to tell for sure in the next day or so.

Bill

[b54red]

That young IS plant definitely had TSWV and had to be pulled. A couple of days ago I noticed early signs of TSWV on two of my larger older plants that are over 10 ft and they also have TSWV but I will not pull them until most of the larger fruits have ripened unless the plants totally wilt on me. This is turning out to be a slightly worse than average year for TSWV especially on bell peppers. Since I have far fewer pepper plants their lose is felt more than the tomatoes of which I have a good surplus.

Bill

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by b54red

That young IS plant definitely had TSWV and had to be pulled. A couple of days ago I noticed early signs of TSWV on two of my larger older plants that are over 10 ft and they also have TSWV but I will not pull them until most of the larger fruits have ripened unless the plants totally wilt on me. This is turning out to be a slightly worse than average year for TSWV especially on bell peppers. Since I have far fewer pepper plants their lose is felt more than the tomatoes of which I have a good surplus.

Bill

Bill, have you tried the blue sticky traps? Thrips are supposed to be strongly attracted to the blue color.

[AlittleSalt]

Is TSWV and most all other bacteria and diseases eliminated during fermentation? I know I have read that it does, but I still need to ask this question yet again. I want to give seeds to others, but don't want to contaminate their gardens.

I use the fermentation process that Carolyn has written about many times. I admit that I am overcautious - if there is no fungal mat on top after a few days - I toss it and start over.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Bill, have you tried the blue sticky traps? Thrips are supposed to be strongly attracted to the blue color.

No, the sticky traps are fairly expensive and with so many plants it would take a lot of them and no way will they completely stop thrips. I can live with losing some plants over the course of the season to TSWV since I usually plant a lot of them; far more than we need.

Bill

[b54red]

The two largest tomatoes that showed the first signs of TSWV a few weeks ago are still alive and their fruit is ripening. It is amazing how much longer a large mature plant will live after contracting the disease than a small one. The very top growth on two of the plants had to be cut off due to the extent of damage showing and there is little new growth and what there is is sickly but the plants look like they will hold up for most of the fruit to start ripening before I have to pull them. All the smaller plants that got TSWV had to be pulled in a few days after showing signs.

Bill

[b54red]

Found another plant infected today in my second planting bed of tomatoes. That makes three out of 20 plants in that bed and 5 out of 37 that got it in my first bed. I guess this year will qualify as a fairly bad year for TSWV but nowhere near the worst year when I lost about 40% of my plants. That was painful. Every year I expect to lose between 10 and 20 percent of my plants to TSWV. Unless the problem gets much worse I will not take any preventive steps because that is an acceptable loss ratio. I used to lose 80 to 90 percent of my plants to fusarium and nematodes so this small lose is easy to live with.

Bill

[b54red]

Darn. I went out this morning doing a little pruning on my newest bed of tomatoes that was set out the end of May and found another tomato plant sick with TSWV. I still have one more bed to plant for fall which I hope to start setting out this week if possible. When I get that final bed planted I will have set out around 100 plants for the whole year which is way down from my usual but still way more than I need and so far my TSWV loses are running a fairly high at nearly 20% this year compared to the usual 10 to 15%.

Bill

[jpop]

Well I was hoping it was not the case but i believe this is from thrips?

[Gerardo]

@jpop
Looks as if TSWV is saying hello. Pull the plant. Spinosad away.

[jpop]

Originally Posted by Gerardo

@jpop
Looks as if TSWV is saying hello. Pull the plant. Spinosad away.

Ugh, pulled the worst and monitoring 1 or 2 others, fingers crossed. Does the DE you coat your plants help with this?

[Gerardo]

Not really. Things that help: rotation of insecticides including pyrethrins, Spinosad, Neem, Met52, beneficial insects, silver mulch, marigolds, sticky traps, garden maintenance-removal of all debris.

Pull all of them, if young they won't recover, if old segregate at a minimum for fruit to mature. If the bugs are around it will spread.

Heat treat the seeds if saving.

Good luck!

[jpop]

Thank you Gerardo

[b54red]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed but when checking my plants this morning I found one that doesn't look too healthy. It is kind of yellow looking and it is growing slower than all the others. It is typical of TSWV for the plant to sometimes stop growing before the easier to spot symptoms show up but then again fusarium and nematodes will do the same thing sometimes. Of course it could be just paranoia.

Bill

[PNW_D]

Here of two pics of my Dwarf Orange Cream ....... it looks to be TSWV, but the tops are still green and healthy - could this be anything else?

Plants have been outside for over a week hardening off in a somewhat shaded area - lots of rain, but protected by roof overhang

Other plants in very close proximity seem OK

http://www.tomatoville.com/attachmen...1&d=1495290828

http://www.tomatoville.com/attachmen...1&d=1495290829