New fusarium wilt experiment

[ArthurDent004]

I was looking at a neighbor's garden today and it looks like his tomatoes, eggplants, and sweet peas have fusarium wilt. Some of the leaves are yellow, while others have dried up and fallen off the plants. I'll mention some of the information I've read in your thread and hope it helps.

[lycoperson]

Bill, if you could post a picture of the inside of an infected stem, that would be interesting to see. Maybe it will give you some solace that you are educating others!

Glad to hear the known resistant rootstocks are resisting.

Paul

Originally Posted by b54red

I haven't pulled any plants because of fusarium yet. I did cut off a major stem that wilted and confirmed fusarium. Actually as bad as the inside of that stem looked I'm surprised it didn't wilt weeks ago.

Bill

[b54red]

Paul I haven't been able to do anything in the garden for a few days due to drizzly rain. I will be pulling that Brandywine as soon as it is dry enough to go out there. I tried to check my tomatoes today and got soaked by the rain and wet branches on those big plants. I'll try to get some pictures of a cut stem to post when I can.

Bill

[lycoperson]

Sounds good. Stay dry, and send some rain to the southwest!

[b54red]

I now know that three of the rootstock I am using are moderately helping with fusarium and two others are much more resistant. I will not know on Amelia and Multifort for some time yet as they were very late in going into the garden. The fluke rootstock is showing fusarium signs with nearly half the plants that I used it on but they have almost all had ripe fruit already picked off of them and only one didn't make it to that stage and died before the fruit got to full size. Both of the plants with the Big Beef rootstock are showing fusarium symptoms but both have made it to the picking stage. Two out of four of the plants with Ball's Beefsteak rootstock are showing fusarium symptoms. Grafts with Floralina are doing better with only a couple showing any signs of fusarium at all. Tasti-Lee may be doing the best because so far I haven't found a graft with it as the rootstock showing any signs of fusarium. Both Tasti-Lee and Floralina are supposed to be resistant to all three races of fusarium while Big Beef and Balls Beefsteak are resistant to two races of fusarium. The fluke tomato that I used as a rootstock seems to be the equivalent in resistance to a hybrid resistant to two races of fusarium but the grafts with it are the most vigorous of the five.

I am disappointed that I am now seeing so much fusarium; but not at all surprised. The fact that out of over 50 plants only one has died before reaching the ripe fruit stage is a testament to the efficacy of using the grafted plants. I have never even come close to that kind of survival rate in my garden even when I only planted hybrids. I have picked fruit for several varieties this year that I have been unable to grow at all in the past despite trying over and over again year after year.

I am going to go ahead and say that the experiment is a success in at least holding off the fusarium long enough to make my tomatoes far more productive. Due to the constraints of grafting I was only able to set out half the number of plants that I usually set out and yet I have picked twice as much fruit and have far more live healthy plants at this time. Despite having lost one plant to fusarium and I have a couple more that won't last much longer in this heat, I am overjoyed at the results. I can't wait to see how the Amelia and Multifort perform because they are resistant to all three races of fusarium and should give me a level of protection similar to the Tast-Lee but with a more vigorous rootstock.

I want to thank everyone who told me about grafting and for encouraging me to try it. I should not have waited so long but it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks; but this old dog has definitely learned a new trick. I feel like I did when I found out how well the bleach spray worked when I finally got the right formula figured out. Now if I can just get a little better at grafting I won't need to set out so many plants in order to get a decent crop and the days of replanting every week during the summer may be over. I will still stagger my plantings through the season because it helps me have fresh tomatoes for a much longer time. Foliage diseases and bugs are a constant down here that I have learned to live with but that dang fusarium was really starting to get to me.

Bill

[z_willus_d]

Hi Bill, I'm enjoying following your season. Did you ever get a chance to capture a photograph of the inside of the stem of that BW Sudduth's that went down to F recently? I'd love to see how it looked for you.
Thanks,
Naysen

[b54red]

Naysen, I didn't get a picture because by the time the rains let up the plant was totally dead. I've got several more that will have to have full stems cut off in the next day or two and I'll try to get a picture. I don't know how well my old 5 megapixel point and shoot will do with trying to get a good close-up but I'll try.

