Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes? If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue

The dreaded wilt is a soil borne disease - you have 3 options

1 - plant in a different area every year - sometimes not real practical

2 - solarization - like you said black or clear plastic but it has to be
over the summer so you will lose one year

3 replace all soil with leaf mulch each year - which is what I do and I
never have the wilt problems - just lay down a layer of leaf mulch from the
raleigh recycling center off of buffaloe road - DO NOT till it in, just
plant right into the mulch

tomato holes - can be from the stink bug - they stick there mouths in and
suck out the juice, they look like triangles with legs. Birds can peck at
the red fruits as well, so put a few red christmas balls around after a few
pecks at those things they give up on the real ones.

Peppers are doing great!! mine are by the road side and they get plenty of
heat and sun and they are sort of decorative as well.

dont know about the cukes

And our fig is doing well - the 5 year for it now

Tomatolord


"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes? If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue

I don't know exactly *what* is wrong with my tomato plants (Better Boy &
German Johnson, which was not my choice!) -- but the fruit is rotting on
the vine. Some of the rotten ones show no obvius signs of insect damage,
nor did they split from sudden rainfall.

On a side note, I was about to pick off & discard one of the rotters that's
been gnawed on, but I decided to leave it to the swallowtail butterfly who
was working on it.

Cukes have been prolific; unfortunately, it's Straight 8 (I think), so it
has a ton of seeds, no matter how soon I pick it.

Bell peppers are finally coming along, and I'm knee-deep in banana peppers,
which are hot!!! They look just like the ones we grew in the past that were
supposed to be hot, but weren't -- 'tis a puzzlement.

Yellow squash seem to have stopped producing, but I don't think it's borers,
as there are no fruit forming.

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh




"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes? If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue

"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

Erm, Sue, is your Amorpohphallus blooming? THAT "fragrance" could wilt just
about ANYthing!!!

bwg

Actually the extra rain is culturing lots of fungal and bacterial yuck, my
melon and cuke vines are starting to get pitiful....

laurie

(P.S., hurry over here if you want blueberries, lots of flavor this year,
but the mockingbirds have figured out how to get up under the netting!)

Laurie, my beautiful Voodoo Lily (amorphophallus) did indeed bloom
early in the summer, died back (as it's supposed to) and then put out
lovely foliage, now about 5 feet tall, and with several small babies
clustered at the bottom! Yes, it stank, but it was not THAT bad and
did not really carry far from the plant. you had to stick your nose in
there to smell it. Am I lucky? It was a beautiful, big, weird purple
flower with that big long scary THANG sticking up out of it!

But the wetness is even causing the ends of the leaves on my voodoo to
rot and turn mushy... :^(

I am so on my way over for berries... as usual, ours are anemic, as
they cannot get enough sun where they're at, even though we cut down
some trees around them... Shoo, mockingbirds!

Cheers
Sue

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 19:05:36 -0400, "laurie \(Mother Mastiff\)"
wrote:

"Siouxzi" wrote in message
.. .
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

Erm, Sue, is your Amorpohphallus blooming? THAT "fragrance" could wilt just
about ANYthing!!!

bwg

Actually the extra rain is culturing lots of fungal and bacterial yuck, my
melon and cuke vines are starting to get pitiful....

laurie

(P.S., hurry over here if you want blueberries, lots of flavor this year,
but the mockingbirds have figured out how to get up under the netting!)

In article , Tomatolord wrote:
The dreaded wilt is a soil borne disease - you have 3 options

1 - plant in a different area every year - sometimes not real practical

2 - solarization - like you said black or clear plastic but it has to be
over the summer so you will lose one year

3 replace all soil with leaf mulch each year - which is what I do and I
never have the wilt problems - just lay down a layer of leaf mulch from the
raleigh recycling center off of buffaloe road - DO NOT till it in, just
plant right into the mulch


I have been curious about this method. Do you till in the mulch in the
fall or do you just never till your tomato area anymore?

tomato holes - can be from the stink bug - they stick there mouths in and
suck out the juice, they look like triangles with legs. Birds can peck at
the red fruits as well, so put a few red christmas balls around after a few
pecks at those things they give up on the real ones.

