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#1
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tomato wilt
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 |
#2
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tomato wilt
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 |
#3
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tomato wilt
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 |
#4
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tomato wilt
" 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 |
#6
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tomato wilt
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 |
#7
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tomato wilt
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. |
#8
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tomato wilt
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, |
#9
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tomato wilt
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#10
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tomato wilt
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, |
#11
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tomato wilt
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#12
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tomato wilt
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 |
#13
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tomato wilt
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 |
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