I pulled 6 of my 11 bigger plants. Now, one of the remaining 5 is showing symptoms. I'm not pulling any more plants. They may all have it. Symptoms don't show up for several weeks.
When I'm through harvesting tomatoes, I'll clear out all tomato and pepper plants. I don't want to leave anything that will serve as a host for the virus. Of course, that assumes this is actually TYLCV. It seems to be.
I won't plant any peppers or tomatoes this fall. For next year's spring season, I'll probably use some floating row cover or similar screen on my seedlings when they are outside during the daytime. I may also set up some yellow sticky traps proactively at plant-out.
I've planted some cantaloupe (muskmelon) seeds in the cages where I removed tomatoes. It will be interesting to see how they will work out planted this late and whether the cages work as trellises.
I planted some blackeye peas bought from the store in my currently unused 4x8 bed. High germination rate. I've read that Iron Clay (or Iron and Clay?) cowpeas are better for cover crops in the desert, but a bag of beans from the store is easier and cheaper. I do plan to buy some inoculant for next time I plant. Green beans in the same spot last year didn't have many root nodules.
On the plus side, my zucchini is growing as usual. And my little Sophie's Choice tomatoes are healthy and loaded with tomatoes. I counted over 50 set so far on 4 plants. Their leaves are rolled, but all I've grown have done that. It isn't a disease and doesn't seem to hurt anything.
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