Box Car Willie

Box Car Willie

One of the varieties of tomato plants Cindy put in this year was the Box Car Willie tomato plant, which she chose mainly on account of its interesting name.  Who wouldn't love Box Car Willie?

The plant was described in the catalogue as an "indeterminate", meaning that it would keep producing tomatoes throughout the season, and was expected to produce "a very heavy crop of good sized, smooth red tomatoes with delicious flavor, ranging from 6 to 10 ounces."

The plant did indeed produce a good crop of delicious tomatoes, but unfortunately very early began to show signs of Verticillium Wilt or Fusarium Wilt, fungi that cause the leaves to turn yellow, then brown and eventually kill the plant.  Unfortunately, the fungus survives as microsclerotia in the soil and will reoccur in any plant that is susceptible to it.  

Signs of Wilt

So now Cindy will probably have to solarize the soil in that raised bed this winter to kill off the fungus before she can plant any more tomatoes in that bed.  One advantage of using the raised bed system is that each bed is a self-contained unit and the fungus should not spread to any of the other beds.

Too bad about Box Car Willie, but we did get some delicious tomatoes from it.

But We Got Some Tomatoes!