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Old May 20, 2011   #16
b54red
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The Ashleigh plant didn't make it and had to be pulled when it totally wilted while loaded with small fruit. I have about a half a dozen more that are really sick and it will be hit or miss whether I will get a single tomato off of any of them. I am pouring a gallon of dilute bleach solution in some of the spots where I pulled up fusarium ravaged plants and am already replanting in those spots. I guess I'll find out in a couple of months if that helps or not. I was really hoping the Root Sheild and BiotaMax would be more helpful.

Ami, Barlow Jap is not looking so good anymore with one whole stem wilting and yellowing half way up the plant and it will be a race to see if it can make any fruit in time or not. I have it planted in some other spots so we will see if it does better in those spots. It was one gorgeous plant two weeks ago; but then so were most of the others that are now sick or dead from fusarium.
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Old May 20, 2011   #17
BlackestKrim
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What varieties have you noticed as being particularly resistant to fusarium?

Also, if you save the seeds from the more resistance plants, generation after generation, and they seem to do better- make sure to save a lot of that seed and send it out! It looks like your cloud has a silver lining- your situation allows you to cook up more resistant varieties.

BTW, how long does fusarium typically stay in the soil, if one were to rotate crops out?
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Old May 21, 2011   #18
b54red
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Last year I had really good luck with Indian Stripe with a couple of the plants living in excess of 8 months. It is rare for me to have a plant live more than 3 months once it is planted in my garden soil. Even though most of the tomatoes I plant will die of fusarium I am looking for the few that can last well past the 3 months. Old Virginia did quite well as did Neves Azorean Red, Linnie's Oxheart, Kosovo, BTD Pink, Gary O' Sena, Mule Team, JD's Special C Tex, and of course Big Beef. All of these varieties got multiple plantings in different locations yet all were very productive even though many of them would eventually die of fusarium.

I have found some varieties that just seem to have absolutely no resistance. Coustralee, Green Zebra, Momotaro, Break O Day and Mrs Bensons are some of the most susceptible in my experience. I finally got to taste a Mrs. Bensons by growing it in a soiless container and absolutely loved it so I planted it again this year despite losing a half dozen last year without getting a single tomato. Of course it is now dying of fusarium but it does have one large tomato very low on the plant that may get mature enough to ripen. This is the first Mrs Benson's that has ever gone this long without totally wilting.

I try to save seed off of the healthiest plants but what looks healthy today can look pretty sick in only a few days. I don't discount a variety that dies when very young of fusarium because I don't beleive any very young plant that gets infected badly can survive. Even the toughest most resistant hybrids that get the disease when small will fail to grow and will eventually wither away. Frequently when a very large and healthy plant shows signs of fusarium it will manage to keep going. I still can't believe my Hungarian Heart is still setting fruit and growing despite being one of the first plants this year to show signs of fusarium. I cut off one of it's two main stems almost 3 weeks ago and it is still looking pretty good with a decent fruit set. Now if it can just hang on til most of them ripen.
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Old May 21, 2011   #19
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Well after a very hot day yesterday I went out this morning to check my plants and tie up a few and was shocked at the extent of the fusarium in my first two tomato beds. Between them they originally had 49 tomato plants set out between March 16 and 19. Now it is much easier to count the few plants that are showing little or no sign of fusarium. I have approximately a dozen that are still prime looking plants and about a dozen very sick plants and the rest somewhere in between. I should go ahead and pull some right now but they have some decent fruit and many are varieties I have not tried before so I will leave them as long as possible. To make myself feel better I pruned off all of the yellowing leaves and wilted stems that I could so when I look at them from a distance they look much better.
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Old May 21, 2011   #20
rnewste
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b54,

Man, that is too bad with all the work you put in to it every year.

As this condition will likely repeat again next year, have you considered ratcheting up the fungal spray countermeasure with Mancozeb?



Certainly, a "last resort" given the ingredients - - but it may be a product worthy of a risk analysis on your part.

Raybo
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Old May 21, 2011   #21
b54red
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I used to use it regularly but it really didn't help with fusarium and I found Daconil or Bravo better in preventing diseases. I have found that if early blight or some other foliage disease is getting a little out of hand that a simple spraying with a dilute bleach solution does the best job of ridding a plant of existing disease. I don't think anything really helps once a systemic disease gets in your plant. You just hope the plant is strong enough to resist it long enough to make some tomatoes.
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Old May 24, 2011   #22
panhandler
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I'm dealing with fusarium down here this year, even in containers. Or least I believe it to be fusarium. If it's not then it sure is a nasty foliage wilt problem. I never sprayed a drop of fungicide or pesticide on them. Kind of a crazy thing to do I guess, but I want to be challenged to grow beyond organic as possible.

I've lost 3 of 6 Brandywine Sudduth plants to this wilt. I replaced them with two Gary'o Sena and one Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye. I had to pull up my biggest and best looking plant in the garden. It had 13 developing Brandywine fruits and it went down hill over the course of a few days. It was the most painful gardening experience I've dealt with this year. The fruits on the remaining three BWSS are close enough to ripeness now I'm seeing them through regardless of their pitiful state. Definitely a challenging variety to grow organically in Florida.

About half my Cherokee Purple are looking great and productive and the first wave I set out are taking a beating. But some of the Cherokees are blushing and just about ready to pick soon. They are tough plants. I just hope it doesn't rain hard for a week ironically. They crack so easily and they're looking fine now because of the dryness. They're my "main cropper" this year.

I have two Green Zebras that are my healthiest and most fruitful plants. They have a Al's 5-1-1 mix modified with some Black Hen chicken poo compost, AZOMITE, and Dynamite Mater Magic substituted for the conventional CRF. Awesome plants. Handle disease like a champ so far.

