#*^# TSVW I'm afraid. Diagnosis help and any options?

[Dewayne mater]

I think I may be joining the parade of folks reporting what looks to be TSVW. Never had it before, but it think pics show it. If you would weigh in on the diagnosis, I would appreciate it. What you will see is all in earthtainers and several varieties of tomatoes all heirloom, except one sun gold. The potato leaf ones seem hardest hit. More pics to follow these 10.

I have pulled the damaged foliage since I shot these pics. I have been spraying with a combination of disease remedies including daconil, Serenade, Actinovate, Neem oil, seaweed liquid maxicrop, and excel LG. I had sprayed at about 2 week intervals (too little I guess) and when I noticed the disease 10 days ago or so, I have stepped it all up to about every other day. (too much maybe, but, desperate times)

I have not sprayed specific bug killers, though, Neem has often helped control most of my normal pests in the past. Two asides that I don't think are related, but I may as well mention. One, these plants all took a terrible beating in a major hail storm that was about 3 weeks ago now. Two, this year we seem to have a massive infestation of stink bugs, though I've not seen them on the tomatoes, they may be munching nocturnally and leaving by day...hard to say.

If you confirm that this is TSVW, I'm interested in trying any extreme measures to try to defeat this awful disease. If what I've got here is doomed, the season is cooked as we have hot weather at the door now. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Dewayne mater]

Here are a few more pics. Thanks for your time.

[rnewste]

Oh Dewayne,

I am so sorry for your predicament! On first review of the photos, when I saw the brown edges on the leaves, rolling inside themselves, and the purplish color of them, I thought: "fertilizer burn". But when I saw other photos of lesions on the stems - - something more serious is going on.

I have not personally experienced this type of disease - but it does look nasty. Hopefully, someone with identify with the photos you posted and give you a definitive answer.

Raybo

[Dewayne mater]

I got out this morning and unrolled some of the those curly leaves and saw what I believe to be some thrips. This is the first time I've seen them, but, that would certainly fit with TSVW. I sprayed with Rotonene Pyrethrin, not an enviro friendly option, but, I think my only option with other measures having failed. I believe I'll need to spray again in 5 days to get the newly hatched ones, right? So, possibly, I can get the insect situation under control. What about the plant damage? Do plants ever come back from TSVW? I've been giving them anti fungals and seaweed spray every other day (switching back and forth between them). I've removed what is clearly affected leaves. I guess we'll wait and see.

I'd still love to have your input on diagnosis, as I'm not sure about any of this. I've never seen thrips before and never seen TSVW, and I don't think the foliage is "classic TSVW" but, with the extremely rapid decline, I think that must be it.

[Lee]

I noticed some of your plants have fruit on them. Do you notice anything on
the fruit? TSWV will effect the fruit as well.
Also, the thrips should be on the flowers exclusively as they are attracted to
the yellow.
And unfortunately, once the plants are effected, they don't grow out of TSWV.....

lee

[nctomatoman]

Doesn't look like TSW to me - with that, the leaves turn a purplish brown (groupings of small blotches), but no browning of the edges. I am not a disease guru, but you have something else going on there.

[Dewayne mater]

Lee - so far the fruit are fine. I've only had a handful of sungold and a couple of black cherry reach the pick and eat stage...they looked normal and tasted delicious. The mid sized varieties (black and brown boar) are close, and the beefsteak varieties are still a ways away. So, maybe, just maybe, this is something less dastardly that TSVW. I plan to continue removing obviously diseased areas, spray for insects and spray a variety of anti fungals and beneficial stuff too (like liquid seaweed and actinovate).

I did consider that I could have a variety of problems working...certainly different plants are showing different issues. E.G. purple and rolling leaves in one plant (Ray mentioned possible fertilizer burn), other plants with leaves getting brown around the edges and eventually the whole leave dies, others turning yellow and looking like classic early blight.

It is strange and very humbling to have a year like this. It seems like I've done more things "right" than ever before and yet here I am, possibly on the brink of a total tomato meltdown! It has been a rough weather year with hail, late cold weather, and mostly day after day of huge wind. Already we are the low 90s to mid 70's type weather that typically portends wickedly hot weather is just around he corner. Thanks for all the insights, I hope they keep coming.

Dewayne Mater.

[RDUN]

Dewayne,

I can't help with the diagnosis, but my plants have a similar thing going on. Just in the last week it has gotten noticeably worse, especially on the PL varieties. Some leaves rapidly turn yellow and die, while others seem to just dry up and turn crispy, which I think I see in your pictures as well. Mine are also in self-watering containers. I have been spraying every other week with either Actinovate or Daconil, or a combination of both.

The frustrating thing is, my Father-in-Law, who lives 2 miles from me, has about 30 plants that he just stuck in the ground and doen't do much of anything to "help" them. I saw his plants on Saturday and they look completely healthy, aside from the fact that they are sprawled out all over the place and are soon to be a tangled jungle. But I didn't see any signs of whatever disease are affecting mine.

[Heritage]

I'm not familiar with earthtainers... how hot is it getting at the root zone? I have to watch my pot-grown tomatoes in the summer and make sure I shade the pots. Otherwise, I fry the feeder roots and get many of the symptoms you are showing.

Steve

[b54red]

I don't think that is TSWV; but those leaves are so far gone it is hard to tell. It looks like some type of chemical burning which could be from spraying or absorbed through the plant. As far as diseases go it looks more like Late Blight than TSWV. I have a young plant that has TSWV in its' early stages and can go out and take a photo or two for you to look at if that might help. TSWV usually starts on new growth looking like light flecks of rust on some of the leaves. The color of the flecks can range from very light reddish brown to almost a purple and it will usually show up on just one or two new growth stems to start with but then will quickly spread to more new growth stunting and wilting the plant. I had only two plants out of about 20 that got it last year that survived and made some decent fruit.

I have seen thrips biting the young tender stems and leaves as well as the flowers and they really prefer the plants with lighter colors over the dark leafed plants.

[Dewayne mater]

Heritage - that is an interesting thought. I haven't put up my bamboo shades yet that keep the sun off the tainers. It really has only been hot since this mother's day weekend, but, I don't know if the soil is getting hot or not. I will definitely incorporate shading the tainer base into my plan of attack. Thanks!

B54 - I've looked here and google images at TSVW until I'm cross eyed. What I've got isn't necessarily classic looking, which is why I posted. Still, I came across a lot of people saying it is difficult to diagnose by the leaves. (I suppose there is a way for a lab to definitively diagnose it. However, photos 402, 408, 413, 414 all have some purple in the leaves, which is one of the things that set off the alarm bells. So far, I have had some stems turn yellow, but not purple or brown. As for the bugs, they were a light tan color with an tiny and oblong body. If the pyrethrin doesn't get them, I'll try to get a picture of them.

Rdun - a neighbor has about 100 plants in the ground that look incredible. However, year after year I've seen his plants succomb to disease, etc and usually far before mine do. I think this is because I usually am A.R. about spraying and baby my plants whereas he just sticks them in the ground and provides water. Hope you get your situation under control.