I went out this morning and did some more bleach spraying after the rain and found two whole trusses that had just broken off the plants and they were both full of big green tomatoes. One was from a Kosovo and the other I think came off a German Johnson. The storm last night must have been worse than I thought.

Have you ever gotten any good results trying to stop the problem you are experiencing?

Bill

[z_willus_d]

Hi Bill, I'm sorry to hear about those lost trunks. That really stinks, but at least the green tomatoes can be used (better than a bird getting at them). Yeah, I'm kind of in the middle of my own experiment with the myclobutanil thing and P.M. It's a odd situation I"m in now, since some suggest I have Verticillium, but I just refuse to believe it can be. And I muddied the waters by spraying an insecticidal soap (Safer brand) that really fried all the new growth on my plants (including most viable blossoms). I usually go out to vibrate and tend to my plants for a couple hours a day, but the last few times I've gone out just made me disgusted, so I've tried to take a small break from them. It's probably too earlier to say whether the Myclobutanil is helping at all. I still see new yellow branches creeping up my vines daily when I look. Lot's of death and destruction. I may get more from my 5 tomatillo plants than the 50 tomato this year. I hope not, but well we'll see.
-n

[Mlm1]

Bill, sorry for your losses but your garden looks beautiful this year. I have been enjoying your posts. It is interesting to see the results of your different rootstck. Hopefully you find the "miracle" rootstock that carries you through the whole season.
Marla

[ScottinAtlanta]

A fusarium question: The top branches of some of my tomatoes are wilting. I am monitoring closely, but I suspect fusarium. I already pulled 2 Prudens Purple and 3 Marmandes.

My question: I cut off the wilted fronds, put them in water to check to see if there is any slime emerging. I can't see any slime, and the fronds have fully recovered (erected) in the water. Can I encourage roots and plant them again to replace the original plants, or are they infected with the fusarium and should be destroyed?

[b54red]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

A fusarium question: The top branches of some of my tomatoes are wilting. I am monitoring closely, but I suspect fusarium. I already pulled 2 Prudens Purple and 3 Marmandes.

My question: I cut off the wilted fronds, put them in water to check to see if there is any slime emerging. I can't see any slime, and the fronds have fully recovered (erected) in the water. Can I encourage roots and plant them again to replace the original plants, or are they infected with the fusarium and should be destroyed?

I don't know; but I would assume they are infected since fusarium is systemic. I have taken suckers off infected plants only to have them wilt and die from it while still in the cups and I have had others that went on to be healthy plants.

Bill

[b54red]

Still haven't lost a single grafted plant that was using a rootstock resistant to all three races of fusarium except to TSWV. At this point it really wouldn't matter too much because right now the plants are having so many problems with foliage diseases that replacing them is looking like the only way to slow the diseases down with all the rain we are having. I wish now that I had started more rootstock seeds. I had no idea that grafting would be so difficult this time of the year. My failure rate is just too high because of air borne molds and mildews that are so bad here now.

Next year I will be try to do most of my grafting with hybrids that are resistant to all three races of fusarium. From the success I have had this year I believe I can further reduce the number of plants necessary to get a decent crop. I may do another experiment with single stem plants that are grafted onto the fluke rootstock because of its superior vigor and its far higher grafting success rate than any of the other rootstocks. That way I can increase my production in the spring and then remove the plants after they make the majority of their crop on the first 4 or 5 trusses which will then free up a bed for my fall plants.

Bill

[lycoperson]

Great update Bill, glad to read of your success!

[indigosand]

Bill do you have photos of affected plants? I think I may have fusarium in one area of my garden. I ripped out one plant already and on the plant next to it, one side of the plant on the lower half has begun yellowing and I'm just not 100% sure on the disease I'm looking at. Had you ever considered container growing your tomatoes?

[b54red]

Sorry I don't currently have any plants suffering from advanced fusarium symptoms right now as I have already pulled all of them. It would be a little harder to tell anyway on the plants now because of the amount of foliage diseases I am experiencing due to the incessant rain that has fallen in the last few weeks.

I hate growing in containers because I am not very good at it. I always do something wrong and even in containers my plants will sometimes get fusarium. I have found a work around this year that is successful and that is grafting onto really resistant rootstock.

I can post some pictures of fusarium infected plants in my garden that I have taken in the past. Hope this helps.

Bill