Help! Entire garden is dying

[ScottinAtlanta]

Just got back from two weeks away. My 18 tomatoes are wilting, leaves drying and entire branches drooping and falling off. They turn yellow, then die completely. What is this? Gray wilt? How can I treat it? There's still a lot of flowers on unaffected branches.

[b54red]

It sounds like fusarium wilt but I guess it could just he the heat and dry weather if they didn't get watered for two weeks. It has been really hot and dry the last few weeks.

[ScottinAtlanta]

My garden caretaker watered the plants - it isn't lack of water. Is there no cure for fusarium?

[b54red]

If it is fusarium you can usually tell by simply cutting of one of the branches down near the main stem that is starting to wilt and see if you see brown or dark yellow patches inside the stem. There is no cure for fusarium; but some plants can survive for a long time even after losing several main stems. Very hot dry weather can make the symptoms more obvious because of the plants inability to get enough water and nutrients transported up the stem.

How about posting some pictures of the whole plants so I can get a better look. That first picture could be anything. With fusarium you usually see a gradual yellowing from the base of a stem or even the whole plant that moves fairly rapidly up the stem until the whole thing just wilts. Sometimes it hits the whole plant at once. The larger and healthier plants seem to stave off dying much longer than young small plants that get it.

I hope it isn't fusarium because I have been dealing with it for 30 years and it is no fun; but you can still have very productive plants. They just tend to die much sooner than they would otherwise. Sometimes a plant will not get sick even when planted in fusarium infested soil. In my March planted bed all but one of the plants are already dead and gone, killed by fusarium but that one Andrew Raharts Jumbo Red is still green as grass.

I overcome my fusarium problem with sheer numbers. I put out a lot of plants and keep constant replacements ready to go out any time I lose a plant. I don't delay pulling young plants that show definite signs of fusarium but give larger plants that have fruit set a chance to continue growing if they can. I have dealt with the stuff for so long that I can usually spot the beginnings of fusarium before any yellowing or wilting takes place. Not an accomplishment that I am proud of.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Well, some good news. I cut several affected stems, and split them lengthwise. I did not find any black spots or discolored areas inside the stems, even under magnification.

It seems to me that it might be tomoto Pith Necrosis - the stems of affected plants are hollow, and there is in areas the ladder-like structures mentioned below.

Tomato Pith Necrosis

Tomato pith necrosis, caused by the soil-borne bacterium Pseudomonas corrugata, is a disease sometimes confused with bacterial canker. The bacterium is considered a weak pathogen on tomatoes growing too rapidly. Affected plants are randomly scattered in the field. Initial symptoms include yellowing of young leaves, which may progress into yellowing and wilting of the top part of the plant. Black streaking may be apparent on the main stem, which often splits. When the stem is cut open longitudinally the center of the stem (pith) will be hollow and often has a chambered (ladder-like) appearance (Figure 9). Profuse development of adventitious roots can be associated with the affected pith areas and the stem may appear swollen. Plants affected with pith necrosis do not exhibit the marginal necrosis of leaflets nor the bird's-eye spotting of the fruit characteristic of bacterial canker. Plants may die if the lower stem is affected, however, the disease usually does not progress, and plants will outgrow the condition. High nitrogen fertilization, cool night temperatures, high relative humidity, and plastic mulches all increase incidence and severity of pith necrosis. The disease frequently occurs when the first fruit set is close to mature green. Control requires avoiding excessive nitrogen rates.

[b54red]

As bad as that sounds it sure sounds better than fusarium. Good luck.

[sandrina2]

Whatever it is, I've got it too! However, it seems to be effecting only my Cherokee Purples --not my Camparis, Santa Sweets or Romas. They are all interplanted in one small garden, so there's plenty of opportunity for the disease to spread, but so far it hasn't. Leaf stalks wilt and then dry up; in other areas of the plant the flowers set fruit and then dry up. On the same plant, some leaves are fine, but the setting of fruit seems to be a problem with only one or two fruits developing into tomatoes before drying up.

[ScottinAtlanta]

For you experts, here are some closeups of some affected leaves. I still am not sure of my diagnosis. This disease is going from the bottom up, drying up leaves and then whole branches, which wither completely. The plants are still flowering at top, but losing more leaves and branches below.

[Heritage]

Scott,

It looks like you have a few things going on. The only diagnosis I'm positive of is the two bottom leaves on the left (with zigzag patterns) are leafminer.

It looks like several of the other leaves could be fusarium, or a blight, but I'll leave that diagnosis to those more familiar with those diseases, I'm not familiar enough with them.

The leaf below the upper-left leaf looks like possible spider mites (or Tomato Russet Mites) - you will have to look under the leaves with a 15X lens to make the diagnosis.

I would pick off any infected leaves and discard in trash. This is always good practice, no matter what the disease/pest.

If the leafminer gets worse I would try a sulfur dusting (when cool) and/or a spray containing 'spinosad'. Usually leafminer won't get bad enough to kill a tomato plant but it is possible. I don't think leafminer is the biggest problem here...

Also, If you haven't been spraying with Daconil you might consider it to control possible blights.

Good Luck!
Steve

[feldon30]

Left picture looks like Early Blight with the exception of the Leaf Miners as talked about in Heritage's post above. Right looks like Botrytus which I usually see on darks like Black Cherry.

It's late August. How much of your tomato crop have you harvested already?

[b54red]

I know what I would do. I would spray every plant with my recommended bleach solution. That will slow down or stop almost any foliage disease and if it is fusarium or some other systemic problem it won't affect it. Wait a day or so and see if a bunch of leaves rapidly dry up from the bleach and if they do then you probably had one or more non systemic problems. Of course you could also have a systemic disease along with fungal diseases. Then spray with Daconil. Make sure to do all spraying very late in the day near dark in this heat to avoid leaf burn or right at daylight if you can't spray in the evening.

Bleach solution:
Add 8 ounces Clorox brand regular strength bleach to a full gallon of water. Add a little dish washing soap. Spray with a fine mist.
Spray all parts of the foliage and the stems.
Never mix any other chemicals in with the solution and discard any left over. Wash your sprayer thoroughly.

If done according to directions most diseased leaves will die within 2 to 3 days. This will include leaves in which you don't even see the disease yet; but it will not bother healthy growth unless you use too strong a solution or spray when the sun is on the plants.