Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (w/ Pix)

[barbamWY]

I have been dealing with this for three years. I keep pulling plants. I tried Spinosad last year and I think I was too late. I did plant two gardens since I have a large garden. My raised beds have been failures so I plowed up some barren ground and the tomatoes did better there. I can never see the thrips and would get the bronzing and poor production. I put out a sticky trap and had our extension office look at it.
Barb

[Gerardo]

I've found Spinosad ineffective as the sole control measure. If you use it as part of a rotation it helps significantly.

Unrefined Neem on everyone, abamectin on other trees and plants, flowers as traps, and soon to be added Novaluron + spinosad every 10 days.

Their cycle is 10 days, so you have to be diligent. Even then, they still win. I hope they leave you alone Barb. They can sure demoralize and somehow have a knack for attacking the sole, extra special seedling you've been itching to taste.

[peebee]

I'm glad I decided to finally look into this thread, after all these years. Now I know what my tomato plants I had to yank out had! The pics verified it, and the description of how it starts at the top, etc. I never saw this disease till this year, but it is also the first year I noticed a thrip-like bug lurking around. Didn't give it another thought. Now I know, once again thanks to this forum.

[Lee]

Future note to self....

Don't plant winter wheat as a cover crop for a tomato bed....
Apparently this is a good food source for thrips, and then they vector TSWV to your tomato plants even before they begin flowering.

The infection position has been somewhat variable with 5 plants replaced so far. I'm hoping the cycle is broken, and they are done infecting for the year.

Lee

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Lee

Future note to self....

Don't plant winter wheat as a cover crop for a tomato bed....
Apparently this is a good food source for thrips, and then they vector TSWV to your tomato plants even before they begin flowering.

The infection position has been somewhat variable with 5 plants replaced so far. I'm hoping the cycle is broken, and they are done infecting for the year.

Lee

Lee, that's the first time I've ever heard of planting winter wheat..
We had many acres of tomatoes on the farm where I was raised and after the first Fall heavy freeze my father and other farmers in the area would plow under the dead tomato plants,disc the fields just once and then holding a bowl of WINTER RYE seeds, scatter them over the fields and falling rains would put those seeds down a bit and there they would stay dormant until it got warmer in the Spring and sprouted and when those plants were about a foot high they were plowed under again and the fields prepared for planting out new tomato plants.

When my father was Dx with parkinson's disease a local farmer took over using our fields and he did the same with planting winter rye, and he did it at his place also, but behind the tractor he had this machine that spewed out seeds that covered 6 rows at a time.

Here is a link to suggested winter cover crops

https://www.google.com/search?q=wint...&bih=815&dpr=1

You will notice winter rye being mentioned a lot within several of those internal links.

Carolyn

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Lee, that's the first time I've ever heard of planting winter wheat..
We had many acres of tomatoes on the farm where I was raised and after the first Fall heavy freeze my father and other farmers in the area would plow under the dead tomato plants,disc the fields just once and then holding a bowl of WINTER RYE seeds, scatter them over the fields and falling rains would put those seeds down a bit and there they would stay dormant until it got warmer in the Spring and sprouted and when those plants were about a foot high they were plowed under again and the fields prepared for planting out new tomato plants.

When my father was Dx with parkinson's disease a local farmer took over using our fields and he did the same with planting winter rye, and he did it at his place also, but behind the tractor he had this machine that spewed out seeds that covered 6 rows at a time.

Here is a link to suggested winter cover crops

https://www.google.com/search?q=wint...&bih=815&dpr=1

You will notice winter rye being mentioned a lot within several of those internal links.

Carolyn

I discovered Hairy Vetch by accident. It was an extra included with cow manure along with many other extras which is why i don't use cow manure anymore.


Hairy Vetch is the perfect cover crop especially for no-till gardens.



Benefits are;


Nitrogen fixer


It is shallow rooted so it doesn't interfere with other crops like kale and collards. They grow together just fine.


The bees love it.


When the weather gets warm it dies and lays down naturally and provides a nice mulch.


It reseeds itself


The seeds will not germinate in warm weather so nothing to worry about there.


It is pretty to look at.


Anyway it is perfect cover crop for me, not sure if it hosts any insects or disease. It doesn't here.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

I discovered Hairy Vetch by accident. It was an extra included with cow manure along with many other extras which is why i don't use cow manure anymore.


Hairy Vetch is the perfect cover crop especially for no-till gardens.



Benefits are;


Nitrogen fixer


It is shallow rooted so it doesn't interfere with other crops like kale and collards. They grow together just fine.


The bees love it.


When the weather gets warm it dies and lays down naturally and provides a nice mulch.


It reseeds itself


The seeds will not germinate in warm weather so nothing to worry about there.


It is pretty to look at.


Anyway it is perfect cover crop for me, not sure if it hosts any insects or disease. It doesn't here.

And Hairy Vetch was also mentioned in the links I sent.

So true when you said it was a perfect cover crop for you where you are,since the best cover crops, depend on where someone lives and gardens,how many tomatoes they are growing, and all the variables that go with them.

Carolyn

[b54red]

I probably shouldn’t say this because it will likely result in a TSWV explosion. This is the first year in over 10 years when I have made it into June with only one case of TSWV. In the past May has always been the worst time for TSWV infection in my garden. I’ll be very pleasantly shocked if I don’t see more this year.

