Fusarium Wilt

[AlittleSalt]

Rockporter, I solarized last year from late July through mid September. It didn't work at all.

[AlittleSalt]

Pictures from the main garden. I'm going to quit calling it that.

[AlittleSalt]

In our onion bed is a tomato plant that is a volunteer. It's growing on a fence. I just measured it. It is 6' tall and 13' wide. It is growing around 7' away from another infected tomato plant in the garden. The onion bed is just outside of the garden. The picture doesn't show it well.

I planted 10 more cherry tomato plants in the onion beds the other day.

[b54red]

Onions, garlic and hot peppers all seem to repel RKN to some degree. I used to plant a row of onions between the two rows of tomatoes in each bed and it helped with the RKN but didn't do much if anything for the fusarium.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by b54red

Onions, garlic and hot peppers all seem to repel RKN to some degree. I used to plant a row of onions between the two rows of tomatoes in each bed and it helped with the RKN but didn't do much if anything for the fusarium.

Bill

Texas A&M agrees with you on the onions and garlic. I am going to let that volunteer grow for as long as it can and doesn't show signs of fusarium. The little tomatoes on it actually taste pretty sweet. (Not slang) I also want to pull it up to see if there is any RKN, but I'll be patient.

I have read that a plant with RKN will hasten the effects of Fusarium. I would imagine it is because RKN causes root abrasions.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

I have read that a plant with RKN will hasten the effects of Fusarium. I would imagine it is because RKN causes root abrasions.

Yep.

[b54red]

Another thing that fusarium and RKN increase in a plant is pests. Spider mites will quickly take over a plant suffering from either and aphids and whiteflies seem to like those slightly unhealthy plants before you even realize they are sick.

Bill

[AlittleSalt]

To me, the plants did not smell right. They smelled slightly sour. The tomatoes didn't taste right either.

[AlittleSalt]

Today is the day of pulling the Big Beef VFFNTA plants. To my knowledge, it has the third race of Fusarium. The pictures show that RKN didn't do these plants in.


Hmm, that third picture did not show up right... I'll try again. That's better pic 4

[ginger2778]

I don't see any fusarium. I do see a big root gall in the center.

[AlittleSalt]

Marsha, there was an even larger big root gall in the center on the second Big Beef plant (not pictured.) The Fusarium was very apparent.

What I find most strange is the hardest hit plants were Sweet Million VFN and Big Beef VFFNTA...why? I grew so many OPs that out produced them. I don't understand?

The wheelbarrow I used to move the plants started smelling awful. I washed it twice. I don't know what is going on, but it's time to move on.

I am at the point of wondering if I even like tomatoes anymore?

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Marsha, there was an even larger big root gall in the center on the second Big Beef plant (not pictured.) The Fusarium was very apparent.

What I find most strange is the hardest hit plants were Sweet Million VFN and Big Beef VFFNTA...why? I grew so many OPs that out produced them. I don't understand?

The wheelbarrow I used to move the plants started smelling awful. I washed it twice. I don't know what is going on, but it's time to move on.

I am at the point of wondering if I even like tomatoes anymore?

Robert, I am confused. You said in your caption, that nematodes didn't do these plants in, yes to fusarium, 3rd strain.
I see large root galls = nematodes, and your long cut shows no darkened vascular tissue, = no fusarium. Please fix my confusion.

[b54red]

Robert you obviously have that third race of fusarium. I too noticed that some of my OPs actually did better than Big Beef against that third race of fusarium or either they just lucked out and it didn't get to them. Eventually though almost all of my plants would end up dying of fusarium. I grew some Amelia and other super hybrids to see if the problem was that third race of fusarium and they all did fine if you call growing super market tomatoes an improvement. The taste of those tomatoes was just not up to the level of a hybrid like Big Beef or Bella Rosa and to me even those are only barely tolerable when compared to the better tasting heirlooms. Every time I would have an OP or heirloom survive for a long time or not even get fusarium one year I would plant more of that variety the next year. That seldom worked out too well but it did help a little but I often found that what had happened the previous year didn't hold true the next. I did find a cross from one of my Indian Stripe tomatoes that year after year produced longer than any other OP and the damage of both fusarium and RKN was much later in making that variety sick. I even used it as a root stock with better results than Big Beef as a rootstock but the plants would always end up with fusarium but not before having a decent crop mature. But once I found a couple of good true root stock I found the results just too good to ever use something that just helped. Why go to all the trouble of grafting if you aren't going to greatly increase the life expectancy of your tomatoes. The problem I ran into with using one of the FFF resistant hybrids for a root stock wasn't that it didn't help with fusarium but the resulting plants were such poor producers of fruit. Using the true FFF resistant root stock gave me both good production and plants that lived a long, long time. Before I did grafting I thought that a tomatoes normal life expectancy in the garden was usually not more than 3 or 4 months with the exceptional freak that would live longer.

Bill

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Robert, I am confused. You said in your caption, that nematodes didn't do these plants in, yes to fusarium, 3rd strain.
I see large root galls = nematodes, and your long cut shows no darkened vascular tissue, = no fusarium. Please fix my confusion.

I do see darkened vascular tissue in the fourth picture, as well as the yellow leaves in the first one.

He did say that the third picture (with no darkening) did not show up right and that he'd try again, then said the fourth picture was better. I'm guessing picture number three failed to show the darkening he was trying to capture.

[Hunt-Grow-Cook]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Marsha, there was an even larger big root gall in the center on the second Big Beef plant (not pictured.) The Fusarium was very apparent.

What I find most strange is the hardest hit plants were Sweet Million VFN and Big Beef VFFNTA...why? I grew so many OPs that out produced them. I don't understand?

The wheelbarrow I used to move the plants started smelling awful. I washed it twice. I don't know what is going on, but it's time to move on.

I am at the point of wondering if I even like tomatoes anymore?

Salt have you thought about growing in straw bales? You could tarp the ground or something to avoid direct soil contact with the bales. At lest for a year or so to let the soil rest. I'm having some good success this year growing some of the dwarfs and a few magila rosa in straw bales. If there's a will there is a way. As frustrating as tomato gardening can be at times I can help but think of the reasons I started doing it, it is worth it. If I can get around to it, Ill try to upload some pictures.