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Old June 3, 2011   #46
sfmathews
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I pulled another pearson from a different bed. That bed wasn't infected, but it appears to be now. I now know that Pearson has no tolerance, as it was the first to be pulled when fusarium hit. I've also got a Tropic that needs to be pulled and a few others I can't recall at the moment. The Royal Hillbilly is still hanging tough. I will say that IS and BK are hanging in there and at this time show no signs of fusarium. Woot!
Unfortunately, the spider mites have made their appearance as well, since we have been in the upper 90's all week.
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Old June 5, 2011   #47
b54red
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Tomorrow I am going to fill up my ripening table on the porch with green and slightly blushing tomatoes because I'm going to pull a whole bunch of plants that are just totally wilted now. It is amazing what a week of temps of 100 and better can do to fusarium weakened plants especially when combined with a massive hit by gray mold. Of my oringinal march planted bed I don't believe I have but a couple of plants now that even look healthy. Some of my April and May plants also got hit by the gray mold and a few have fusarium pretty bad but most still look good despite the heat but I don't know how long this will continue. They are still talking about record temperatures again next week with only paltry chances of rain.

Oh well onward and upward. I now have the bed where the beans were, tilled and ready for some new tomato seedlings. With all of the tomato plants that I will be pulling up in the next couple of days I will have space for a bunch more. I think I'll try a few peppers in some of the spots because this heat is really not helping my existing bell peppers but the hot peppers seem to like it.

The heat and drought has already surpassed the worst of last summer and summer has just begun. If the summer continues like this it will be much harder than usual to have plants make it in mid summer and fall.
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Old June 7, 2011   #48
lakngulf
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Quote:
Originally Posted by b54red View Post
Tomorrow I am going to fill up my ripening table on the porch with green and slightly blushing tomatoes because I'm going to pull a whole bunch of plants that are just totally wilted now.

The heat and drought has already surpassed the worst of last summer and summer has just begun. If the summer continues like this it will be much harder than usual to have plants make it in mid summer and fall.
I am with you on both points, b54red. I already have a couple of large box tops full of green tomatoes, hopefully ripening in my green house. Three other plants have wilted so much that the fruit probably should be pulled as well, and the plants discarded.

When I went to the garden before work this morning to pull the fruit I decided to go with another idea. The vines had such good looking tomatoes that I wanted the plants to help ripen them if possible. BUT the leaves were so wilted that I thought the sun would cook the green tomatoes. So, I put some black nursery cloth over the tomato hoops to "shade" the green tomatoes. Who knows if it will work or not, but worth a try.

I feel for you with the wilt problems. I have had some beautiful tomatoes over the years but each year the wilting intensifies. I try to remove affected soil and bring in new topsoil but the results vary. Like you, though, I will keep trying.

p.s. what part of Alabama? Yes, it has been HOT
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Old June 7, 2011   #49
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Yeah, not much better up here. Temps are upper 90's and humid. Thank God no more fusa to report.
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Old June 8, 2011   #50
b54red
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lakngulf, I'm down here in the southeast part of the state. Best solution I have found is to plant a lot of plants and don't worry about trying to save the sick ones. Anytime I see fusarium wilt affecting a young plant with little or no fruit on it I just pull it and replace it as soon as possible. Older plants with good fruit set are a different problem. Once the wilt gets bad then sunscald is the big problem. I am doing a better job this year of getting the fruits that are of sufficient size off the plants and spread on a table on the porch to ripen. I still get too many with sunscald but I'm doing better than in the past and most are ripening nicely.

If you don't have room for a good number of plants then you should certainly add Big Beef to your planting list. Although not immune to fusarium it seems to do better than any other tomato that I have tried in producing despite fusarium. It is also a good plant for use as a replacement plant and to use as a fall plant because it has a fair chance of surviving the plant out in hot weather.
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Old June 8, 2011   #51
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Wondering if anyone has tried hot peppers to prevent fusarium - just came across this while searching for companion planting info

PEPPERS, HOT: Chili peppers have root exudates that prevent root rot and other Fusarium diseases. Plant anywhere you have these problems. While you should always plant chili peppers close together, providing shelter from the sun with other plants will help keep them from drying out and provide more humidity. Tomato plants, green peppers, and okra are good protection for them. Teas made from hot peppers can be useful as insect sprays. Hot peppers like to be grouped with cucumbers, eggplant, escarole, tomato, okra, Swiss chard and squash. Herbs to plant near them include: basils, oregano, parsley and rosemary. Never put them next to any beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts or fennel.

