Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (w/ Pix) - Page 8

flashback · January 11, 2010

Can the TSWV be past on from year to year in the soil? John

ssi912 · January 11, 2010

i am going to guess and say no. i think it could reside in infected plant debris though. i also believe plant to plant contact will not spread it either. i think it has to be spread by the sap of each plant. usually achieved by sap sucking insects. i have had plants planted close that did not catch it from their infected neighbors. i grow mostly heirlooms now, so they are not tswv immune. i had a bad infection last year. still got some tomatoes from infected plants. the symptoms have been different from year to year. the first time i got it, 4 years ago, it hit late in the season and affected fruit more than foliage. it hit last year and obliterated the new foliage. never saw signs on older foliage, just on the newest leaves. they never had a chance to fully open before i was seeing symptoms. did not affect tomatoes already on the plant, red or green. the plant did stop producing after the foliage was chewed to pieces. i left the stupice plant in the ground and after a month it started producing new disease free foliage, although the fruit started to come out looking stretched and not round, but unblemished. bear claw was never affected and grew into the largest plant i have ever grown. i dont think the plant was actually a bearclaw. the tomatoes didnt appear to resemble the ones on the pictures describing the variety. looked more like a variety called zapotec, very scalloped, very pink as well. i hope this helps. i hate that disease. it made my foliage appear to be shot with birdshot last year, and then they fell off the plant. i never got any wilt symptoms. maybe this cold weather will wipe out the bugs who spread it. i never had my plants tested. i just compared symptoms to other tswv symptoms online. seemed i had most the symptoms of the disease. there is a slight chance i am misdiagnosing. just my experience. i hope this helps other gardners. good luck in '010.

flashback · January 11, 2010

Thanks for the help. I have had it the last two years. Not thinking about TSWV, I kept a few plants from cuttings over the winter. I had forgot to keep any seed. All my plants ended up getting it.

I wanted to make sure that the soil would not pass it on this year.

John

b54red · June 10, 2010

Here are some pictures I took the other day of leaves showing early signs of TSWV infection. From left to right Costoluto Genovese, Golden Ponderosa, and Wes.
So far pulling infected plants has not stopped the spread though if I left them all in place it would probably be worse. The only thing that seems to slow it is regular spraying with a combination of things to kill the thrips every couple of days. The only problem is I can't keep up that spraying schedule and as soon as I go a week without spraying a couple of more infected plants show up. Don't let the benign nature of the first symptoms fool you; once the plant gets this stuff it is finished.
I have noticed one strange thing about TSWV; it hasn't hit but one tomato plant that has the dark colored leaves like BTD or NAR and that one was a Cowlick's Brandywine. I guess the thrips that carry the disease seem to like the plants with the paler or more yellowish colored foliage and preferably when they are loaded with small toms. Of course this could just be the luck of the draw.

huntoften · June 12, 2010

Out of 70+ plants...ONE had some thrips on it a couple of weeks ago. I killed them with Pyola, but it was too late. TSWV took over...I tried pruning, but it was no use. I pulled it today and may end up pulling the plants around it

Never had this before...sucks!!!

b54red · June 12, 2010

Don't pull the plants around it unless they are showing the symptoms. If they weren't bitten then they should be alright. It is just as likely to hit another plant somewhere else in the garden as the ones right next to it. It all depends on whether the plant was bitten by an insect carrying the disease.
I've also tried cutting the plants back at the first signs of the disease to no avail. It seems that by the time you see the symptoms it has already spread throughout the plant. The first time I noticed the thrips on a plant was about a week before the first symptoms appeared. They must not all carry the disease because there are several plants that were covered with them over a month ago and still have shown no symptoms.

**nctomatoman** · June 21, 2010

Man, things can go downhill literally overnight! I did a thorough watering this morning before work, and all of a sudden, quite a few dwarfs are looking troubled, possibly early onset of TSW....stay tuned, pictures at 8 (PM that is).....was depressing to see this, but c'est la vie!

huntoften · June 22, 2010

Waiting to hear the update...is it TSWV?

**nctomatoman** · June 22, 2010

Hmm...if it is, it is behaving differently than I've seen. I am holding my breath and seeing what develops....

rnewste · June 23, 2010

If all else fails and you are down to your last "Strike", have you considered using Permethrin? My understanding is that it is effective in controlling Thrips.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/pe...lon-p-445.html

Raybo

Timmah! · June 23, 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Hmm...if it is, it is behaving differently than I've seen. I am holding my breath and seeing what develops....

Could you post a couple pictures?

**nctomatoman** · June 23, 2010

Well, I am now thinking that I am having an outbreak of Bacterial Speck...lower foliage tends to get it, brown spots with yellow halos. New foliage is looking OK, so for the most part, moving away from TSW. Will post some pics at some point...