Peppers are doing great!! mine are by the road side and they get plenty of
heat and sun and they are sort of decorative as well.

dont know about the cukes

And our fig is doing well - the 5 year for it now

Tomatolord


"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes? If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue





--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

spam@www.spam.com is a garbage address.

I never till in fall AFTER it has gotten cold - only to till garden debris
and to make the garden look a little nicer.

Some years I did not till and it did not make any real difference.

The idea is to bury the existing "soil" where the tomato's lived so you
cover the bacteria as well.

Also worms will leave if you till in the spring when they are coming up into
the soil
and
I dont want to do too much work...
and
Its quick and easy

Tomatolord


wrote in message
. ..
In article , Tomatolord
wrote:
The dreaded wilt is a soil borne disease - you have 3 options

1 - plant in a different area every year - sometimes not real practical

2 - solarization - like you said black or clear plastic but it has to be
over the summer so you will lose one year

3 replace all soil with leaf mulch each year - which is what I do and I
never have the wilt problems - just lay down a layer of leaf mulch from
the
raleigh recycling center off of buffaloe road - DO NOT till it in, just
plant right into the mulch


I have been curious about this method. Do you till in the mulch in the
fall or do you just never till your tomato area anymore?

tomato holes - can be from the stink bug - they stick there mouths in
and
suck out the juice, they look like triangles with legs. Birds can peck
at
the red fruits as well, so put a few red christmas balls around after a
few
pecks at those things they give up on the real ones.

Peppers are doing great!! mine are by the road side and they get plenty
of
heat and sun and they are sort of decorative as well.

dont know about the cukes

And our fig is doing well - the 5 year for it now

Tomatolord


"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes? If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue





--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

spam@www.spam.com is a garbage address.

Well, we always use leaf mulch--this year we had a deep layer of maybe
4-6 inches. I was afraid it was too much! Anyway, it did not seem to
reduce the wilt; quite the contrary... but it sure kept weeds at bay.
We get it from MulchMasters.

If plastic doesn't kill the microbes unless it's left there all
summer, how will burying them in nice, nutritious mulch kill them? I
am curious about how your plan works,
O Tomatolord. And will be grateful if it does.

Cheers
Sue

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 11:27:28 -0600, "Tomatolord"
wrote:

I never till in fall AFTER it has gotten cold - only to till garden debris
and to make the garden look a little nicer.

Some years I did not till and it did not make any real difference.

The idea is to bury the existing "soil" where the tomato's lived so you
cover the bacteria as well.

Also worms will leave if you till in the spring when they are coming up into
the soil
and
I dont want to do too much work...
and
Its quick and easy

Tomatolord


wrote in message
...
In article , Tomatolord
wrote:
The dreaded wilt is a soil borne disease - you have 3 options

1 - plant in a different area every year - sometimes not real practical

2 - solarization - like you said black or clear plastic but it has to be
over the summer so you will lose one year

3 replace all soil with leaf mulch each year - which is what I do and I
never have the wilt problems - just lay down a layer of leaf mulch from
the
raleigh recycling center off of buffaloe road - DO NOT till it in, just
plant right into the mulch


I have been curious about this method. Do you till in the mulch in the
fall or do you just never till your tomato area anymore?

tomato holes - can be from the stink bug - they stick there mouths in
and
suck out the juice, they look like triangles with legs. Birds can peck
at
the red fruits as well, so put a few red christmas balls around after a
few
pecks at those things they give up on the real ones.

Peppers are doing great!! mine are by the road side and they get plenty
of
heat and sun and they are sort of decorative as well.

dont know about the cukes

And our fig is doing well - the 5 year for it now

Tomatolord


"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes? If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue





--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

spam@www.spam.com is a garbage address.

ok

you have to plant into the mulch only - dont dig the hole down into the old
soil You cannot plant into the previous soil, because that is where the
diseases are
and
you have to make sure the mulch covers all of the area around the tomato - I
just cover the entire garden, when it does rain the water splashes the soil
onto the plant causing further damage.

This year my plants are healthy as usual (except for the darn deer!!)

I dont think it matters where you get the mulch from the city or a mulch
company.

now for some tomato planting basics.

1 - use the wall o waters - it just gets the plants off to a healthy start
2 - when planting strip off all but the top leaves and bury the plant to
that depth - the exposed stem will grow roots
3 - make sure you have plenty of dolomitic lime as well. 3-4 handfulls in
the hole and 3-4 around the plant after planting
4 - same thing with a time release fertilizer 3-4 in hole, 3-4 around
plant - when you put in the hole, mix with the mulch then plant the plant.

