Home Gardening

Tomatoes most popular garden vegetable
The Coast Gardener Newspaper and Web Column - July 7, 2001

Tomatoes are perhaps the most versatile and popular vegetables home gardeners can grow. I was amazed to learn that my father has canned 36 quarts of tomatoes from his garden so far this summer! He put out a flat of Celebrity tomatoes (72 plants) along with every other vegetable you can think of. After a couple of years of disappointment, the plants are loaded this year. Although I'm not a fan of fresh tomatoes, I love canned ones in soups and stews.

Unfortunately, tomatoes can be difficult to grow. They are perfect for patio containers and are sometimes easiest to grow this way. You can't grow a whole flat in containers, but three or four plants on your patio can provide fresh produce all season long.

What, then, seems to be the problem with growing them? There is often no simple solution to this question. Without careful observation, it can be difficult to determine the cause of the problem. As I discussed in a previous column, blossom-end rot is a problem that is quite common. After the remnants of Allison paid the Coast a visit, the problem worsened. This surge of flooding rains interrupted the calcium flow in the plant and caused much fruit to rot.

If your tomatoes start to wilt or show signs of stress, you need to find out why. If you know what is causing the problem, you'll know how to correct it. I will discuss several diseases that frequently affect homegrown tomatoes.

Southern Blight

This disease is most prevalent later in the season after several days of hot, rainy weather. The most obvious sign of this fungal disease is a white, webby fungus on the stem near the soil line. The plant will rapidly wilt and die.

The only control method is to remove the plant and the soil immediately around the plant. Cultivate the area deeply to bury any remaining fungus.

Fusarium Wilt

The first sign of this disease is the yellowing of older (lower) leaves on one side of the plant only. Plants will wilt during the hottest part of the day and recover by sunset. The tomato wilt continues to worsen until the plant fails to recover and then dies. If you cut into the stem just above the soil line, it will be brown instead of green.

Always choose those tomato varieties with the letters VFN on the tag. They are resistant to Fusarium wilt.

Bacterial Wilt

This is a disease that is harder to identify. This disease does move quickly because affected plants may appear healthy early in the morning and look sick by that afternoon. They look as though boiling water has been poured over them. The lowest part of the stem and upper roots will be rotted upon close observation. The easiest way to identify bacterial wilt is to suspend a cut stem in a glass of water. After a few minutes you will see clear streams of bacteria flowing from the cut.

There are no resistant varieties to this disease and nothing you can do to save an infected plant. The bacteria will live in the soil for many years, even without tomatoes growing there. It is important to rotate your plants. In other words, move them to a new location if you can. Otherwise, containerized plants may be the best option.

Since I'm about out of room for this week, I will tackle more tomato diseases next week. I will surely include a discussion about spotted wilt virus. I have seen several confirmed cases of this dreaded disease so far this year.

These archived gardening columns were written by Chance McDavid, former Harrison County Extension Agent.