Also got some later planted Djena Lee's Golden Girl, Eva Purple Ball, and Michael Pollan. They're still small and not quite at the flower/fruit phase. Hope they last into summer. Not my highest priority plants though.
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Old May 24, 2011   #23
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When we had a cooler week last week, it seemed to slow the fusarium down. Now that it warmed up over the weekend and is now hot and humid, the fusarium is really ramping up. Pulled a Mountain Princess Sunday. Sweet Tangerine is not looking so well. Neither is Royal Hillbilly. But I've gottten a few ripe fruit from them both. The RB is full of fruit right now, and the ST has some. With more hot, humid weather predicted this week, it will be a challenge to see if they can hang tough.
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Old May 24, 2011   #24
b54red
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I have a KBX that is just a big wilted yellow mess but it has some fruit about a quarter the size I got last year so I guess I'll be pulling it in the next day or so. My Red Siberian which looked terrible a week ago has come back a little since I cut two of the main stems off. My Shannon's is a deed duck with a few fruit hanging on the dying plant. I'm hoping my Barlow Jap and German Johnson can hang on a little longer. To add to my fusarium woes I found three more plants with TSWV and the Early Blight is starting to get bad despite frequent spraying. I guess I'll have to get out the big gun and spray them with a dilute bleach spray this afternoon or tomorrow. I'll start with the milder solution and if I have to I'll go to the stronger solution if the diseases persist. One really good thing about the bleach spray is the plants usually look a lot better a week later because most of the diseased foliage dries up and falls off leaving a much greener plant.

I have had one amazing occurrence. After five unsuccessful years of trying to grow Brandywine Sudduth's I have a large healthy plant with 15 fruit set. Now if the fusarium, blight and TSWV will leave it alone for a few more weeks I'll finally get to try eating one.
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Old May 24, 2011   #25
b54red
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Ami, we had temps in the mid 90's today and high winds and by the end of the day the Barlow Jap was history. I'll pick off the larger fruit and hope it will ripen. I have another one planted in another location and maybe it will have better luck.
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Old May 27, 2011   #26
b54red
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Here are some photos of some of the plants that will be heading to the trash pile soon.
The first is the KBX which is totally ruined by fusarium.
2nd is German Johnson which is near the end.
3rd is Barlow Jap which is in about the same shape.
4th is NAR which was one of the first to show symptoms but is still hanging on though I don't think it will last much longer.

The last 3 have all had one or more major stems cut off but the KBX had the wilt move up every stem at the same time. Sometimes removing one really wilting main stem near the base seems to slow the progression of the disease into the other stems.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg KBX - May 25 fusarium.jpg (221.8 KB, 147 views)
File Type: jpg German Johnson- May 25 fusarium.jpg (263.5 KB, 144 views)
File Type: jpg Barlow Jap- May 25 fusarium.jpg (208.2 KB, 134 views)
File Type: jpg NAR- May 25 fusarium.jpg (252.4 KB, 128 views)
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Old May 27, 2011   #27
organichris
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I have a Black Cherry that has its own space. In other words, there aren't any other plants near it. The other day a few branches wilted. I thought it was due to the high winds we were having, because not all the branches were affected.

This morning I'd say at least 25-30% of the plant had wilted and I noticed a browning creeping up from the base of the plant. I pruned all the wilted foliage.

Is this fusarium? Does this plant have any hope, or is it lost?
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Old May 27, 2011   #28
dipchip2000
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Chris

Since you have already removed most of the offending branches I would immediately spray with 6oz clorox to 1gallon water solution. It just might help save the plant and definitely will not hurt. I learned this from B54 and sometimes it works and others it will not but will definitely come back if you do nothing,
JMHO

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Old May 27, 2011   #29
organichris
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dipchip2000 View Post
Chris

Since you have already removed most of the offending branches I would immediately spray with 6oz clorox to 1gallon water solution. It just might help save the plant and definitely will not hurt. I learned this from B54 and sometimes it works and others it will not but will definitely come back if you do nothing,
JMHO

ron
I appreciate the advice, but honestly I'd rather lose the plant than spray it with bleach water. I'm a strictly no-chemical kind of guy. We'll see what happens.
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Old May 28, 2011   #30
b54red
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Chris, if it is fusarium the bleach spray will not save it; it will only work on foliage diseases that are not systemic. Fusarium is systemic and once it gets started you can only hope the plant is strong enough to resist it long enough to produce a decent crop. Sometimes cutting off one or two of the main stems near their base will slow the spread to the rest of the plant. The problem with this is it usually means removing a lot of tomatoes; but they will not grow larger anyway on a fusarium wilting stem.

I respect your desire to remain organic and I gave it a fierce try for two years with disastrous results. I have only found one truly effective organic product for pesticide use and that is Dipel. I have not found any that were effective for foliage diseases which will kill most tomatoes down here very rapidly due to our humidity and heat. On the other hand I have had great results with organic soil amendments and fertilizers.

The very mild bleach solution that I use is probably safer than almost any of the organic fungicides and with the added benefits of being cheap and effective. Within minutes of spraying it on the plant it will oxidize and be gone. It does its work very fast and the results are obvious within a day or two. I am experimenting this year with using it as a soil drench in spots where plants were destroyed by fusarium to see if it will slow the fusarium down long enough for a plant to be productive. This will affect my good and bad soil organisms in the spot where it is used. I have found that earthworms will move back into the spot within a few days so it doesn't seem to have a permanent affect on the spot; but that may mean its results may be too temporary to work on my fusarium problem.
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