Don't know if you have the "17 year locusts" this year, but we do just
southwest of you. I've got a new planting of over 600 blueberry plants that
are mostly destroyed. The locusts cut the stems to create a pocket for their
eggs. I've seen them cutting everything from goldenrod to white oak.
Good Luck,
Steve
"June" wrote in message
...
When I said total wilt I meant that plant leaves are wilted top to
bottom. Some wilting diseases will only show wilt starting at the base
and working up and that's gradual and in the beginning responds a bit
to watering. The one thing I haven't checked for is cut worm damage,
because I always put sticks around the stem to prevent that, and I
also have them mulched in a cone shape, so it didn't seem like that
would be the problem. I haver over 20 tomatoes planted and only those
two next to each other are showing this problem. There are many more
next to them in the same row and one row beneath as well as other
areas of the garden and they're not showing this problem.
I looked up tomato diseases on the Internet but couldn't find any
pictures of a plant with this total wilting which came on within about
24 hours. I will check them out later to see if somehow a cut worm got
them. At this point, I hope it's that instead of some other disease
that might get the rest of them!
We haven't have a lot of rain this season; but we haven't had drought
either. We probably get a good rain once a week or so and none of the
tomatoes, which I planted early, have shown any sign of lack of water.
It's probably been hotter than normal for these western NC mountains -
lots of mid and high 80''s days, even a couple of 90 degree days the
past two weeks.

Regards,
June