Trying to diagnose my tomato problem

[lycomania]

Hi All,
I'm having a major yellowing leaves problems with some of my tomato plants. It doesn't look like a foliar disease, and I don't think it's vert or fus wilt, going by the symptoms, but I could be wrong. The last picture is a bisected stem.

I had one plant get one of the wilts, and it would wilt before the leaves started dying. That's not happening with these plants. They mostly yellow first, starting from the bottom. I've been growing tomatoes here for about 8 years or so, and I've never seen it.

It's spreading upwards quite quickly. Help please?!

[Labradors2]

I would remove the lower leaves that are yellowed/dead and give your plants some fertilizer. I think that's all they need.

Linda

[lycomania]

Thanks, Linda. I'll go out and do that + foliar so at least I can cross that part off the list. I'd be surprised, but wouldn't be the first time.

[lycomania]

Well, sad to report I'm pretty sure it is fusarium wilt after all. It seems this came out of the blue after never seeing it before. These were all grown from seed by me, from seeds that are at least six years old, that I have been growing all these years.

I didn't want to believe it, but there it is.

[Labradors2]

So sorry to hear that . Hoping that you can rotate your tomatoes next season or else dig out the soil where they grew and replace it. I had it once, on one plant, and replacing the soil did the trick, fortunately!

Linda

[Cole_Robbie]

Definitely keep that area free from grass and weeds after you pull the plants. I am not supposed to have fusarium overwinter in my climate, but I think it did on some johnson grass.

[b54red]

It sure looks like mine do when fusarium starts getting to the plant. I wouldn't think you would have it that far north but with tomatoes all the rules go out the window.
I have been living with that mess for all four decades of my gardening but had some relief the past few years because of grafting with triple fusarium resistant root stock but this year I have had a resurgence. I think it is just a bad batch of root stock seed.

Maybe a cold winter will knock it back out of your garden so you won't have to worry about it next season.

Bill

[lycomania]

Thanks everybody. Reading your insights takes some of the sting outl Linda, I hope digging out all of that soil is not in my future! I think I'll go for the lazy way out and pray for a cold winter.

I will be sure to keep that area clean and ready for deep-freezing. Or bleaching.

[Labradors2]

Hi Lycomania, Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting removing soil from the whole bed, just the area where the diseased plant was growing...... Just a thought for when the weather cools down a bit!

Linda

[LK2016]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Hi Lycomania, Just to be clear, I wasn't suggesting removing soil from the whole bed, just the area where the diseased plant was growing...... Just a thought for when the weather cools down a bit!

Linda

How big an area would you remove and replace, how wide and how deep?

I have sadly concluded that I have one spot in my little backyard garden that is a serial killer. Last year my Amazon Chocolate in that spot just up and died. It looked good, next thing I knew it quickly shriveled up and died.

It is a primo spot, lots of sun, what I thought was a nice fertile area. But this year, I put my ONE Pink Berkeley Tie Dye plant there, and it looked good until suddenly I realized it was not keeping up ... and now it is pathetic, tiny, shriveled, definitely dying.

In the first picture, taken July 12 2020, there is a Carbon to the left, and the next one to the right is the PBTD and both look fine.

In the second picture, taken yesterday August 4 2020 from a different angle, the PBTD is on the dying thing in the left, and the Carbon is on the right, looking big and healthy.

[Labradors2]

When I had a Stupice go down due to bacterial wilt one year, I simply shoveled out the soil where that plant had grown, probably an area of 2' square. I just visualized where the roots were, and excavated that chunk of soil and moved it to the flower bed. It might be worth a try. However, I would suggest that you don't plant an "important" tomato plant there next year just in case it doesn't work!

Linda

[LK2016]

Thanks, Linda, I am going to have to try that. Even after adding more soil, though maybe I'll try to grow something else (not a tomato) first. It feels like the executioner's block.

[b54red]

Before I started using my current root stock which has fairly good resistance to Bacterial wilt, I used to pour a gallon or so of a 10% solution of bleach in the soil where the plant was removed. Of course I had to wait a week or two before replanting in the spot but I never had a problem with the follow up plant getting Bacterial wilt. It was a much easier solution than digging out the dirt and replacing it and it worked for me.

Bill

[Labradors2]

What a great idea Bill .

Linda

[LK2016]

Originally Posted by b54red

Before I started using my current root stock which has fairly good resistance to Bacterial wilt, I used to pour a gallon or so of a 10% solution of bleach in the soil where the plant was removed. Of course I had to wait a week or two before replanting in the spot but I never had a problem with the follow up plant getting Bacterial wilt. It was a much easier solution than digging out the dirt and replacing it and it worked for me.

Bill

You know, I was wondering about this ... I don't think it would hurt to try it, so I think I will give it a go! Thank you!