The inevitable march of disease

[nctomatoman]

Isn't it incredible how rapidly problems can come on when the weather gets really hot and the plants get big...?!

Tote board so far:

Giant Green Zebra - gone (tomato spotted wilt, replaced with another of the same variety)
Silvery Fir Tree (in a pot with sterile soil, pot bleached) - onset of Fusarium Wilt (blink of an eye - healthy one day, yellowing wilted foliage the next) (I seem to be incapable of growing a healthy specimen of this variety)
one of my Brandywine F3 selections - Tomato Spotted Wilt (again, healthy one day, blasted the next) - gotta pull it, no replacement to be had

Watching carefully - New Big Dwarf (possible onset of Fusarium), Sleepy (one branch with Fusarium).

New Big Dwarf also seems very susceptible to Fusarium here in Raleigh. Both it and Sleepy are in bleached pots with sterile potting mix. Though I could pull NBD if needed, I need to nurse Sleepy along to bear a few fruit to observe and save seeds from.

Who's Next?

[Lee]

Let's see....

first Grandfather Ashlock - TSWV
then Kristina Bulgarian #1- TSWV
then Brad's Black Heart - TSWV
then BW3 selection of Craig's - ???? some major wilt but not TSWV.

next on the list....
Cherokee Green looks similar to TSWV, but I'm getting
distinct yellowing. Bottom of plant looks fine...
Ernesto - Guessing TSWV. Will see tonight
Costoluto Genovese - Guessing TSWV. Will see tonight.


Would be a very depressing season so far if not for the fact
that I put in so many "foster" plants in other gardens.

In fact everyone that has died, has got a counterpart in
another part of the state, so I still may get to see/taste/save seeds from these varieities this year.

Lee

[Suze]

This thread is a prime example of why I hate to see folks generalize about how a variety can/will generally perform in their garden based on growing it one season.

Why? Because any variety can come down with disease.

My spring casualties this year included--

JD's Special C-Tex Black (I know, I know! Someone is sending me seeds; guess I'll get to try it out next year)

Mountain Princess -- never got to find out how well it could set in the heat. Plant came down with a particularly nasty case of bacterial spot and I decided to pull it.

Yoder's German Yellow -- See above. Let me know how it tastes...have seeds, will try again next year.

[jdwhitaker]

I feel ya, brother. Fusarium hit me hard this year, as well as virus (looked like curly top). Even some of the fusarium tolerant hybrids, Carnival in particular, were knocked out early.

I think spring lasted about two weeks this year--and the wind blew 30 mph that whole time. Since then it's been nothing but extreme heat. The forecast shows some lower temps for the next week (lower 90's), so I'm hoping for a situation like last year when spring was awful but summer wasn't too bad.

After setting out 30 plants, I have about 22 left, with about 15 of those looking really healthy. I'm not going to complain about the losses, but view it as extra room for fall planting. For some reason healthy new transplants seem to do well for me planted in mid-summer, having much less disease and insect problems than the spring garden.

Jason

[coronabarb]

jason, that was my experience last year. The earliest planted tomatoes went down, but the ones planted two months later did fine.

[shelleybean]

So far I've lost these to TSWV:

Chapman, Rasp Large Red, Germaid Red, Stump of the World, Aunt Gertie's Gold and Old Virginia. I'm getting really discouraged. I've picked a few Besser cherries so far and I'm beginning to think those are my only tomatoes I'll be able to eat this season.

[nctomatoman]

I am seeing a familiar pattern with Fusarium - a particular branch will be impacted, and when it really goes down, the remaining parts of the plant improve! That is what is happening with Silvery Fir Tree - part of the plant looks awful, other parts are OK to this point - though the other indicator of Fusarium is occuring - the plant is not drinking as much as it used to, because the plumbing is stuck!

[rsg2001]

I am experiencing various disease problems but only in my containers, most of which are 40-quart self-watering containers (I have a few smaller traditional pots watered the old fashioned way).

I'm particularly worried about the Black Cherry. Leaves on a few branches have browned up/dried out at the leaf at the end of the branch, and then moved up the leaves of the whole branch, where it seems to sever from the main stem. This happened to the same variety last year, but toward the end of the season, not this early in the season in the Northeast, and after I had already gotten a phenomenal yield. This one is in a self-watering container (where 2 were planted), but last year this variety succumbed to the same thing in a traditional planter, and in the ground. Other varieties did not experience this condition in my garden. It doesn't look like fusarium (which I've dealt with before) or verticillium, early or late blight, and there aren't lesions, and no specks or spots. It's almost like a giant version of Carolyn's aptly named CRUD. I use Serenade and Messenger, and this year I started using a foliar fish emulsion - I've only used it once so far - to supplement on nutrition. Any ideas?

In another container, I also think an Evergreen is showing signs of potassium deficiency with the veins starting to get purple. Hopefully the fish emulsion will help that.

All the plants that are in the ground are healthy so far, knock on wood. I had a good season last year, which was the first time I used the Messenger-Serenade combo, with only one container plant getting really sick right away (Aunt Gertie's Gold).

Please let me know if you have any thoughts.

Robbin