Note - you can trench a tomato instead of digging a hole - if the plant is
tall dig a trench and lay in sideways instead, since the roots are closer to
the top they will be warmer and grow quicker than if planted deep down.

Now that does not mean that your plants did not come with the disease from
the grower,

I get my plants from Craig at the farmer market, or I grow them myself and
dont have the wilt problem.

I gave up growing any wilt resitant varieties becuase they do not taste as
good as the heirlooms - so all of my plants are all heirloom plants.

tomatolord




"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Well, we always use leaf mulch--this year we had a deep layer of maybe
4-6 inches. I was afraid it was too much! Anyway, it did not seem to
reduce the wilt; quite the contrary... but it sure kept weeds at bay.
We get it from MulchMasters.

If plastic doesn't kill the microbes unless it's left there all
summer, how will burying them in nice, nutritious mulch kill them? I
am curious about how your plan works,
O Tomatolord. And will be grateful if it does.

Cheers
Sue

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 11:27:28 -0600, "Tomatolord"
wrote:

I never till in fall AFTER it has gotten cold - only to till garden
debris
and to make the garden look a little nicer.

Some years I did not till and it did not make any real difference.

The idea is to bury the existing "soil" where the tomato's lived so you
cover the bacteria as well.

Also worms will leave if you till in the spring when they are coming up
into
the soil
and
I dont want to do too much work...
and
Its quick and easy

Tomatolord


wrote in message
...
In article , Tomatolord
wrote:
The dreaded wilt is a soil borne disease - you have 3 options

1 - plant in a different area every year - sometimes not real
practical

2 - solarization - like you said black or clear plastic but it has to
be
over the summer so you will lose one year

3 replace all soil with leaf mulch each year - which is what I do and
I
never have the wilt problems - just lay down a layer of leaf mulch
from
the
raleigh recycling center off of buffaloe road - DO NOT till it in,
just
plant right into the mulch


I have been curious about this method. Do you till in the mulch in the
fall or do you just never till your tomato area anymore?

tomato holes - can be from the stink bug - they stick there mouths in
and
suck out the juice, they look like triangles with legs. Birds can
peck
at
the red fruits as well, so put a few red christmas balls around after
a
few
pecks at those things they give up on the real ones.

Peppers are doing great!! mine are by the road side and they get
plenty
of
heat and sun and they are sort of decorative as well.

dont know about the cukes

And our fig is doing well - the 5 year for it now

Tomatolord


"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's
horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely
brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that
works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd
like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't
recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the
grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes?
If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we
are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue





--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

spam@www.spam.com is a garbage address.

Thanks, Lord. I was about to ask how I can possibly plant the plant
into the new mulch only, unless the mulch is like 6-8 inches deep. But
then I saw your answer--plant flat in a trench. cool. I will try that!
I got most of my plants from Craig too. Love 'em! But they caught the
wilt anyway, for the most part... I'll try your method next year,
including the wall-o-waters, as I cannot bear going without a tomato
garden for a year, and I cannot move my garden.

Cheers
Sue
On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 06:37:22 -0600, "Tomatolord"
wrote:

ok

you have to plant into the mulch only - dont dig the hole down into the old
soil You cannot plant into the previous soil, because that is where the
diseases are
and
you have to make sure the mulch covers all of the area around the tomato - I
just cover the entire garden, when it does rain the water splashes the soil
onto the plant causing further damage.

This year my plants are healthy as usual (except for the darn deer!!)

I dont think it matters where you get the mulch from the city or a mulch
company.

now for some tomato planting basics.

1 - use the wall o waters - it just gets the plants off to a healthy start
2 - when planting strip off all but the top leaves and bury the plant to
that depth - the exposed stem will grow roots
3 - make sure you have plenty of dolomitic lime as well. 3-4 handfulls in
the hole and 3-4 around the plant after planting
4 - same thing with a time release fertilizer 3-4 in hole, 3-4 around
plant - when you put in the hole, mix with the mulch then plant the plant.

Note - you can trench a tomato instead of digging a hole - if the plant is
tall dig a trench and lay in sideways instead, since the roots are closer to
the top they will be warmer and grow quicker than if planted deep down.

