Calling Tucson/Southern Arizona Gardeners

[Tracydr]

Just did a close inspection. I really don't have much fruit set. I have the prettiest plants, ever and only Blush has a fruit cluster. Matt's and Sungold have one tiny fruit each.
Everything else appear to have dropped all the first set of blossoms but have a second beautiful set of trusses right now.
I'm not sure what happened?
I just hit everything with some fish emulsion and kelp on Thursday, hoping that will help. Got the shade up, too.

[flyingbrass]

I'm not 100% positive, but I think several of my plants have TYLCV (tomato yellow leaf curl virus). I noticed some whiteflies earlier in the season.

I've read that the virus first showed up here in the valley a few years ago.

I had been hoping the problem was a nutrient issue, or perhaps overwatering. I was also fearing the horse manure I applied may have been the cause. None of that explains why some plants are fine, while others have been developing this problem. They are planted in the same soil and watered the same.

I've tried letting the plants dry out more between waterings. That hasn't helped. Over the past weeks I've applied some blood meal, chicken crap fertilizer and even Miracle Gro to different affected plants. I've also foliar fed seaweed, epsom salt, and Miracle Gro. Nothing has had any effect. I really don't think it's a nutrient issue.

I pulled out that smallest plant today. 4-5 others are showing symptoms to varying degrees. If I pull them also, I'll be yanking half my plants. I'm debating whether to do that.

Any thoughts? Does this look like TYLCV to you?

[tuk50]

I was just reading about TYLCV spreading to the southwest and if this is what you have, controlling the white flies seems to be the key. It evidently doesn't remain in soil or spread by contact like others we deal with. Please keep us posted and thanks for the pics.

One site said when pulling plants to cover with large plastic bags and trap all the whiteflies that you can and cut the plant off at soil level, and leave the sack in the sun till all whiteflies are dead.

[flyingbrass]

The lighting wasn't very good when I took those pictures. I'll try to get some better ones before I pull the plants.

The virus was first found in the Phoenix valley in 2006. If my plants have it, I'm sure others around here do also. I'll have to read more about whiteflies. I wonder if our mild winter has played a role.

[Tracydr]

Toothbrush seems to be helping my pollination problems. It's a time consuming hassle but well worth it if I can get good fruit set before the heat sets in.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by flyingbrass

I'm not 100% positive, but I think several of my plants have TYLCV (tomato yellow leaf curl virus). I noticed some whiteflies earlier in the season.

I've read that the virus first showed up here in the valley a few years ago.

I had been hoping the problem was a nutrient issue, or perhaps overwatering. I was also fearing the horse manure I applied may have been the cause. None of that explains why some plants are fine, while others have been developing this problem. They are planted in the same soil and watered the same.

I've tried letting the plants dry out more between waterings. That hasn't helped. Over the past weeks I've applied some blood meal, chicken crap fertilizer and even Miracle Gro to different affected plants. I've also foliar fed seaweed, epsom salt, and Miracle Gro. Nothing has had any effect. I really don't think it's a nutrient issue.

I pulled out that smallest plant today. 4-5 others are showing symptoms to varying degrees. If I pull them also, I'll be yanking half my plants. I'm debating whether to do that.

Any thoughts? Does this look like TYLCV to you?

My mother's plants all looked exactly like that when we pulled them on Easter.
I had two last year as well. Mine didn't produce very well so I had my mother pull a
L of her's and we replaced them with new seedlings.
I'm sorry about that, it's a bad deal.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by tuk50

I was just reading about TYLCV spreading to the southwest and if this is what you have, controlling the white flies seems to be the key. It evidently doesn't remain in soil or spread by contact like others we deal with. Please keep us posted and thanks for the pics.

One site said when pulling plants to cover with large plastic bags and trap all the whiteflies that you can and cut the plant off at soil level, and leave the sack in the sun till all whiteflies are dead.

Mine and my mother's both seemed to occur after an aphid infestation. I wonder if it has another vector?

[Tracydr]

Well, I may not have much tomato fruit set but I have jalapeños and anaheims going crazy from overwintered plants! The jalapeño is almost 6 feet tall and loaded with peppers. Anaheim is a short little plant but I think it has more peppers than leaves.
I may get to put up some pepper jelly this spring, yummy!
Something is wrong with my habanero, though. I lost one and the other one has tiny leaves and fruits. Not sure what happened to it, maybe something going on with the roots? They were next to each other. The survivor got very yellow but that's gone away with some iron and organic fertilizer. But, the new leaves are abnormally small. It had tons of tiny fruit, too. Very strange. I was really hoping for habanero gold jelly. It's a favorite for my family.

