hi, i need help; my tomato plants are just wiltting up and dying . it starts
with one plant and moves down the line .
i move things around in the garden . i have lost over 45 plants . friends
have told me it is a bacteria in the ground.
if so can i get it out ? another friend told me to bleach the soil? i hope
someone out there can help me .
friut less

gritz wrote:

hi, i need help; my tomato plants are just wiltting up and dying . it
starts with one plant and moves down the line .
i move things around in the garden . i have lost over 45 plants . friends
have told me it is a bacteria in the ground.
if so can i get it out ? another friend told me to bleach the soil? i hope
someone out there can help me .
friut less


Sounds like a bug. A bacteria in the ground would not likely be that mobile.

Pull up a couple of the dead ones and give us a post-mortem. Do they have
roots? Do they have puncture wounds on the stems? Do a google search for
"diseases of tomatoes" and see if any of the pictures you turn up match
what you are seeing.

Tell your friend with the bleach bottle to stay out of your garden if he
values his life as much as you do your garden.

If it truly is a disease you could use solarization to do a decent job of
sterilizing the soil over the rest of the summer. Do a google search on
'solarization' ... it's easy to do and more environmentally sound than any
of the alternatives I am aware of. And it beats the heck out of poisoning
the soil (and everything in it!) with bleach.

Bill

Ummm, you don't say where you are, that would help.

We used to live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and we made a raised bed
in our front yard with bought topsoil. Tomatoes grew great until they
all keeled over within a day or so with something called "Southern
Bacterial Wilt" (SBW). If you cut through the stem the cut pieces part
with a great deal of stickiness to it, not normal sap. If you have
this, I believe you are doomed. Doomed. Doomed.

The cause? Well, SBW is endemic to tobacco farms. And tobacco farms
are endemic to North Carolina, so I think that is where our bought
topsoil came from. The only treatment for it is some extremely nasty
chemicals which I, a chemist, wouldn't mess with. Such as methyl
bromide, applied in large quantites. Solarization might help a bit, but
the agricultural extension agent was not optimistic. We grew flowers in
that soil, although not Nicotiana, since it is related to tomatoes and
tobacco. We had no problem in other parts of our yard, uncontaminated
with that soil.

On the other hand, there are lots of other tomato diseases, and they may
be less malignant. Can't help any more without description of the
symptoms and your location.

Good Luck!
David.

gritz wrote:
hi, i need help; my tomato plants are just wiltting up and dying . it starts
with one plant and moves down the line .
i move things around in the garden . i have lost over 45 plants . friends
have told me it is a bacteria in the ground.
if so can i get it out ? another friend told me to bleach the soil? i hope
someone out there can help me .
friut less

" gritz" wrote in message ...
hi, i need help; my tomato plants are just wiltting up and dying . it starts
with one plant and moves down the line .
i move things around in the garden . i have lost over 45 plants . friends
have told me it is a bacteria in the ground.
if so can i get it out ? another friend told me to bleach the soil? i hope
someone out there can help me .
friut less

I don't know if I can help, if so many plants have been affected it
does sound like a soil or soil bacteria problem. Here goes though. Try
building up the nutrients in your soil; cut up bananas (peel and all)
and dig them into the soil around the surviving tomato plants roots
(without disturbing them), add crushed egg shells and used tea leaves
too if you have any. Tomatoes are heavy feeders and anything you can
do to raise the strength of the soil can only help.

jc

On 17 Jun 2003 23:26:37 -0700, (Joanne) wrote:

cut up bananas (peel and all)
and dig them into the soil around the surviving tomato plants roots

Tomatoes are heavy feeders and anything you can
do to raise the strength of the soil can only help.

I'm sorry? Bananas?

Now I've heard everything! Sorry to sound sceptical but how about
ordinary plant food?

Colin
-----
(Please reply via the newsgroup)

In article , Colin Malsingh
wrote:

On 17 Jun 2003 23:26:37 -0700, (Joanne) wrote:

cut up bananas (peel and all)
and dig them into the soil around the surviving tomato plants roots

Tomatoes are heavy feeders and anything you can
do to raise the strength of the soil can only help.

I'm sorry? Bananas?

Now I've heard everything! Sorry to sound sceptical but how about
ordinary plant food?

Colin
-----
(Please reply via the newsgroup)

Bananas have P in them. 'Maters love them.

Jan

Colin Malsingh wrote in message . ..

I'm sorry? Bananas?

Now I've heard everything! Sorry to sound sceptical but how about
ordinary plant food?

Colin
-----
(Please reply via the newsgroup)

Bananas = Potassium. They are easy to get your hands on, cheap and
breakdown easily in the soil. I picked up the suggestion on this same
newsgroup a few years ago and found that it works very well, try it.

Finally, I garden organically, one suggests what one uses.

jc

p.s. Hopeing that this does not get posted twice. Google had some
problems during my first attempt. If it is, sorry to sound repetative.

Bananas have P in them. 'Maters love them.

Jan


True, Bananas are source of potash, but there are many souces which are less
expensive, The tomato is NOT a heavy feeder but do require some phosphorus, (
that where all the match book in planting hole stories got started,) most folks
overfertilize tomatoes, then wonder why they have huge vines and few tomatoes,

(FarmerDill) wrote in message ...


True, Bananas are source of potash, but there are many souces which are less
expensive, The tomato is NOT a heavy feeder but do require some phosphorus, (
that where all the match book in planting hole stories got started,) most folks
overfertilize tomatoes, then wonder why they have huge vines and few tomatoes,

Educate me then. Almost everything that I have read about tomatoes
(and that's quite a bit)refers to them as "heavy feeders". It is often
suggested to allow the area where tomatoes are grown to lie fallow
every few years or do crop rotation for that same reason.