Timmah! · June 23, 2010

Excellent! Well, better than TSWV, anyway. The combination of Exel one day & Serenade & Actinovate a couple days later has stopped the speck & spot in it's tracks on my plants. =)

b54red · June 25, 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by rnewste

If all else fails and you are down to your last "Strike", have you considered using Permethrin? My understanding is that it is effective in controlling Thrips.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/pe...lon-p-445.html

Raybo

Raybo you are correct at least in my case. The biggest drawback to using the permethrin is, to keep the thrips away, it takes spraying about every three days. At the time I first was hit by TSWV I had over 100 plants and it takes a lot of effort to spray that often and you have to spray late in the evening in order not to kill bees. We frequently have thunderstorms in the afternoons and all it takes for the thrips to transfer the disease is a few days with no spraying. I've just resigned myself to a plant or two getting it every week or so.

The first month after I got the first case of TSWV I would immediately pull the infected plants as advised but after it hit my last Cowlicks and Wes I decided to keep them and keep them sprayed and have seen no increase in the number of plants getting TSWV even though those infected plants have been in the garden for a month. The Wes is looking pretty bad by now but the Cowlick's seems to be handling it better and is still setting some fruit. Of course I could walk out there this morning and see the whole plant wilted as some have done.

Another thing I have noticed since I quit pulling the infected plants right away is that some of them show remarkable ability to carry on once infected while others fade very fast. It seems that the heart varieties are more susceptible to TSWV's effects than the darker tomatoes. The plants that have been killed by TSWV in my garden so far are: Hege German Pink, Golden Ponderosa, Linnies Oxheart, Reif Red Heart, German Red Strawberry and two Wes. Of course this list will grow as the summer progresses.
I've tried spraying all my shrubs and trees that might be the source to no avail, so the sources of the thrips are probably on someone elses property. They probably just blow in on the wind and my garden must be in their path. I consider myself lucky that TSWV hasn't killed more of my plants. I talked to a guy a few weeks ago that has lost every single tomato plant this year to TSWV so he is giving up and going to the resistant varieties next year.

b54red · July 8, 2010

Since my last post on this subject I have watched a couple of Royal Hillbillies succumb to TSWV but they have had it for at least 3 weeks and finally after producing about 9 tomatoes apiece they bit the dust. The most remarkable is my Cowlicks which has put out a dozen tomatoes since getting sick and looks to put out a few more. My Wes has put out 5 tomatoes and has a few more on it. I have not pulled a plant with TSWV for a month now and have only had a few new cases. Actually the spread is much less than when I was pulling them immediately so next year I will only pull the very immature plants that get it and leave the big plants that have a lot of fruit on them.
I know this goes against the standard recommendation; but since I have seen no spread from the infected plants this year I think it is a risk worth taking. I sprayed the infected plants weekly with a Clorox solution and a few days later with a permethrin & soapy water spray to keep aphids and thrips to a minimum and it seems to have worked. Of course it could just be luck.

January 11, 2010	#107
ssi912 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: May 2009 Location: St. Simons Island, Ga. Posts: 83	tswv i am going to guess and say no. i think it could reside in infected plant debris though. i also believe plant to plant contact will not spread it either. i think it has to be spread by the sap of each plant. usually achieved by sap sucking insects. i have had plants planted close that did not catch it from their infected neighbors. i grow mostly heirlooms now, so they are not tswv immune. i had a bad infection last year. still got some tomatoes from infected plants. the symptoms have been different from year to year. the first time i got it, 4 years ago, it hit late in the season and affected fruit more than foliage. it hit last year and obliterated the new foliage. never saw signs on older foliage, just on the newest leaves. they never had a chance to fully open before i was seeing symptoms. did not affect tomatoes already on the plant, red or green. the plant did stop producing after the foliage was chewed to pieces. i left the stupice plant in the ground and after a month it started producing new disease free foliage, although the fruit started to come out looking stretched and not round, but unblemished. bear claw was never affected and grew into the largest plant i have ever grown. i dont think the plant was actually a bearclaw. the tomatoes didnt appear to resemble the ones on the pictures describing the variety. looked more like a variety called zapotec, very scalloped, very pink as well. i hope this helps. i hate that disease. it made my foliage appear to be shot with birdshot last year, and then they fell off the plant. i never got any wilt symptoms. maybe this cold weather will wipe out the bugs who spread it. i never had my plants tested. i just compared symptoms to other tswv symptoms online. seemed i had most the symptoms of the disease. there is a slight chance i am misdiagnosing. just my experience. i hope this helps other gardners. good luck in '010.