Now that does not mean that your plants did not come with the disease from
the grower,

I get my plants from Craig at the farmer market, or I grow them myself and
dont have the wilt problem.

I gave up growing any wilt resitant varieties becuase they do not taste as
good as the heirlooms - so all of my plants are all heirloom plants.

tomatolord

"Tomatolord" wrote in message
. ..

[remainder snipped]

Note - you can trench a tomato instead of digging a hole - if the plant
is
tall dig a trench and lay in sideways instead, since the roots are closer
to
the top they will be warmer and grow quicker than if planted deep down.

I have one caveat to add if you "trench" your tomatoes -- Remember that
you did that, so that you don't dig them up if you attempt to do even the
shallowest hand cultivating!!!! It also helps if you plant the tomatoes so
the underground parts are all pointing the same direction away from the main
stem. After I spent most of my time in the garden re-covering the tomato
plants the only year I tried trenching them, now I just plant them "up to
their necks."

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh

Garden woes. I never did get time to go over and get some of Laurie's
blueberries!
Most of my tomatoes have succombed to wilt. Many have the little
round holes that someone mentioned. They are all from caterpillars on
my plants, and you have to really look or you will miss some of them.
They are not the big green tomato guys, but little black ones with
lengthwise yellow stripes, that grow bigger into brown ones with the
yellow stripes.
I still have the on-going problem I've had for several years, and
still do not know what it is. Al Cooke once suggested spider mites,
but I do not see webs nor spiders. I just took a Pittsboro workshop
on plant diseases, but that really was no help, either.
I brought it home from Duke (Botany bldg) unknowingly, and put
infected citrus leaves into my compost bin 4 years ago. The next
summer, the disease hit plants around the compost bin, and it has
spread out more every year since. It effects different plants in
different ways, and is deadly.
It loves burgundy green beans. The leaves look "sunburned" and
eventually dry up and fall off. Some of the beans look "rusty". This
effect also occurs on mulberry trees, butterfly bushes, (liana beans
are more resistent), melons and squash, tomatoes, any veggie where one
wants to eat the actual leaves, like chard, etc.
Its effect is a yellowing and eventual death of all leaf parts except
the veins on blueberries, buckeye, roses.
On citrus, sunflowers, datura, avocado, one kind of ivy, red oxalis
and geraniums it has progressive patches where the life is just sucked
out of the leaves, so they become like parchment paper on the tips and
progress til the whole leaf is parchment. It has somewhat of a
detriment to lemon basil, rosemary, and impatience.

I found out one thing that may be bad (just from gasps I receive if I
mention it). If I hit the beans with Raid prior to the formation of
any flowers, the plant actually has a chance to get past a
death-dealing blow of disease. (I don't use any Raid once flowers or
fruits appear.) The citrus gets a new batch of great leaves (for a
while), the roses send out new healthy shoots (for a while). The
butterfly bushes and mulberry died, even with Raid.
Big question: by spraying Raid in my veggie garden am I introducing a
nerve agent into my own food chain?
The following plants are pretty immune to this thing:
peppers (some of which have other problems), pomagranate, another kind
of ivy, eggplants, fig, eleagnus, nimblewill, and bamboo grass.
Sorry this is so long. Just trying to present the full picture. This
is so frustrating and I just wish I could at least identify the darn
thing! Can anyone shed any light on this?
Kira

Kira,

We've been discussion rose mosaic virus on rec.gardens.roses -- try
image-googling for "mosaic virus" to see if any photos match what you have.

I'd go easy with the Raid, though. You might take a look at the can & see
what the active ingredients are, then google for info on what those
chemicals do to vegetables (don't waste your time googling for "raid" and
"vegetable" as you won't get responses that are relevant).