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Old June 8, 2011   #52
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Has anyone tried Root Guardian from Gardens Alive to prevent fusarium problems? I am having to start over with squash and cucumber and plan to use it for the first time.
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Old July 2, 2011   #53
b54red
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Gloria I used Root Sheild and Biotamax this year on all of my seedlings planted through April and have had no better results than using nothing. I did treat each hole in one bed with a bleach solution a day or two before planting and that bed has done better than any of the others. I am now treating each spot where I am planting with a bleach solution. I worried it would kill all of my wigglers but when I went out to plant in the spots I soaked with the dilute bleach solution I found plenty of wigglers. I guess the mild solution only drives them out for a little while or only bothers the ones that get drenched. Some of the spots that I am replanting in had plants die rather quickly from fusarium and I am hoping this will help. I'll post later to let you know.
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Old July 2, 2011   #54
Gloria
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b54red, thanks for your reply. Your approach is worth a shot and would be an interesting experiment. What bleach to water ratio did you use? I think that chlorine dissipates pretty quickly. I would like to try a bleached bed and then another bed that has been bleached and Root Shield or Root Guardian applied. It may be that bleach would wipe out fusarium and give the good guys a chance to take over. I'd like to know the strength of your bleach solution.
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Old July 2, 2011   #55
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I use a hose end sprayer that is adjustable and set it to 6 ounces to the gallon. I usually apply well over a gallon to each spot. Don't know yet whether it works or not.

I replanted a whole bed with this treatment; but I only applied it in the spots where I was going to place a tomato plant. I did not use it on the whole bed. It would take a huge amount of bleach to do this and it might do more harm than good. Since the bleach is so reactive my biggest worry is that I may get too many salts as a result of the bleach's chemical reactions to things in the soil.
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Old July 2, 2011   #56
Gloria
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I forgot about build up of salts and who knows what other interactions are going on. I do hope you will do some follow-ups and keep us posted.
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Old July 3, 2011   #57
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b4red. Sorry for the late response and sorry to hear about your Ashleigh and Barlow Jap biting the dust. Due to a change of residence, about 5 miles from where I use to live I have been totally involved in moving from the old house and renovating the new. Subsequently between February and 1 June that is all I did and go to work. I did get my surrogate garden planted and got about 8 plants going in containers which were set out late but we will see.
Later on this year I'm going to send you and Ray a product sold over the counter here that contains Azoxystrobin and let you give it a try next year. It's derived from mushrooms and the environmental impact is almost nil. Ami
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Old July 3, 2011   #58
b54red
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Thanks Ami, I'll try anything to lessen my fusarium. I should let you know that I have added about 6 tons of mushroom compost over the last few years to my beds. I had a source of fresh mushroom compost fresh from the grower for about 5 years and it did wonders for my soil building but did little if anything for the fusarium.
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Old July 19, 2011   #59
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b54 - Thanks for all the info on your Fusarium experience. It's helpful to understand how you're dealing with it down South. We're in the midst of a stretch of 95 degree weather and I'm seeing FW for the first time in several years.

If I understand correctly, you're adding undiluted bleach to the tank and mixing at the 6oz. rate - if I calculate right that's roughly a 5% solution. Just want to double check the numbers before I try it.

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Originally Posted by b54red View Post
I use a hose end sprayer that is adjustable and set it to 6 ounces to the gallon. I usually apply well over a gallon to each spot. Don't know yet whether it works or not.

I replanted a whole bed with this treatment; but I only applied it in the spots where I was going to place a tomato plant. I did not use it on the whole bed. It would take a huge amount of bleach to do this and it might do more harm than good. Since the bleach is so reactive my biggest worry is that I may get too many salts as a result of the bleach's chemical reactions to things in the soil.
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Old July 19, 2011   #60
b54red
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forty, the solution strength I mix depends upon the use. As a ground soak I use about 6 ounces to the gallon and apply at least a gallon or two to one spot so that it soaks down deep enough to at least retard the fusarium for a while. So far I have had far less incidence of fusarium in the treated spots. Maybe it is having some impact on the fusarium because I have not lost a fraction of the new plants set out in this heat that I usually lose. My guess is it will only delay the fusarium for a little while but that could be the difference in producing fruit or not.

When I use the bleach solution for spraying my plants to stop a fungus or disease of the foliage I take a full gallon of water and then add 7 to 8 ounces of regular strength Clorox bleach. I am afraid to use no name brands because of the lack of uniformity of their mixes. I always try to apply this late in the day when the sun is getting low. I make sure to hit all of the plant with a very fine mist and even the ground under it. It has been very helpful down here where diseases multiply and spread like wildfire due to the constant high humidity and the heat. Usually any very infected leaves will wither up and die within a few days of applying the bleach solution; but it has no residual effectiveness and you still need to spray a fungicide for prevention. We have been having frequent rains the last two weeks so I have been unable to keep a fungicide on the plants at all so I am just having to spray with the bleach when I can.
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