Put the pests to work

[MissS]

I had a devastating tomato year. Most of my plants were wiped out with wilts. I struggled with how to dispose of my plants so that they would not contaminate anything further. I can not put yard waste into the trash and I can not burn either. Then I thought that I shall put my pests to work and I will open the garden gate and let the critters have their way. The deer, opossums and whatever else are doing something good for a change. They are making very light of my work. I'm overjoyed for once with their voracious appetites.

I had two plants that surprised me by resisting this disease, they were Stump of the World and Elgin Pink PL. I saved some seed of them for my own use and they will be the only two varieties planted in these beds next year. Everything else fell to it's knees. These beds can not be used for tomatoes, peppers or eggplants for the next 7 years unless they are resistant. Sigh...

Does anyone else know of some fusarium/verticillium wilt resistant OP tomatoes or eggplant varieties?

[PlainJane]

So sorry to hear about this. Gardening gives us so many challenges to overcome.

[karstopography]

Mighty mustard and their kin the brassicas get mixed reviews purging these wilt organisms from a garden. Some research suggest mustards help control Fusarium and Verticillium wilt and other research finds that these plants and their residues do nothing to control wilts. I wonder if Wisconsin is too far north to do a proper and thorough solarization treatment to kill fusarium and verticillium or does the sun have enough horsepower at that mid latitude to heat the soil up high enough for long enough to eradicate fusarium and verticillium? It would have to wait until next summer anyway so 2024 would be lost to tomatoes in those beds.

“Coyote” is one tough open pollination tomato as it relates to foliage issues. Coyote has the ability to battle foliage diseases better than anything else I have grown, but I don’t know which diseases specifically. Aren’t there different races of fusarium and verticillium? Coyote only makes 1-2 gram tomatoes unfortunately, but lots of them. I like the flavor of slightly underripe to ripe ones, but others don’t like any stage of ripeness. Coyote is a use immediately type of tomato with the shortest shelf life of anything tomato I have ever grown. Pick and consume almost immediately, within hours anyhow, at the desired stage of ripeness. Flavors change markedly at various stages of ripeness and slightly overripe coyote tomatoes are terrible, but slightly underripe ones are citrusy and tasty. Vanilla flavors come into play at peak ripeness. High ambient air temperatures improve and intensify the positive flavors of coyote tomatoes, so coyote might not be a good choice in less hot areas.

[GoDawgs]

That is such a heartbreaking experience. I know it well through bacterial wilt. It's never going away in my garden and is the reason why I have to grow my tomatoes in buckets. The strange thing is that it doesn't affect the other family members of peppers and potatoes. Eggplants don't wilt but they don't thrive either so they go into buckets too.

Glad your critters are helping for a change!

[Paulf]

There is no escaping the dreaded wilt, but there are practices that will reduce the problem. You are doing the main thing with complete garden sanitation. After the critters are gone be sure to clean out every bit of vegetation; go right down to the soil. I do a fall till and if we (you) get a hard freeze lots of the wilt pathogens will be reduced. Never will they be eradicated. Either this fall or next spring be sure to disinfect any cages with a bleach solution. And most importantly a good mulching program to keep soil splash away from any plants. Some places like to use a chemical spray to discourage pathogens. We are fairly similar and I have not had to use Daconil but once or twice. You must have had a perfect storm this year since our cold winters are to our advantage.

I am sure you already do that elemental stuff, so I am sorry to suggest things you already know but I always remind myself every year just to force myself into good gardening practices. My year was a bust as well but with a new to me twist of fate. Here's to us both having a better year in 2024>

[MissS]

There is no escaping the dreaded wilt, but there are practices that will reduce the problem. You are doing the main thing with complete garden sanitation. After the critters are gone be sure to clean out every bit of vegetation; go right down to the soil. I do a fall till and if we (you) get a hard freeze lots of the wilt pathogens will be reduced. Never will they be eradicated. Either this fall or next spring be sure to disinfect any cages with a bleach solution. And most importantly a good mulching program to keep soil splash away from any plants. Some places like to use a chemical spray to discourage pathogens. We are fairly similar and I have not had to use Daconil but once or twice. You must have had a perfect storm this year since our cold winters are to our advantage.

I am sure you already do that elemental stuff, so I am sorry to suggest things you already know but I always remind myself every year just to force myself into good gardening practices. My year was a bust as well but with a new to me twist of fate. Here's to us both having a better year in 2024>

It's always good to walk through the basics on the forum so that new members can learn what some of us already know.

