I'm experiencing the same thing. Early Blight followed by wilting of the plants.

I'm about ready to take a flamethrower to the whole lot of them.

I've started some San Marzano seedlings in the hopes that we'll have a longer summer this year. Who knows? I might get lucky and get a tomato or two, but I doubt it.

Holly - zone 5b
Pennsylvania?

Toronto.

Close enough. Same zone. Just N of Pittsburgh.
Are you sure it's early blight?

I'd sure like to hear from someone who has seen this before.
I feel real bad but I'm not sniveling. Trying to plan for
next year. Look at it this way, I probably have a jump
on everyone else for 2009.

Sneezer, at first I wasn't all that sure that it was Early Blight as I was removing the leaves at the first sign of yellowing and spraying with a copper based fungicide. A few of the yellowing leaves did get away from me, and it was only yesterday morning that I came upon a few with the tell-tale sign of brown concentric rings. That pretty much confirmed it for me.

Now, a few of the plants (Cherokee Green, Mary Robinson, Earl's Faux, and Bradley's Black Heart) are showing signs of wilting on one side of the plant. My one and only Lemon Boy planted in the same bed is performing well, as expected.

Looks like I should have stuck to Lemon Boy and Jet Star in that particular bed like I did last year.

Oh, I'm sniveling alright! Was looking forward to a freezer full of tomatoes and not having to pay $1.29 per 28 oz can of the diced over the winter.

Over the years I've had just a few plants that have shown Verticillium and I was lucky when the first one appeared b'c at that time I was interacting with the Cornell Cooperative Extension re a study of tomato diseases on the OP and hybrid varieties I was growing at the time.

Dale Riggs, the person in charge of the study told me that the major indication of Verticillium was wilting on one side of the plant with green leaves and that's what we saw.

But in all the cases I saw subsequent to that one, and including that one, the plants outgrew the Verticillium.

It must have been contaminated seed b'c for many years after that, and many years before that as I recall, I never saw ONE plant with Vert and I wouldn't expect my zone 5 soil to have Vert anyway.

I know I'm not much help here but I don't see what measures you can take, as you asked, since Vert is a systemic soilborne disease, for the most part, but seeds can carry it as I'm sure was the situation with my small experience with VErt.

Sneezer, have you ever seen Vert in your garden before? I'm asking since you say so many of your plants seem to have it this year.

Carolyn

Thanks Carolyn - I was wondering if the wilt could be a seed borne problem and was going to start my own thread asking that very question.

The infected bed is brand new this year, and I'm also encountering 2 container plants (new container, new medium) showing signs of wilting. I'm glad to know that the plants might outgrow this - I'm encouraged - thank you very much!

I'll take leave now and give Sneezer back the thread. Good luck, Sneezer!

I don't want to nail it down yet as VW because, after all, I have never seen it before. But I have seen early blight plenty of times and I'm pretty sure this is not early blight (No bullseyes). I did have the vee pattern on the yellowing lower leaves and that is the basis of my identification. If I actually can settle on that ID, I believe I would be ahead of where I am because there appear to be measures that I can take to either control it or live with it.

Once again, I have never seen VW before but all six of my plants in the raised beds have the same thing. I have four more plants directly in the ground a few feet away and at least three of them are infected. There is one plant, a Green Zebra that seems a little less affected though it too is small and unproductive, i.e NO tomatoes though there are now some blossoms.

I've thought also about the possibility of contaminated seed. Anyone who remembers my earlier posts may recall that I had a lot of trouble with non-germination of seeds that I bought from a certain company in California. However, I gave away some of those seedlings along with other seedlings and the information I have back is that the plants are OK. So, I put that possibility on the back burner.

I have not noticed wilting to be in particular on one side of the plants but I could look again. I understand that symptom to be more characteristic of fusarium wilt, which I have also never seen.

What's really got me confused is the other symptoms. The plants seem to be "trying" to outgrow whatever is infecting them but the new leaves are very small and wrinkled, almost like curly kale. I've thought of virus infections but what I've got just doesn't match any of the pictures or descriptions I can find. Also, the few new flower buds that appeared, turned black or dark brown at about 3/8" in length. That I have for sure never seen. I'm conjecturing that if a VW infection is severe then the vascular damage may be great enough to cause the upper part of the plant to undergo these changes. But again, I have no previous experience and would like to hear what others have to say about that.

