Stem Discoloration

Garf · April 13, 2012

I accidently broke a stem on my tomato plant. Dose this look like a disease process?

b54red · April 14, 2012

It looks a lot like Fusarium wilt. I lose a lot of plants to it each year. It is a constant battle for me every tomato season. I try to keep some seedlings ready so they can be used as replacements for the many plants I lose to it. I have found a trick that seems to delay the onset of Fusarium wilt. When I pull up a plant that is infected with it I will treat that spot with a gallon or so of a dilute bleach solution then wait a day or so then replant in the same spot. Usually the plant will get a few extra weeks before getting the disease and sometimes it never does even though planted in an area where the soil is definitely infected with Fusarium. I fear that the extremely warm winter we had this year will make the problem worse than usual so I am already treating spots now before planting to see if it will help.

April 14, 2012	#2
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	It looks a lot like Fusarium wilt. I lose a lot of plants to it each year. It is a constant battle for me every tomato season. I try to keep some seedlings ready so they can be used as replacements for the many plants I lose to it. I have found a trick that seems to delay the onset of Fusarium wilt. When I pull up a plant that is infected with it I will treat that spot with a gallon or so of a dilute bleach solution then wait a day or so then replant in the same spot. Usually the plant will get a few extra weeks before getting the disease and sometimes it never does even though planted in an area where the soil is definitely infected with Fusarium. I fear that the extremely warm winter we had this year will make the problem worse than usual so I am already treating spots now before planting to see if it will help.