Quote:
Originally Posted by LDiane
Except that the tomato plants I grew from seed and gave him, which are planted in the same bed, have not been affected.
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That can happen sometimes--drift will hit just a portion of plants. I had recent herbicide drift from my neighbor spraying her lawn that hit only two eggplants out of 9 plants, skipped over the bed next to it, and then affected one pepper plant in the corner of the following bed. Air currents are capricious.
Or it's possible that, unless he planted your tomatoes out exactly when he planted his out, the exposure happened in a time window when your plants were not out there.
Or perhaps he naturally favored the plants he nurtured from seed over yours and applied compost or something to them that he did not apply to your plants.
It's no more or less likely that a virus struck only his plants and not yours.
Some viruses are seedborne, but you say the seeds were saved from healthy plants.
If it's TMV, it could be from human handling. Does your brother smoke or use tobacco? Smokers/tobacco users sometimes transmit TMV via their hands from infected tobacco products. Maybe he handled his plants while he had the virus on him but didn't have the virus on him when he handled your plants.
At any rate, whether it's a virus or herbicide injury, the prognosis is equally poor for those plants. They will be stunted and produce badly, and what fruit they do produce will probably be deformed and unpalatable.