Well a new tomato season is underway after a very cold winter for south Alabama. Most of my citrus trees survived with a lot of wrapping and some heat lamps but they did need a lot of cutting back.
My grafting has gone far better than usual with near 90% success with most of the batches I have done and as a result I have far more plants than my garden could possibly hold. I have two beds going now with 14 plants in one and 32 in another. They are all attached to the stings now and so I am busy keeping the suckers removed and clipping them to the lines. Everything was looking great until last week when I saw my first 2023 plant with TSWV. It was so easy to spot I saw it from over 20 feet away. Even though I had gone over that bed two days before and seen no apparent problems on any of the plants and no bad bugs either. I'm constantly looking out for thrips in the blooms or anywhere on the plants. If I see any every tomato and pepper plant in my garden will receive a dose of Permethrin and soapy water in hopes of keeping them at bay.
I have already removed that sick plant from the garden and am now nervously awaiting the next shoe to drop. It is time to prune my second bed again as the plants are nearly two feet tall and sprouting suckers like weeds, so that is on the schedule for this week. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for a less exciting time with TSWV this year than I had last year.
I have got to get on the ball and get another bed ready for more tomatoes and my hot pepper plants which are ready to go out into the garden. I also need to graft some more plants just in case I may need them later like I did last season.
Tomato spotted wilt virus has become an annual problem around here the last 10 years or so. I'm sure all the commercial tomato growers around here have all gone to the varieties that are resistant to TSWV and TYLCV which is also getting worse. You just can't afford to relax and enjoy watching tomatoes grow down here because we have too many things that can cause catastrophic losses in a matter of a few weeks.
Bill
