What is wrong ? Big green plants wilted suddenly

[b54red]

A close friend of mine lost 3 plants recently to bacterial wilt. He treated the spots with dilute bleach so he could plant back in the same spot again. I had a few extra grafts so he came by a while ago and picked up some to replace the ones he lost.

Knock on wood, I haven't had any plants hit by it this year.

Bill

[MikeInCypress]

Bill,
How did you dilute the bleach? One cup to one gallon or what? Thanks.

Mike in Cypress

[b54red]

Originally Posted by MikeInCypress

Bill,
How did you dilute the bleach? One cup to one gallon or what? Thanks.

Mike in Cypress

With the old 6% bleach one cup to the gallon is good. With the new 8% bleach you can use just 3/4 of a cup to the gallon.

Bill

[newgardener_tx]

Thank you for posting the container mix and detailed information and even the store / brand. It makes easy for me to copy!
Also thanks for the idea of ironite, dilute bleach. All these information will help me for next season. My hillybilly is getting hit by the bacterial wilt this weekend. I cut off half of the branches.
On the other side my green beans are growing very well, 7-8 inches long, I will post pics later. If you are interested I can share seeds with you.

[Dewayne mater]

Bill:

I know you experimented to come up with the recommended "dosage" of bleach. What was your experience if you went a little weaker on the bleach concentration? I'm wondering if the bleach was a little strong and caused some leaf burn on some healthy leaves, but, obviously, I want to it be strong enough to knock out gray mold, as it is capable of mass destruction in a hurry. Thanks.

DM

[newgardener_tx]

Pulled out several plants tonight, down from well established 50 plants to 20 plants in the ground and 25 to 7 plants in the pot. The disease spreads fast. I have good harvest of cherries but going down.All plants were as healthy as Kellog Breakfast in Pic4, Within a couple days, the leaves turned yellow, wilted, half plants were done then the whole plants. All my other veggies are good though especially green beans. Each bean is about 8-9 inches long with 9 pods. The name of the bean is Dragon Bean, hybrid.

Pic 1: Big beef in dying
Pic 2: Big beef three weeks ago
Pic 3: Sungold in dying
Pic 4: Healthy KB
Pic 5: Green Beans
Pic 6: Harvest, green beans 8 inches long

[SuperSteak]

Sorry to read about your problems with this.

I am having the same trouble the past two years. I lost four Supersteak and 2 Delicious last year, but so far this year the pace has accelerated.
So far I have had to pull 12 plants out of 80 and things don't look good now.
People have advised not to plant in the same spot year after year, but in my case moving the garden is not an option, since Mrs. Supersteak will not allow me to till up the entire yard.

I was interested in the bleach treatment the Bill described.
Is the solution applied as a drench?

I plant in rows with the plants about 3 feet apart, with a total of about 250 feet of rows to treat.

I sure wish I could get my hands on some methyl bromide as in (many) years ago.
I would burn those bacteria a new one....

[Starla]

I've had the problem in a portion of a bed, and laid heavy black plastic over the area for a season. The row next to it was not in the tomato family, beans I think. While I lost a season in that part of the bed, and I'm sure the worms moved out, the problem was resolved and did not spread any further. The worms came back and we're good to go.

[Starla]

One more thing that just came to mind, though it is totally unrelated to bacterial wilt. Just a reminder that may help someone along the way....my neighbor has a black walnut tree. He cannot grow tomatoes and a few other things. And I have to watch what leaves get composted in the fall, not to mention the black walnut husks that get picked up with the mower. My neighbor's tomatoes looked just like yours. Beautiful one day, crap the next. Like they had never been watered. Just a side note.

[peekers]

I've had problems with bacterial wilt for years. There is no chemical solution. Solarization is not effective long term. This year it took out all of my black beauty eggplant but luckily the antigua eggplant look to have resistance.

For tomatoes I have been grafting with DP seeds RST-106 rootstock. This rootstock is rated as "complete resistance" to BW. I have lost one plant out of 33 plants this year and none last year.

You will need to prune with this rootstock as it is very vigorous.

[clkeiper]

The pepper plant looks as if the plant had aphids at one point. That is similar to what my peppers look like if they get an infestation in the greenhouse in the late winter if I don't keep a vigilant eye on them.

[SuperSteak]

Thanks peekers.....that is what I was afraid of.
Looks like grafting is going to be a big part of my gardening future if I want tomatoes.
My eggplant ( white star ) have not been affected, nor have any of my peppers.
I'll try the rootstock you are having success with.
I live in eastern NC also.

[peekers]

Don't despair, though i understand, one year BW wiped out all 70 of my tomato plants. I researched everything about BW , tried bio-fumigation with mustard plants, solarization, chemical treatment, I'm a Chemical Engineer so a bit of knowledge in that area, but no success. This graft is a godsend for me, and as I graft for many friends and neighbors, many in eastern NC who have given up trying to grow tomatoes. I get my seeds from neseed.com. I trialed the 105 and the 106 and the 106 was much the best. Happy to share any info.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by peekers

Don't despair, though i understand, one year BW wiped out all 70 of my tomato plants. I researched everything about BW , tried bio-fumigation with mustard plants, solarization, chemical treatment, I'm a Chemical Engineer so a bit of knowledge in that area, but no success. This graft is a godsend for me, and as I graft for many friends and neighbors, many in eastern NC who have given up trying to grow tomatoes. I get my seeds from neseed.com. I trialed the 105 and the 106 and the 106 was much the best. Happy to share any info.

Grafting has been a lifesaver for me also but my problem has been fusarium wilt and I have all three races of it in my soil. I used to be able to grow hybrids like Big Beef til a few years ago when even the hybrids with resistance to two races of fusarium started getting it. Last year I used Big Beef and another tough hybrid with F2 resistance as a rootstock on some of my grafts and every one of the grafts with those rootstock got fusarium wilt and died from it. None of my plants which used rootstock with F3 resistance got fusarium so this year that is all I used for rootstock. I don't know if any of my rootstock are resistant to BW because I gave a bunch of plants to a friend who has already lost nine to BW. The rootstock I used are Multifort, Amelia, BHN 640, Charger, Crista, Red Mountain and Tasti-Lee.

Bill

[peekers]

Mr. Bill,

I don't believe any of those determinate varieties that you are using as rootstock have published BW resistance. A friend of mine did grow amelia in her BW infested soil with moderate success. As you know all the rootstocks you are using have very good disease resistance, particularly to the 3 races of fusarium that you battle.

I tried the determinate Neptune (OP) one year as a rootstock. It does have good BW resistance. The RST-106 was so much more vigorous I switched to it. Of course there are drawbacks. My trellis is 125" tall. I have been reading your lowering posts and pics intently because I have about another week before they'll hit the top. Worried about the scion laying on the mulch and rooting thus being exposed to BW, but raising the trellis any higher is impractical.

Kevin