June 10, 2010	#109
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Here are some pictures I took the other day of leaves showing early signs of TSWV infection. From left to right Costoluto Genovese, Golden Ponderosa, and Wes. So far pulling infected plants has not stopped the spread though if I left them all in place it would probably be worse. The only thing that seems to slow it is regular spraying with a combination of things to kill the thrips every couple of days. The only problem is I can't keep up that spraying schedule and as soon as I go a week without spraying a couple of more infected plants show up. Don't let the benign nature of the first symptoms fool you; once the plant gets this stuff it is finished. I have noticed one strange thing about TSWV; it hasn't hit but one tomato plant that has the dark colored leaves like BTD or NAR and that one was a Cowlick's Brandywine. I guess the thrips that carry the disease seem to like the plants with the paler or more yellowish colored foliage and preferably when they are loaded with small toms. Of course this could just be the luck of the draw. Last edited by b54red; April 12, 2011 at 02:00 AM.

June 12, 2010	#110
huntoften Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Kansas CIty Posts: 560	Out of 70+ plants...ONE had some thrips on it a couple of weeks ago. I killed them with Pyola, but it was too late. TSWV took over...I tried pruning, but it was no use. I pulled it today and may end up pulling the plants around it Never had this before...sucks!!! __________________ Kansas City, Missouri Zone 5b/6a

June 21, 2010	#112
nctomatoman Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7 Posts: 10,385	Man, things can go downhill literally overnight! I did a thorough watering this morning before work, and all of a sudden, quite a few dwarfs are looking troubled, possibly early onset of TSW....stay tuned, pictures at 8 (PM that is).....was depressing to see this, but c'est la vie! __________________ Craig

June 22, 2010	#113
huntoften Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Kansas CIty Posts: 560	Waiting to hear the update...is it TSWV? __________________ Kansas City, Missouri Zone 5b/6a

January 11, 2010	#106
flashback Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 25	Can the TSWV be past on from year to year in the soil? John

January 11, 2010	#108
flashback Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 25	Thanks for the help. I have had it the last two years. Not thinking about TSWV, I kept a few plants from cuttings over the winter. I had forgot to keep any seed. All my plants ended up getting it. I wanted to make sure that the soil would not pass it on this year. John

June 12, 2010	#111
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Don't pull the plants around it unless they are showing the symptoms. If they weren't bitten then they should be alright. It is just as likely to hit another plant somewhere else in the garden as the ones right next to it. It all depends on whether the plant was bitten by an insect carrying the disease. I've also tried cutting the plants back at the first signs of the disease to no avail. It seems that by the time you see the symptoms it has already spread throughout the plant. The first time I noticed the thrips on a plant was about a week before the first symptoms appeared. They must not all carry the disease because there are several plants that were covered with them over a month ago and still have shown no symptoms.

June 22, 2010	#114
nctomatoman Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7 Posts: 10,385	Hmm...if it is, it is behaving differently than I've seen. I am holding my breath and seeing what develops.... __________________ Craig

June 23, 2010	#115
rnewste Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Campbell, CA Posts: 4,064	If all else fails and you are down to your last "Strike", have you considered using Permethrin? My understanding is that it is effective in controlling Thrips. http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/pe...lon-p-445.html Raybo

June 23, 2010	#117
nctomatoman Tomatoville® Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Hendersonville, NC zone 7 Posts: 10,385	Well, I am now thinking that I am having an outbreak of Bacterial Speck...lower foliage tends to get it, brown spots with yellow halos. New foliage is looking OK, so for the most part, moving away from TSW. Will post some pics at some point... __________________ Craig

June 23, 2010	#118
Timmah! Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Elizabethtown, Kentucky 6a Posts: 754	Excellent! Well, better than TSWV, anyway. The combination of Exel one day & Serenade & Actinovate a couple days later has stopped the speck & spot in it's tracks on my plants. =)

July 8, 2010	#120
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Since my last post on this subject I have watched a couple of Royal Hillbillies succumb to TSWV but they have had it for at least 3 weeks and finally after producing about 9 tomatoes apiece they bit the dust. The most remarkable is my Cowlicks which has put out a dozen tomatoes since getting sick and looks to put out a few more. My Wes has put out 5 tomatoes and has a few more on it. I have not pulled a plant with TSWV for a month now and have only had a few new cases. Actually the spread is much less than when I was pulling them immediately so next year I will only pull the very immature plants that get it and leave the big plants that have a lot of fruit on them. I know this goes against the standard recommendation; but since I have seen no spread from the infected plants this year I think it is a risk worth taking. I sprayed the infected plants weekly with a Clorox solution and a few days later with a permethrin & soapy water spray to keep aphids and thrips to a minimum and it seems to have worked. Of course it could just be luck.