Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (w/ Pix)

[b54red]

Doesn't look like TSWV to me. Don't know what it is but it could be over watering with cups too wet or a nutrient deficiency or insect damage. It also looks like those tomatoes could use some more sun. Just remove the lower leaves and if they need it feed them a dose of liquid fertilizer like Miracle Grow and see how they look in a few days.

Bill

[PNW_D]

thank you Bill

good news ....... as I do like Dwarf Orange Cream

will get them potted up and add some 4-4-4- ...... sunshine is another matter here in the PNW this season - but today was like summer - finally!!

[tlcmd]

This year I'm planting wormwood (artemesia absinthium) beside every non-TSWV resistant plant since wormwood repels virtually all insects as ell as other pests. It should keep the thrips away.

[Hoosier]

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[Hoosier]

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[b54red]

No. It could be gray mold though.

Bill

[Hoosier]

Originally Posted by b54red

No. It could be gray mold though.

Bill

Thanks Bill, that would certainly make more sense. I have had gray mold problems before and this seemed different. The pictures really don't show it very well and I should have taken them before I pulled them. I looked at images of disease since I hadn't seen anything like it before. This seemed almost an exact match: http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.corne...SpWiltFS12.htm

Hopefully it just looked similar. I don't know where the virus would have originated since I didn't have any bought plants. We did have a very mild winter so I guess it's possible it could have survived from last year. A week or so ago I had a 2.5 gallon bucket that had quite a number of thrips in it as well.

[Hoosier]

OK, it seems to be spreading. We have not had any rain to speak of in the last 3 weeks and it has been low humidity until the last 3 days or so. I pulled 2 plants but have been plucking on a few others and it seems like at least 4 more plants have it.
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So do I pull or pluck?

[Gerardo]

pull 'em. I usually have a few replacements for just these situations. perhaps short dtm semidet/det could produce in time.

Spinosad, Neem, DE, Permethrin time

[BigVanVader]

Sucks man. If its mold I feel your pain. It got my garden last year. Spreads like wildfire.

[Hoosier]

Thanks Gerardo, I think I will do that. Don't have any determinates left but I do have a few plants that I was keeping just in case. Unfortunately one was a variety that I only had one of.

[Hoosier]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Sucks man. If its mold I feel your pain. It got my garden last year. Spreads like wildfire.

Thanks BVV. I hope it gets contained, I have 80 plants but have pulled 5 so far, it seems to just pop up over night. I have sprayed with copper so I hope that takes care of it if it is grey mold.

[BigVanVader]

Potassium bicarbonate with a good sticker spreader will definitely slow it down. I rotate it and copper now.

[b54red]

If it is gray mold and it does look like it but from pictures it is just too hard to tell for sure then the bleach spray is the best treatment. Make sure you do it in the late evening after the sun is down then the next day or the day after apply a copper fungicide. If it is gray mold or a disease that the bleach spray works on then in two days the leaves that are infected will shrivel up. If that happens then you know the treatment is working though with gray mold it usually takes more than one treatment to stop it completely. Gray mold first attacks black tomato varieties and Green When Ripe varieties.

If it is TSWV then the bleach and copper will do no good at all. If it is some kind of speck or spot disease the double whammy of both will help.

Knock on wood; but so far this season I haven't had any gray mold but with the high humidity and frequent rains of late I'm sure it will start showing up. One reason it is later than usual is I planted no black varieties in my first planting but in my two subsequent plantings there were a few black varieties included.

Below is a link to the bleach spray thread which will give you some good information on using it to fight diseases. Make sure you read the thread carefully before using it.

Bill

[Spartanburg123]

Originally Posted by Lee

Good point MsCowpea.

Thrips are as small as fleas and can get through pretty much anything that's not
"solid". This year was pretty bad for TSWV, including my favorite Cuostralee going
down to it.

I did confirm a couple of details about it this year.

1. Infected plants will not recover. The fruit will be effected and look terrible.
2. Early removal of bad foliage also doesn't help. My dad did this on one of
his plants, and the plant looked fine. However, the fruit later showed
significant effects of the TSWV....


Lee

This quote motivates me even more to pull the three infected plants now. There is no recovery after pruning, and the fruit are compromised anyway. Thanks to all for this very educational thread!!

Darin