Carolyn, you mention that you would not expect VW in zone 5 soils. Again, I am ignorant of that aspect and it is the first time I have heard that. I'm in zone 5b, just north of Pittsburgh. I felt earlier that this would have come from the soil because these are new raised beds. The garden area has been wooded in mostly Virginia pine, which I am cutting to open up a garden plot. In constructing my beds, I had reserved about 3 inches of forest humus which I later incorporated into the soil of the raised beds along with more humus that I took from walkways. I suspected that VW could have come from that humus, especially as there are a lot of wild brambles around. Again, I would certainly like to hear what anyone else has to say about this.

As for measures to take, it seems that there may actually be something. I've been searching the web and find quite a bit of research material that advocates planting mustard and turning it under as a green manure. I've come up with a "Plan B" which is as follows. First, I think I'll leave the tomato plants in place until I get a better idea of what the actual problem is. Then, if nothing looks as if it's going to ripen, I'll remove and burn them. Third, I'll plant oriental red mustard and in about two months turn it in, followed by garlic over winter into next July. After the garlic, a crop of Caliente mustard, to be turned in and then to try toatoes again in the following year. Yes, very complicated but at least I like garlic and mustard greens and I have space to put tomatoes in another spot next summer. Any comments on this agenda would also be appreciated. Here are a couple of urls to follow up on that technique for anyone interested:

http://www.plantsolutionsltd.com/caliente.htm

http://www.tozerseedsdirect.com/

Whew!!!

I don't know if it's commonly know, but there is some laboratory evidence that worm compost will help against fusarium wilt. I lost one plant to either fusarium/verticulum with symptoms very similar to what you describe. I happen to worm compost so i'm saving my next batch for that spot. Apparently it works in a manner similar to taking probiotics where the good bugs outfight the bad bugs. Obviously I have no idea if it would work against verticulum but it's worth a try since there isn't much else to do.

Kristi

Kristi

Here is a link that might be useful: abstract re fusarium and vermicompost

It must have been contaminated seed b'c for many years after that, and many years before that as I recall, I never saw ONE plant with Vert and I wouldn't expect my zone 5 soil to have Vert anyway.

****

Sneezer, I specifically said MY zone 5 and that's b/c I've been up close and personal with tomato growing for several decades and had never seen it before growing up on the farm or in any of the fields if my father's commercial farmer friends and never saw Vert in my own field after those few plants were diagnosed with Vert..

yes, Vert can be a problem in zone 5, in general.

thanks for answering and saying that these are new raised bed which introduces another issue here.

VW has to be introduced into soil somehow, it just doesn't exist everywhere all the time.

So if it was new raised beds could I please ask if you raised your plants from seed or bought transplants.

You may have said that above but I'm too darn lazy to go back up and read, and besides, I've got some TV tennis coming up soon and want to watch that.

I'm trying to figure out why you have so many plants with suspected Vert when I've been told that most of the time it's more random than that.

No, I don't prefer watching tennis to tomatoes, but heck, there's some interesting tennis to watch and I have to admit that I'm a tennis nut.

Carolyn

Well, Carolyn, I appreciate anything you may have to say and if you like tennis too, I guess that's OK. I'm in a hurry, of course, but I should learn to slow down a bit and it looks as if this situation is going to compel me to do that, whether you watch tennis or not (here's your smile).

I was confused when you said zone 5 and didn't see the distinction. That seems to be cleared up now.

I raised all these plants from seed along with some others that I gave away. The ones given away, as I've heard, are not afflicted and are doing very well. All seedlings were done in one flat before transplant to quart cups. There were several seed sources.

The fact that VW has to be introduced is what makes me suspect the forest floor humus that I used, which was thoroughly mixed in both beds. I don't know that but logically it seems the most likely possibility. If that is correct, I will have to change my methods some.

Still, what has me scratching my head so hard is the other symptoms.

Does anyone know of a lab that would test for VW at a reasonable cost. Or, better yet, does anyone know how to do the culture and what to look for once it is cultured. I expect this would be expensive but even then, if it's anyway within my reach it could save me a whole lot of other money and trouble.

