What is wrong ? Big green plants wilted suddenly

[b54red]

Originally Posted by peekers

Mr. Bill,

I don't believe any of those determinate varieties that you are using as rootstock have published BW resistance. A friend of mine did grow amelia in her BW infested soil with moderate success. As you know all the rootstocks you are using have very good disease resistance, particularly to the 3 races of fusarium that you battle.

I tried the determinate Neptune (OP) one year as a rootstock. It does have good BW resistance. The RST-106 was so much more vigorous I switched to it. Of course there are drawbacks. My trellis is 125" tall. I have been reading your lowering posts and pics intently because I have about another week before they'll hit the top. Worried about the scion laying on the mulch and rooting thus being exposed to BW, but raising the trellis any higher is impractical.

Kevin

I have the same worries about the stem picking up fusarium by rooting into the mulch but what choice do I have. Normally by the time my plants are anywhere near this big almost all of them are either dead or dying from fusarium so I'm really not going to worry about it too much. I'm more worried about setting the fruit down on the mulch. I don't see how I could practically build a cost effective and easy to work with horizontal bar much taller than the 7 feet I am now dealing with. I would need a step ladder to work the plants when they got above 7 feet and the added height would make the structure more susceptible to wind. Even with all the diagonal support I have built into my structure I worry about a really high wind causing buckling or tipping with all the tomato foliage causing too much wind resistance.

I debated using the RST- 106 this year but got conflicting information on its fusarium resistance. I really need F3 resistance now whereas a few years ago F2 would have been adequate. Different sources had it listed as both so I skipped using it this year. So far I have not had any BW problems for the last 2 years so until I do I guess I'll stick to the ones that seem to be working well for me now.

Bill

[Kazfam]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

Why would she pull the plants with BER? They often grow right out of it.

As for wilt, I lost my whole garden one year from wilt. It started with our monsoon rains and the hottest corner of the garden. Spread like a a wildfire from one end to the other.

I think the advice was to pull the tomatoes off - not the plant. I thought the same thing, had to re-read.

We southern, deep south states sure do have our problems.

[Stvrob]

I am so frustrated with Opalka this year over BER I'm about ready to pull the plants!