[tuk50]

Tracydr, it seems only the silverleaf whitefly spreads it, but
beans, cotton and others are carriers of the disease .. this is a good site for info. http://www.infonet-biovision.org/default/ct/88/pests

only once in 30 years of gardening here in the Tucson area, where I live did a pepper plant survive the winter without protection and it was quite a suprise to me.. had never heard of such a thing.... LOL. It developed a woody bark on the main stem and made a ton of peppers that second year. Where I live now sometimes gets down into the teens in winter ....

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by tuk50

Tracydr, it seems only the silverleaf whitefly spreads it, but
beans, cotton and others are carriers of the disease .. this is a good site for info. http://www.infonet-biovision.org/default/ct/88/pests

only once in 30 years of gardening here in the Tucson area, where I live did a pepper plant survive the winter without protection and it was quite a suprise to me.. had never heard of such a thing.... LOL. It developed a woody bark on the main stem and made a ton of peppers that second year. Where I live now sometimes gets down into the teens in winter ....

My jalapeño is now 3 years old and a small tree. Quite a woody trunk! I keep them in a protected spot that's a little too hot in the summer but allows them to get through winter without needing protection except for in severe freezes. This jalapeño survived those three nights of low 20 degree weather, along with my two eggplants, 2years ago.
My eggplants are also trees and loaded with fruit. In fact, I need to make eggplant Parmesan or stir fry today!
Thanks for the link on that virus. I'm sure that's what my mom had. She probably just. Didn't notice a few whiteflies. I've had a low level of whiteflies on the peppers and eggplants this year but I don't live anywhere close to her. Mine were infected last year and I don't remember the whiteflies, just aphids, but who knows?

[desertlzbn]

Here are some pics of my plants so far this year. Have lots of fruit set so far far. hoping the weather stays cool for a while longer.




Dwarf plants

[desertlzbn]

I don't know why that they don't load upright

[tuk50]

with the cool nights here my maters are only about half the size of yours... they are just now beginning to bloom, so I may be able to get a good fruit set before the heat. I harvested all my garlic saturday and had one of the best crops ever. I grow a garlic that I got from a elderly farmer from Mexico, that sometimes sells his produce in a Las Cruces weekend market. It tastes great, but has a lot of misshapen cloves, so for the last few years I've been saving the best shape and largest ones for seed and this year I got 6 perfect bulbs for fall planting. Each bulb has a lot of cloves, so they will easily get me a 30ft row again.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by tuk50

with the cool nights here my maters are only about half the size of yours... they are just now beginning to bloom, so I may be able to get a good fruit set before the heat. I harvested all my garlic saturday and had one of the best crops ever. I grow a garlic that I got from a elderly farmer from Mexico, that sometimes sells his produce in a Las Cruces weekend market. It tastes great, but has a lot of misshapen cloves, so for the last few years I've been saving the best shape and largest ones for seed and this year I got 6 perfect bulbs for fall planting. Each bulb has a lot of cloves, so they will easily get me a 30ft row again.

I would love to try your garlic.
I tried Yong's Farmer's this year. Not sure what happened but I had terrible harvest. Might just plant some kind of soft neck this fall. I was really disappointed. Last time I planted garlic, they did fabulously.
Maybe the winter was too warm? I even had basil survive. We really had no serious freezes, at all.

[tuk50]

tracydr, pm me your address and I will send you a large bulb... this year I planted a 30ft row. starting in sep I dug it out about 12in deep, put in about a gallon volume of alfalfa pellets, about a cup of blood meal, about a cup of fish bone meal then covered with about 6in of composted horse manure.. then put the garden soil over all this so that there was about a 4 or 5 inch mound that I planted the cloves in about the middle of oct .. it was about a foot tall during the winter and I irrigated rarely.. early this spring I drenched it with a cup of liquid kelp, a cup of liquid fish, a cup of black jack molasses and a couple cups of the black liquid from my worm bin mixed in a 2 gallon water bucket to get it going in early march. this is the most fertilizer that I have ever used with garlic and it responded very well producing the largest bulbs ever for me with this variety.