That's very interesting because that happened to me last year. To be fair, the wilt that happened to my tomato plant was not unheard of in my garden, but the timing was very suspicious. In my case, I had bamboo stakes in the ground already but added a cross brace for my staking system that rubbed part of the plant. Put it on one day. Within 2-3 days the entire plant was wilted.

Here are some things I pondered:

1) It was just a coincidence and my plant was about to get wilt anyway.

2) The stake was a carrier of some wilt disease -
fusarium, verticillium, bacterial wilt - or had something toxic. In my case, I believe the stakes were from China and they were dyed green. I no longer use the green ones just in case it was something about the dye, and I try to source from the US just out of unfounded paranoia.

3) Bamboo itself is a carrier of some wilt disease. I haven't researched it, but since bamboo is a living plant, it certainly wouldn't be out of the question.

In your case, it's possible that you already have some wilt disease organisms in your soil and by putting the stake in - bamboo or not - you damaged some roots which allowed entry by whatever organism is involved. It's my understanding that as tomato roots grow they experience micro-injuries anyway, as part of the growing process, that are sufficient to allow entry of wilt-causing organisms, so perhaps this just hastened things.

Or.... There could be something about bamboo. I've used it from day 1 in these beds and I've struggled with wilt issues every summer. I ultimately decided it was because of walnut tree roots underneath my beds (there are some), but I can't say that I'm completely sure.

On the other hand, I've used bamboo stakes in potted tomatoes and have not had wilt issues there. But is it possible that some stakes carry it and others don't...? Maybe.

Anyway, the main point is that, yes, I had a similar enough experience with bamboo last year that I questioned whether there was a connection between bamboo and wilt. It was probably just coincidence, but who knows?

Sorry for such a long post!

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I'm not really familiar with the transmission of these diseases. Is it possible that in fact it came from the garden centre rather than having infected the bamboo and was simply carried on it?

There seem to be so many different things illnesses that can affect a tomato plant that it's very hard to diagnose from the pictures online.

Good to know I'm not the only one though.

The most likely explanation IMO would be root damage. Exceptionally easy to do, almost impossible to avoid, and given the rapid response of the plant, by far the most likely explanation. We have all seen it happen when most anything is inserted into the soil after the plant is well established.

But was this fresh green bamboo or brown, well dried, aged bamboo? If fresh and green I would first wonder why it was being used as it is a very unusual tomato stake, but bamboo mites would be the next most likely source of the problem.

If brown and dried then the odds of most any disease pathogen surviving on it would be slim.

A photo of the plant might help ID the source of the damage.

Dave

Agree with Dave 100%

When driving stakes down, TOO CLOSE and TOO LATE in the season it can cut through the roots. That is why it makes sense to stake (those close to the plant) at the time of transplanting.

Thanks all for the advice.

I think I must have damaged it. I tried to be as careful as possible when putting in the stake in so as to enlarge the old hole rather ramming in a new one but I guess I wasn't careful enough.

I probably would have been better off leaving some of the leaves touching the ground but I got scared as we've had quite a bit of rain recently.

There are some images attached to the post above or at http://imgur.com/a/LKhkV.