Bill

[Lee]

Originally Posted by b54red

I probably shouldn’t say this because it will likely result in a TSWV explosion. This is the first year in over 10 years when I have made it into June with only one case of TSWV. In the past May has always been the worst time for TSWV infection in my garden. I’ll be very pleasantly shocked if I don’t see more this year.

Bill

Bill,

Here's hoping you don't encounter any more infection this year!

[Rajun Gardener]

Has anyone tried Spectracide Immunox? It's supposed to control brown patch, powdery mildew, black spot, rust, blights, leaf spot, mold, scab and more.

http://www.spectracide.com/products/...r-gardens.aspx

[Gerardo]

Originally Posted by b54red

I probably shouldn’t say this because it will likely result in a TSWV explosion. This is the first year in over 10 years when I have made it into June with only one case of TSWV. In the past May has always been the worst time for TSWV infection in my garden. I’ll be very pleasantly shocked if I don’t see more this year.

Bill

Don't worry Bill, they're all here with me, and I'm laying my plants on the pyre all too often. I hope they don't decide to travel east for June-July.

I have 22 Bella Rossa, 5 Skyway, 4 Dixie Red, and 3 Mountain Merit ready to replace the fallen. Let's hope their testudo genetics can take the biting insect onslaught known as my garden.

I went heavy on the B. Rossa from your req and fusion_power's endorsement. I'm not expecting top notch flavor, I just want tomatoes.

And as you mentioned in an earlier post, I'm also seeing a mosaic of symptoms and disease severity. Some plants appear to limit the infection to one stem, some fight the senescence the best they can, and some can keep chugging along (albeit slower and with less vigor) and set tomatoes.

And also, they seem to stay away from darker leaf varieties and the natural purple ones.

I can only reduce the number of thrips present, eradication is impossible.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gerardo

Don't worry Bill, they're all here with me, and I'm laying my plants on the pyre all too often. I hope they don't decide to travel east for June-July.

I have 22 Bella Rossa, 5 Skyway, 4 Dixie Red, and 3 Mountain Merit ready to replace the fallen. Let's hope their testudo genetics can take the biting insect onslaught known as my garden.

I went heavy on the B. Rossa from your req and fusion_power's endorsement. I'm not expecting top notch flavor, I just want tomatoes.

And as you mentioned in an earlier post, I'm also seeing a mosaic of symptoms and disease severity. Some plants appear to limit the infection to one stem, some fight the senescence the best they can, and some can keep chugging along (albeit slower and with less vigor) and set tomatoes.

And also, they seem to stay away from darker leaf varieties and the natural purple ones.

I can only reduce the number of thrips present, eradication is impossible.

I knew I should have kept my big mouth shut. Found another tomato plant that I'm pretty sure has TSWV late in the afternoon. It, like the first plant infected with TSWV, was in the bed with my latest plants set out in the middle of May. It was very late in the day but you know how you see a plant that just isn't growing as well and then take a very close look. Despite it being near dark I'm pretty sure it is also infected and since it is nearly half the size of the other tomato plants set out that date. I'll find out for sure when the sun comes up this morning. This arthritis sure gets me up for an early but very slow start.

I was spraying Daconil in hopes of keeping the EB from getting to the new bed because it is starting to hit quite a bit of the foliage on the other two beds with the heavily producing plants when I noticed this plant looking a bit stunted. I'll be out clipping and pruning this morning if I can get my hands to cooperate. It was in the mid 90s yesterday and I spent what time I could outside fertilizing again. With this heat and humidity I don't think I'll see that abundant fruit set again this season so I'm encouraging them with some TTF. I need to get some more plants grafted but in this heat it is very hard to have much success; but I would like to set out some more plants by the middle of July if possible or even sooner if I can. I know that the abundant tomato harvest that is happening right now will end very soon and new plants almost always do better than the old ones at setting fruit in the heat.

Bill

[DocBrock]

Is this signs of TSWV? Appeared overnight on a Roma plant I have in a bucket. I applied Alaska fish fertilizer to the soil the day before I noticed the damaged leaves. Seemed like a ton of black flies showed up on the plant that day due to the stench. Not sure if they had anything to do with it. I haven't been seeing nearly as many thrips lately as I did earlier in the season.

[Gerardo]

Sure looks like it
Is is on other leaves? They can present as tiny spots, real subtle.
Is the plant on "pause" in terms of growth?

Your differential includes Septoria, so do a quick treatment for that, if it responds well then you're in luck.
Do you see wilting?
Does it have a lot of fruit set already?
When I see that I chop off the growing tips, and just wait out the fruit already set.

[DocBrock]

Originally Posted by Gerardo

Sure looks like it
Is is on other leaves? They can present as tiny spots, real subtle.
Is the plant on "pause" in terms of growth?

Your differential includes Septoria, so do a quick treatment for that, if it responds well then you're in luck.
Do you see wilting?
Does it have a lot of fruit set already?
When I see that I chop off the growing tips, and just wait out the fruit already set.

It's on several other leaves as well. Since I noticed it it's grown several inches, leaves aren't wilted, and on top of it...despite 90+ degree days and 80% humidity it just blossomed and set a few fruit. Overall the plant looks good, just some of the older leaves look that way. The one pictured was the worst I could find.