What's wrong with these tomatoes?

[beeman]

I believe you are suffering the same results I've had for a couple of years. "Corky root rot", which affects other stuff as well.
All the vine plants, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, potatoes.
There is a post http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=24620 which hits the nail right on the head.
The two links should be followed http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/...s/tomcorky.htm and http://glvwg.ag.ohio-state.edu/docum...ufGLVWGTom.pdf they have changed my whole view on the wilt disease problem.
Now to find an answer.

[Elliot]

ChrisK, are any of your plants totally devasted like mine are?

[ChrisK]

They seemed to be but now they are putting out new growth. The final pic is of the bronzing on the stems (looks more purple in the light that was available)

Originally Posted by Elliot

ChrisK, are any of your plants totally devasted like mine are?

[Jeff23703]

I've pulled the majority of the affected plants. Their roots (especially for Chocolate Stripes which never produced) were surprisingly healthy looking. Some were the longest, thickest I've ever seen in this garden and made pulling them out a little difficult. Others were... so-so with a finer root ball.

Of those planted in the front (roughly 100ft away from the main group of plants), Big Rainbow is making a desperate attempt at recovering. It's still a bit discolored but is putting off new growth at the vine's end... similar to the pulled plants - as if they're racing to out-grow whatever it is affecting them. Carolina Gold has just a tiny bit of new growth at its base. Persimmon is no better off, perhaps a bit worse. A mature Black Krim, Tigerella, Bradley, and Purple Cherokee have finally started to show defoliation on lower parts but no bronzing. Fruit does seem to be stunted. Beefsteak is a little worse for wear, but just produced another half dozen ripe tomatoes... a bit smaller and less pleated than those a month ago.

The last batch of plants, 100ft away from the other locations, isn't doing so well. One plant, which I think was a rooted cutting of... perhaps Black Krim or Bradley, is producing in the shade and shows no signs of sickness that seems to be plaguing the nearby plants. Brandywine's leaves are yellowing. Big Rainbow lost most of its foliage and is stunted. The rest, except a cherry type, show either bronzing of loss of lower leaves, and all show signs of stunting. Granted, all of these are in part to dappled shade.

The only things consistent with the plants in all three locations are: fertilizer used (Dynamite Mater Magic), compost (unknown source of origin, possibly Nutri-Green compost as it smelled exactly as I would have expected such a product to smell), and possibly garden soil (typical Miracle Grow soil amendment).

Seems that something has attacked the cucumbers too. I thought that it might be mildew, so I treated, and now the vines are goners. Peppers have made a huge comeback everywhere. The eggplants next to the sick tomatoes were extremely vigorous this year.

Oh, and before I forget to mention it again, the sick tomato plants (that were pulled) had one very odd symptom that I've never noticed before. They completely lost that "tomato plant" smell after becoming sick. Cut a branch off, rub a leaf, shred the entire thing... no smell at all. Didn't have the "stickiness" either.

[HiPoha]

I have the same thing happening to my tomato plants right now. Seems like it happens overnight. I have Healani tomatoes that are supposed to be resistant to fusarium wilt . The only thing that I may have in common with most of you folks is that I use store bought soil mediums that come from the continental US. Compost soils from Home Depot, Miracle Grow Moisture Retaining, Supersoil, etc. The weather here suddenly turned hot and very humid too. Cucumbers are growing unusually well alongside the tomatoes and not affected .

[VC Scott]

Originally Posted by Jeff23703

After taking a peek at SunFreak's thread, I'm a bit curious. A new strain of Late Blight... That's scary.

..

Sunfreak's problem ended up being Tomato Russet Mites, not a new strain of Late Blight. I think Tomato Russet Mites could be part or your problem.

In the lower left corner of your picture bronzing2, I see a leaf that has a dark spot surrounded by a yellow halo. To me, that looks like Early Blight The picture leaf7 also looks like it could be Early Blight.

The variety of symptoms you have don't fit just one disease. It could be that you have two or three different things going on at the same time.

[Jeff23703]

I was afraid that it might be more than one disease. Until I can peg down what's causing it and where from, I think I'll be using earthtainers. Hopefully that will at least give me an extra month.