Anne Lurie
NE Raleigh





"Kira Dirlik" !! wrote in message
...
Garden woes. I never did get time to go over and get some of Laurie's
blueberries!
Most of my tomatoes have succombed to wilt. Many have the little
round holes that someone mentioned. They are all from caterpillars on
my plants, and you have to really look or you will miss some of them.
They are not the big green tomato guys, but little black ones with
lengthwise yellow stripes, that grow bigger into brown ones with the
yellow stripes.
I still have the on-going problem I've had for several years, and
still do not know what it is. Al Cooke once suggested spider mites,
but I do not see webs nor spiders. I just took a Pittsboro workshop
on plant diseases, but that really was no help, either.
I brought it home from Duke (Botany bldg) unknowingly, and put
infected citrus leaves into my compost bin 4 years ago. The next
summer, the disease hit plants around the compost bin, and it has
spread out more every year since. It effects different plants in
different ways, and is deadly.
It loves burgundy green beans. The leaves look "sunburned" and
eventually dry up and fall off. Some of the beans look "rusty". This
effect also occurs on mulberry trees, butterfly bushes, (liana beans
are more resistent), melons and squash, tomatoes, any veggie where one
wants to eat the actual leaves, like chard, etc.
Its effect is a yellowing and eventual death of all leaf parts except
the veins on blueberries, buckeye, roses.
On citrus, sunflowers, datura, avocado, one kind of ivy, red oxalis
and geraniums it has progressive patches where the life is just sucked
out of the leaves, so they become like parchment paper on the tips and
progress til the whole leaf is parchment. It has somewhat of a
detriment to lemon basil, rosemary, and impatience.

I found out one thing that may be bad (just from gasps I receive if I
mention it). If I hit the beans with Raid prior to the formation of
any flowers, the plant actually has a chance to get past a
death-dealing blow of disease. (I don't use any Raid once flowers or
fruits appear.) The citrus gets a new batch of great leaves (for a
while), the roses send out new healthy shoots (for a while). The
butterfly bushes and mulberry died, even with Raid.
Big question: by spraying Raid in my veggie garden am I introducing a
nerve agent into my own food chain?
The following plants are pretty immune to this thing:
peppers (some of which have other problems), pomagranate, another kind
of ivy, eggplants, fig, eleagnus, nimblewill, and bamboo grass.
Sorry this is so long. Just trying to present the full picture. This
is so frustrating and I just wish I could at least identify the darn
thing! Can anyone shed any light on this?
Kira

We have our usual plague of whiteflies on the tomatoes this year. The
plants do great and then about the last week in July-- wham- covered
with whiteflies.
Sevin slows them down a little but not for long. Anyone have any new
and different ideas for getting rid of white flies? Little whitish
looking flying bugs that suck the juice out of the tomato plants.

Our small vegetable garden (first year trying it) - with tomatos
doing fairly well up until now - has also been affected the
past 2 weeks by some kind of funk it seems.

Not sure if it is 'wilt' that we have, or some other
condition (was actually checking pictures on the web,
and the best match I can find is Septoria Leaf Spot).

Anyway it's not pretty... :-( , and seems to be moving fast.
(especially on a (once very nice with 100 tomatos)
Roma plant). [~ 30-35% of leaves affected and
increasing...]

Question: Is it worth trying to 'fight the funk' in the
current year - or is it pretty much a lost cause? (ie
clipping affected leaves off, letting the plant do the
'best it can', etc).

Are there any advantages to pulling the plant once
the condition has progressed beyond a certain state
(Our other non-roma tomato plants probably 10-15% affected).

Am thinking of things like: Will pulling it minimize amount that can
get into next year's soil if you get the plant 'outta there'
now? Will pulling it minimize the chance the condition spread to
other plants? (can it spread to non-tomatos if you don't pull it?)

Of course, if there is no real advantage to pulling it, maybe
just letting 'nature take it's course' is the way to go - reaping
what produce it will yield in the meantime as best it can. [ I read
that generally affected tomatos can still continue to develop fruit, and
that 'generally' the plants can still maintain themselves - depending
at what stage they are at when first contracting the funk...]

Don't know if others on this forum have experiences or thoughts they
can share, but would sure appreciate guidance basically on the
decision point of :
- Keep the funky plants - hope for the best - it won't do much
harm to anything else anyway or overly affect next year's crop...
- Get it outta there asap...taking what fruit you can now, and cut
your loses.

[ of course, if the condition progresses REAL fast, it may be a
non-issue in a couple of weeks, as the whole plant may go anyway -
am assumming it might not be that dire - but who knows ]

The other great tips in this thread on next year's preventative methods
(using layer of leave mulch (can you use leaf mulch from your own yard
btw?),
and trench planting) etc of course still stand, and are good to know!

Thanks in advance for any assistance,

-Paul