How I managed to get this in two beds that were only one year old, I haven't much clue unless the mulch that I used was contaminated. The first year I had herbicide infected soil and this year wilts. It's getting harder and harder to garden anymore. The plants will just have to live in my rocky clay with a healthy dose of leaves on top for the next new beds. I'm done bringing anything into my yard to amend my soil.

Here is to both of us having more fun next year.

[bower]

Sorry to hear it! I had a wicked year myself due to the Alternaria alternata blight.
I'm planning to get my hands on some tomatoes bred for resistance, and see how they stack up against our OP's. I'll let you know when I do get seeds @MissS because many of those have VF resistance bred in as well, so I will share with you whatever VF resistant seeds I can find.
I didn't know what to do with my plants either, so I made a big compost pile which will go to something resistant.
The vole that ate everything else is now living in there, so I guess I'll call it work now as well!

[Paulf]

[/quote]
How I managed to get this in two beds that were only one year old, I haven't much clue unless the mulch that I used was contaminated. The first year I had herbicide infected soil and this year wilts. It's getting harder and harder to garden anymore. The plants will just have to live in my rocky clay with a healthy dose of leaves on top for the next new beds. I'm done bringing anything into my yard to amend my soil.

Here is to both of us having more fun next year.
[/quote]

This was the first time I have ever had herbicide infected straw used for mulch. After the death of more than half the tomato plants I discovered it was 2-4-D rather than the dreaded Grazon which could have contaminated the soil for a couple of years. 2-4-D life is much shorter. I am scraping the straw off the garden. I also planted a bunch of green beans in the soil just to see what's what. They grew fine so I am confident there will be a garden next year. I will continue to mulch like before and will be sure to ask about herbicide in the straw.

[Shule]

Great idea with the animals.

I've been focusing on finding OP Verticillium-resistant tomatoes for a time, now.

Here are a few to consider, which I've grown and found to be resistant:

Galapagos Island (it might get some early leaf yellowing, but after that you don't need to worry; it's more resistant than most resistant ones later in the season)
Roma VF
Cal Ace VF
Early Cascade

Napoli is supposed to be resistant, too. Not sure how resistant it is, though (because one of the crosses with it wasn't resistant), but I've grown it a lot in the past.

I don't know if Amana Orange is resistant, but I've never had it wilt from Verticillium (it has had foliar symptoms, though).

If you're looking for peppers, I recommend growing Canary Bell. It can get some leaf symptoms, but it does pretty well anyway.

Here's what I wrote in one of the files on varieties I've been studying (these might be at SHPC):

Bicentennial (CTV; Verticillium wilt; Fusarium wilt race 1; CTV; fruit rot; OP; determinate)
Columbian (CTV; Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; OP)
Ida Red (CTV; Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; fruit cracking; similar to VF 145 B7; OP; determinate)
Parma (Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; CTV; similar to Ace; OP)
Red Lode (Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; CTV; fruit rots; cracking; similar to Ace; OP; determinate)
Rowpac (Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; CTV; OP; adapted to machine harvesting; at SHPC)
Roza (CTV; Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; Alternaria tenuis; OP; at SHPC)
Saladmaster (CTV; Verticillium, Fusarium, and Alternaria tenuis; at SHPC)
Super Star (CTV; Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; fruit rots; cracking; OP; determinate)

V.R. Moscow (at SHPC)

At Victory Seeds:
Roma VF (at Victory Seeds)

Heinz VF

Marglobe: resists Verticillium and Fusarium wilt; determinate

VR Earliest of All Tomatoes

Trophy (also at SHPC)

Early Santa Clara Canner: some reported resistance to Verticillium

Medford: VF; det

Cherokee Red: V1; FF; cross between Walter and Ace 55 VF

Loran Blood: one of the earlier Verticillium-resistant varieties used to create others; has the Ve gene

Riverside: resists Verticillium and Fusarium wilts; cross between Marvana and Santa Clara (it links to Early Santa Clara canner; Marvana doesn't claim Verticillium resistance on the site, so perhaps Riverside got it from Santa Clara)

I've found prefertilization to be helpful in the face of Verticillium. Even though it's all over the garden, I didn't have any plants die from it this year (for the first time in a couple years). I think the prefertilization helped. I didn't do any fertilization during the season at all, but I loaded the soil up with fertilizer a while before I transplanted anything. The peppers really seemed to like that treatment the most, though. I got bigger, heavier peppers, too.

Watering diligently during the heat also seems important to reduce new onset of disease symptoms.

[Shule]

Verticillium is normally supposed to spread by soil, but I think our mites spread it, or something, because it gradually spread everywhere over the last two or three years.

