Disease ID help...possible Timber Rot or Bacterial Canker???

[lillivewire87]

I have been pretty lucky this year and in years previous that I really haven't had to deal with disease beyond some BER... I just returned from a week of vacation and one of my plants (Green Zebra) has an issue...I am leaning towards Timber Rot or maybe a Canker of some kind, but I am just not sure. I do not have pictures right now. Will try to take some when I get home from work tonight.

Symtoms:
*Hollow stems on leaves
*Dark Brown line at leaf "joints" where they meet the main stem
*Main stem appears to have some raised bumps that are a lighter greeny/white color

(Note: Prior to leaving for vacation the plant itself appeared ok, but several unripe fruits appeared to have some BER...I removed those and gave it a dose of liquid kelp and liquid mineral fert before I left)

I didn't have time when I got home last night to do more than look at the stems...My other plants appear to be ok. We do have a ton of wildfires in the area right now that have made a very smoke infested atmosphere right now. Our air quality is currently rated as "Unhealthy"..don't know if that might have had something to do with it.

All my plants are in containers and my MIL watered for me while away....with instructions to water until she could see water coming out the bottom and then stop. I don't see any wilt issues...so I don't think it is a watering issue, but you never know.

Any thoughts on what it might be?
If it is what I think it is...or even if it is something else....any chance of my fruit being ok, or should I just pull the plant?

Oregon zone 8b

[Starlight]

Try and get a pic. Then folks will be better able to help you. The raised bumps could be where the plant is trying to make new roots to save itself.

[lillivewire87]

[Lorri D]

I am so sorry about your tomatoes. I am not familiar with either of those, but one quick thing that could help you since you think it may be bacterial. You can perform this test on your own. Just cut a chunk of stem and float it in a clear glass. This is a bacterial streaming test. All it will tell you is if it is bacterial or not. If you get white milk streams coming out of the bottom of the stem in the water, it is a bacterial infection. I did this with an ODA field agent just a couple weeks ago.

[Lorri D]

I think I like the technique of the guy who use the knife to hold up the tomato stem most. lol

[ReginaAnn]

Lorri D, great information. How long did it take to see the results?

Thanks

[Lorri D]

It should be fast. Right away if the infection is bad and up to an hour is what I was told. We waited an hour and our test was negative.

We took tissue cultures, we meaning me and them. The ODA and my samples both came back positive for Fusarium, so ours was fungal and not bacterial. You can see the tell tale purpling around the cultures which is common with Fusarium. I can't take pictures of the fruiting bodies under a microscope. My microscope camera won't work with my Mac, which I hate.

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by lillivewire87

I have been pretty lucky this year and in years previous that I really haven't had to deal with disease beyond some BER... I just returned from a week of vacation and one of my plants (Green Zebra) has an issue...I am leaning towards Timber Rot or maybe a Canker of some kind, but I am just not sure. I do not have pictures right now. Will try to take some when I get home from work tonight.

Symtoms:
*Hollow stems on leaves
*Dark Brown line at leaf "joints" where they meet the main stem
*Main stem appears to have some raised bumps that are a lighter greeny/white color

(Note: Prior to leaving for vacation the plant itself appeared ok, but several unripe fruits appeared to have some BER...I removed those and gave it a dose of liquid kelp and liquid mineral fert before I left)

I didn't have time when I got home last night to do more than look at the stems...My other plants appear to be ok. We do have a ton of wildfires in the area right now that have made a very smoke infested atmosphere right now. Our air quality is currently rated as "Unhealthy"..don't know if that might have had something to do with it.

All my plants are in containers and my MIL watered for me while away....with instructions to water until she could see water coming out the bottom and then stop. I don't see any wilt issues...so I don't think it is a watering issue, but you never know.

Any thoughts on what it might be?
If it is what I think it is...or even if it is something else....any chance of my fruit being ok, or should I just pull the plant?

Oregon zone 8b

Just saw this but I think it is Bacterial Stem Rot.You should cut the affected stems off and as long as it doesn't get in the main stem you should be ok.I had it this year for the first time, caused by a lot of rain and funky weather I think.I saved 2 plants and lost 1.If it's not Stem Rot then the only other thing it could be is Canker.I wouldn't pull the plant

[seaeagle]

And I looked to see if I saved the link and I did but it has been retired, unfortunately since it was the best one I found.If you look there you might be able to find it

http://aces.illinois.edu/retiredsite/


Anyway from what I remember it said the bacteria enters through any open wound in the plant such as pruning, broken branch, rubbing on string you use to tie the plant up, etc.

Might be a good idea to stop pruning for a while if you are and if you do prune, leave about 2 inches of the sucker stem instead of cutting it close to the main stem.

The disease doesn't hang around too long, at least mine didn't