I've been so disappointed after all that work that I didn't
even want to see my plants for the last four days. But this
morning, I pulled myself together a bit and went up to look.
Indeed, several plants seem to be starting to "outgrow" the
disease. The top growth is looking a lot better so, Carolyn,
you were right. Not that you wouldn't be but I've never seen
this before and it is certainly discouraging. One or two
fruits have even started to change color. I picked a
Malakhi (tovaya Shkatulka)! just so the groundhog doesn't
have it. It doesn't look like much so I'm leaving it on
the countertop to see if it will ripen.

I'm thinking of taking out one plant (or two) to look for
vascular damage. If I find that, I think my diagnosis will
be about complete. Then the question remains over what to
do next.

sneezer... I'm having a very similar problem to what you described in your op in my bed.... its just an isolated little patch, about 4 plants succumbed....

I recently discovered that my neighbor had been spraying Round Up and assumed that was what caused the damage.

However. I cut down one particularly nasty looking roma the other day, right at soil level, and discovered the tell tail sign of VW I think... a brown crusty looking ring inside the main stem, like an inner bark made of cork.

I remember Carolyn giving the same advice to another here recently, about the possibility of outgrowing VW. So, though i've been stingy with the water and fertilizer this year, I decided to go whole hog on the affected plants - why not, they're probably goners anyhow - i pruned heavily, all yuck off, left anything that could possibly offer photosynthesis, I've been watering daily and gave them a blast of fertilizer... trying to see if I can 'out grow' this problem.... at this point just for the sake of experience for next year.

Its been a few days now, plants are hanging tough and the new growth on top is looking less wimpy and shriveled. The fruit that appeared to be stunted, are still stunted and small, yet slightly less so, and I might be able to harvest from these plants yet.

good luck.

VW is naturally present in soil (even in NY and Canada) and is usually introduced into a plant's vascular system when the root system has been wounded by digging or cultivating. In the case of tomatoes I would suspect another method of infection could be that the removal of lower branches (which many of us do) would leave open wounds along stem base and soil splashing up from rain or watering could infect with VW. Perhaps we should be thinking about a light coating of vasoline on those lower, fresh branch cuts made on tomatoes to seal the wounds and prevent possible VW (or perhaps other) infection. Simple to do. Perhaps we should give it a serious try.

Nandina,

My first reaction to this is that it is preposterous. Seriously, vaseline on a tomato plant just doesn't impress
me as a sensible or effective thing to do. However, I don't
want to be cynical or dismiss out of hand anyone who is
trying to think of solutions. Do you have any expertise
to bring up? Does anyone else?

While I was shopping for copper spray, I did come across a product for sealing wounds in trees, etc., and it did say on the label that it could be used on tomato plants. Maybe there's something to that.

I did have to pull out the Cherokee Green the other day - it was so pathetic looking that there was no hope for recovery. It did have the brown stain in the stalk.

Warning: I am no expert.

Holly,

Sorry about your Cherokee Green. Brown stain in the stalk!
Yikes, but that probably nails it down.

As for products purporting to be for sealing tree wounds,
they are superfluous and probably cause more damage than good.
At least the generally accepted standard among tree people is that they should not be used. Of course,
manufacturers still make them and sell them and they can say
anything on the label that they wish to. I'm just trying
to keep in mind that plant physiology is very different from the physiology of human beings.

But now, back to VW. My question and possibly yours now,
is what to do about it. I've done a lot of searching and
find a couple of possibilities. Two of them are solarization
and biofumigation, neither of which is likely to be easy.
Considering that the VW stays in the soil for many years
it seems unacceptable to just go ahead and plant again
next year.

If I suppose that my "recovering" tomato plants make a few
blossoms in the next week or so then I can hope to have
my first "real" tomatoes of the year sometime in the back
half of September and then expect frost a few weeks later.
That's really sad after all the work involved. So, I'm
looking for an answer.

Most of the solarization and biofumigation I've seen is
done on a very large scale and I'm not sure how well it
can be adapted to a smaller garden. If anyone is interested,
I can post some of the urls I've found. Also, if anyone else
has information or experience in these techniques, I'd
like to see it. Possibly in a new thread. What do you all
think?