[happyseedplanter]

Are these tomato plants near a walnut tree? I had 30 tomato plants dry up and looked like they had not been watered over night but found out our neighbor had walnut trees which are toxic to tomato plants.

Try planting them in containers next year and see if it happens again.

[Jeff23703]

I'm not aware of any walnut trees nearby, but this is the first year that I've noticed what appear to be either unripe walnuts or camellia pods while raking. I do know that there's a hickory nut tree on the far side of the neighbor's yard that hasn't produced in several years. It's at least 100ft away from any tomato plants, and almost all of my tomatoes are planted under pine trees.

Will definitely use containers next year.

[Keger]

My guess was TSWV. I had many similar, got with Texas A&M here, and thats what they thought. B54, mine have done a lot of what you describe. What I am going to do is plant resistant varieties next spring and see if it matters, I just dont know enough, but the Aggies were pretty sure that was it.

[Elliot]

I am finding something very strange and interesting. The plants that partially survived the whatever that happened this summer are now rejuvinating in the Fall. It is cooler obviously. So, I am wondering how much of the probleme was "blite" or fungus and how much was caused by a reaction to the triple digit heat we had in July and August????

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Keger

My guess was TSWV. I had many similar, got with Texas A&M here, and thats what they thought. B54, mine have done a lot of what you describe. What I am going to do is plant resistant varieties next spring and see if it matters, I just dont know enough, but the Aggies were pretty sure that was it.

You may have had TSWV; but my problem was not TSWV. I have TSWV to one degree or another every year and this was a totally different condition.

I have only found one TSWV variety that is even edible to me but I haven't tried all of them. The one that had good flavor was Bella Rosa; but despite it's claim of strong fusarium resistance I have lost most of them to fusarium. Many of the heirlooms like Indian Stripe seem more resistant to fusarium than Bella Rosa. Bella produces heavily a very large red juicy fruit with good balanced flavor.

Whatever this disease was the varieties that showed the most resistance were Big Beef, Neves Azorean Red and KBX. Of course they could have just been lucky but they were scattered among the others and did eventually get whatever this stuff was. I only had one tomato that showed no symptoms and that was a strange tomato that came from my Indian Stripe seed that had red or pink fruit and was smaller than IS but far more vigorous.
I have grown it out one year and it is not stable yet but I will try again next year because it seems to be resistant to nearly everything except spider mites and whiteflies but even they didn't bother it very much. I set it out the first week of March and unless I spray it with Roundup I'm pretty sure it will still be alive until a hard freeze hits.

[Elliot]

Originally Posted by Keger

My guess was TSWV. I had many similar, got with Texas A&M here, and thats what they thought. B54, mine have done a lot of what you describe. What I am going to do is plant resistant varieties next spring and see if it matters, I just dont know enough, but the Aggies were pretty sure that was it.

TSWV -?

[Keger]

Originally Posted by b54red

You may have had TSWV; but my problem was not TSWV. I have TSWV to one degree or another every year and this was a totally different condition.

I have only found one TSWV variety that is even edible to me but I haven't tried all of them. The one that had good flavor was Bella Rosa; but despite it's claim of strong fusarium resistance I have lost most of them to fusarium. Many of the heirlooms like Indian Stripe seem more resistant to fusarium than Bella Rosa. Bella produces heavily a very large red juicy fruit with good balanced flavor.

Whatever this disease was the varieties that showed the most resistance were Big Beef, Neves Azorean Red and KBX. Of course they could have just been lucky but they were scattered among the others and did eventually get whatever this stuff was. I only had one tomato that showed no symptoms and that was a strange tomato that came from my Indian Stripe seed that had red or pink fruit and was smaller than IS but far more vigorous.
I have grown it out one year and it is not stable yet but I will try again next year because it seems to be resistant to nearly everything except spider mites and whiteflies but even they didn't bother it very much. I set it out the first week of March and unless I spray it with Roundup I'm pretty sure it will still be alive until a hard freeze hits.

I am kind of wondering, with all the seeds going everywhere, if maybe somehow more problems are getting everywhere that didnt used to be. I know that sounds crazy maybe, but I just wonder.

[Keger]

Spotted wilt virus.