Not Good News

Not Winning First Prize This Year

More bad news about the tomato plants.  Two weeks ago Cindy ripped out the Sweet Seedless tomato plant because it was showing clear signs of some kind of bacterial wilt.

Yesterday, she also ripped out the First Prize tomato plant for the same reason.  As you can see from this photograph, the plant was showing many yellowing leaves and the whole plant had begun to droop over the protective panels.

It had plenty of tomatoes on the vines, but, since the plant was dying rapidly, there was no chance the tomatoes would be able to ripen before the plant collapsed completely.

When Cindy took the plant down, she cut a cross section from the biggest part of the stem, that clearly showed the progress of the fungal wilt, which gradually plugs the xylem tissue and eventually cuts off the supply of water to the plant.

Plant Cross Section

Without a microscopic analysis, we won't know whether this is  Fusarium Wilt or Verticillium Wilt, but in either case, it's not good news for the tomato plant.

Other Side of the Cross Section

Yellowing Leaves

After last year's experience with the Box Car Willie tomato plant that developed Fusarium Wilt, which led to the premature death of the plant, Cindy decided to conduct an experiment by grafting a Box Car Willie plant to disease-resistant root stock.

Although the ungrafted plant produced the first green tomato, that plant was the first to start showing signs of disease in the form of yellowing leaves at the base of the plant.

A few days later, the grafted Box Car Willie plant also started showing some yellowing of the lower leaves, and so did most of the other tomatoes.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared that most of the yellowing and leaf wilt was due to powdery mildew, probably caused by the high temperatures and very dry, Santa Ana winds we had a couple of weeks ago.  Cindy had put up cloth panels to protect the plants from the sun and heat, but not much could be done to protect them from the drying wind.

She has now removed the diseased leaves and sprayed the plants with neem oil, a fungicide that should prevent the spread of the powdery mildew spores.

The disease-resistant root stock on the grafted Box Car Willie plant should help it survive this, but we're still not sure about the ungrafted plant.

Tomatoes Up!

The tomatoes under the grow lights in Cindy's office are up and look to me like they are thriving.  That's a good thing, and I hope that continues because they're my responsibility while she's in Indiana.  

Tomatoes

This year's varieties are Champion II, Husky Cherry, Sweet Seedless, Stupice, First Prize, Ace, Sioux, Brandywine and Boxcar Willie.  

She's also raising some root stock and planning to graft the Boxcar Willie on to it, hoping to avoid the fusarium wilt problems that plant had last year.  

Looks like we should have plenty of tomatoes again this year.