I have also experimented for the past few years, some with NO bananas
and others WITH, my crops are always better when I include a few
slices of bananas close to the roots. I fail to see how a few slices
of a banana can be considered "over fertilizeing" but I'm open to
input.

Thanks

jcm

Educate me then. Almost everything that I have read about tomatoes
(and that's quite a bit)refers to them as "heavy feeders". It is often
suggested to allow the area where tomatoes are grown to lie fallow
every few years or do crop rotation for that same reason.

I have also experimented for the past few years, some with NO bananas
and others WITH, my crops are always better when I include a few
slices of bananas close to the roots. I fail to see how a few slices
of a banana can be considered "over fertilizeing" but I'm open to
input.

Thanks

jcm

It is almost impossible to overfertilize with decaying vegetation. It is easy
to do with manures, fish products, and commercial fertilizers. Some of the
newer hybrid tomatoes are developed to respond to heavier fertilization, Merced
comes to mine. The old varieties tend to run to vine. Years ago we grew them
for the cannery with no more than 10 lbs to the acrea of 16% phosphate. ie a
phosphate bearing rock treated with acid. Small vines (marglobe) of 3 to four
feet but loaded with tomatoes. Rotation and fallowing are are almost esential
for holding down down tomato diseases like blights and wilts, Perhaps your
soil has adequate phosphorus, the major nutrient for fruiting vegetables and
low in potassium the major root nutrient. In any event, if it works for you,
keep at it. There are many successful ways to grow things,

(Joanne) wrote in message . com...
Colin Malsingh wrote in message . ..

I'm sorry? Bananas?

Now I've heard everything! Sorry to sound sceptical but how about
ordinary plant food?

Colin
-----
(Please reply via the newsgroup)

Bananas = Potassium. They are easy to get your hands on, cheap and
breakdown easily in the soil. I picked up the suggestion on this same
newsgroup a few years ago and found that it works very well, try it.

Finally, I garden organically, one suggests what one uses.

jc

p.s. Hopeing that this does not get posted twice. Google had some
problems during my first attempt. If it is, sorry to sound repetative.

While being organic myself, I always think it is foolish to waste food
for fertilization purposes. Wood ash has far more K than bananas, for
example, and kitchen scraps in general provide large amounts of K per
unit of weight. The myth that bananas are ubersources of K was pushed
by the banana industry in the first place. Potatoes or cantaloupes or
watermelon or most stone fruits or oranges have just as much (check
the USDA site for a nutrient breakdown of foods). Green vegetables
have amounts that are typically within a factor two of bananas. Cow
manure is 2% dry weight K.

And a rich source of K are tomatoes themselves, with several hundred
mg of K per tomato (1 tomato=1 banana). Without a doubt tomatoes can
exhaust the K supply of soil rapidly, but saving your kitchen scraps
during the winter and spring in a spare trash can will provide much
more K than a dozen sliced bananas. I use a couple of trash cans of
kitchen scraps for 20 tomatos and a handful of wood ash for each plant
(my soil is acid). I then mulch with wood chips, themselves a good K
provider at 200 ppm and a water equalizer for plants that need to
avoid water stress (if I did not have them I would use leaves). You
don't need more than that for your tomatoes to thrive, and you will
not have to waste food.

All I know is what I know, or have observed over the past years. I
hardly think that adding a few bananas to the soil (which also
contains compost) is being profoundly wastefull. As I said, my yields
do show a significant difference with 6 bananas added to a 5' x 5'
tomato plot as opposed to none. YMMV but I have to ask if you have
ever tried it? Theory is one thing, research and practice is another,
I know that sounds simple but I read up on a subject and then try it
out as an experiment if it seems viable. I observe and record the
results and my results are so far positive for some added sliced
bananas.

I also tend a very large perennial flower garden with profoundly
dreadful dry soil. Despite all of the compost added over the past
years we could not see an improvement in the soil until this year.
Last fall we dug in banana peels and egg shells. This year we not only
have worms in the soil (a first!) but also the plants are taking off
and taking over. A new problem, but not an unwelcome one.

To me it is always an experiment. I keep track and note the results. I
do the best I can do and keep an open mind. You may disaree with my
practices and suggestions but they are always based on practical
observations over a reasonable period of years.

YMMV
jcm

A couple of banana peels and eggshells go under every plant I do, and
the rest go into the compost. They are signicant soil improvers. You
might want to chop up the peel first. I hate waste.

Joanne wrote:

All I know is what I know, or have observed over the past years. I
hardly think that adding a few bananas to the soil (which also
contains compost) is being profoundly wastefull. As I said, my yields
do show a significant difference with 6 bananas added to a 5' x 5'
tomato plot as opposed to none. YMMV but I have to ask if you have
ever tried it? Theory is one thing, research and practice is another,
I know that sounds simple but I read up on a subject and then try it
out as an experiment if it seems viable. I observe and record the
results and my results are so far positive for some added sliced
bananas.

I also tend a very large perennial flower garden with profoundly
dreadful dry soil. Despite all of the compost added over the past
years we could not see an improvement in the soil until this year.
Last fall we dug in banana peels and egg shells. This year we not only
have worms in the soil (a first!) but also the plants are taking off
and taking over. A new problem, but not an unwelcome one.

To me it is always an experiment. I keep track and note the results. I
do the best I can do and keep an open mind. You may disaree with my
practices and suggestions but they are always based on practical
observations over a reasonable period of years.

YMMV
jcm