[Shule]

Here's the contents another similar file:

Ace 55
Atkinson
Basketvee (race 1)
Cal Ace (purchased)
Calypso
Campbell 33
Caribe
Cherokee Chocolate (not sure if this is true, but it might be)
Chico III
Cougar (race 1)
Dona (race 1)
Early Cascade
Glamour
Gold Dust (race 1)
Hard Rock
Husky Red (race 1)
Ida Red
Italian Gold (golden orange paste; VFF determinate; 3-6oz; 75 days; OP; Reimer Seeds <https://www.reimerseeds.com/italian-gold-tomato.aspx>)
Liberty Bell
Mac Pink
Manitoba
Marglobe
Marglobe Improved (AKA Marglobe VF)
Marglobe Select
Marglobe Supreme
Marmande
Milagro (race 1)
Monte Carlo
Mountain Gold (race 1)
Napoli
New Yorker V
Northern Delight
Nova (get this if available)
Oregon Spring
Oroma
Ozark Pink VF (https://www.southernexposure.com/produc ... vf-tomato/)
Porter
Porter Improved
Roma VF
Rossol
Royal Chico
Rutgers
Rutgers Improved
Rutgers Select
San Marzano II
Santiam (race 1)
Siletz (race 1)
Sunray (purchased; claimed, but the parents don't claim resistance; golden orange; 8-10oz; OP; AKA Golden Sunray; Pan American x Jubilee; 75 days; VFF; <https://www.reimerseeds.com/sunray-tomato.aspx>)
Super Beefsteak
Super Marmande
Super Marzano (race 1)
Triumph
Tropic
Tumbling Tom Yellow
Willamette

Possible resistance, because offspring are said to be resistant:
- Jubilee (Pan American was the other)
- Tangerine (it's an ancestor of Jubilee which might have passed it the resistance)

[Shule]

Here's another one:

This list is for indeterminate open-pollinated tomatoes with resistance to both Verticillium and Fusarium:

Cabernet V1 FF TMV
Cambria V1 FF TMV N
Centennial V1 F (Roma is a parent)
Cherry King V1 F N
Conquest V1 F N (There's a determinate by the same name.)
Diva V1 FF TMV Gray Leaf Spot
Felix VFFN TMV
Flavor King VFF
Grand Prix VF
Husky Gold VF (rugose)
Husky Pink VF Alternaria stem canker
Jack V1 FF TMV N gray leaf spot Alternaria Stem Canker
Montecarlo VFN

West Virginia 63 (Centennial)

[Shule]

That's really great to know about Stump of the World and Elgin Pink PL.

@MissS If you want any seeds for Galapagos Island, let me know. I don't know anyone who carries the kind I have. It's an early prolific indeterminate yellow/gold cherry. Plants in colder soil (i.e. without black plastic) are more polite. With black plastic, they're huge.

[Shule]

Oh. I have a couple cautions for you, if you have Verticillium in the garden:

Don't grow potatoes or strawberries. Just don't (unless you're really super determined to find resistant ones, maybe).

Don't plant horseradish. The horseradish will be fine, but it will harbor the Verticillium, and it's hard to get rid of horseradish once it's there.

[Gardadore]

Would Earthboxes help?
This was a tough year for tomatoes for a lot of us. Not sure what I got but most plants lost leaves and had to be covered so tomatoes would’ve sunburn. Tomatoes were so slow to ripen that many split or rotted on the vine. Tried to pick early but many like the GWR varieties rotted indoors as well. Hoping for a better experience in 2024 and that whatever affected them dies out over the winter! Dana’s Dusky Rose went all through the summer in a square Earthbox (as opposed to the larger rectangular ones which I use for eggplants.) Started rotting on the vine at the end but I believe cooler nights played a role in all of that as well.

[Yak54]

So sorry to hear that your 2023 garden year was such a struggle. But you are a smart gal and you will find solutions to get ahead of this ! Bacterial wilt became a problem for me 7-8 years ago. So much so that I stopped growing "in ground" and switched to grow bags with ProMix. Things greatly improved ever since. But I must disinfect my old wire cages with bleach every year and plants usually stay healthy. I just took down most of my tomato and pepper plants the last two days. Left the Rebel Yell and Cowlick's plant up along with one Hatch mild and an Anaheim pepper so I can harvest some more fruit before we get a frost. My season was not as productive as the last 4-5 years but most plants produced a fair amount except my AGP which only gave 10 tomatoes. So we get to do it all over again next year. God willing !

[habitat-gardener]

I wonder if Polaris might be worth trying. It has been an especially vigorous plant in my gardens the past few years, producing delicious medium to large dark fruit. My garden had nematodes in some beds this year and last, and Polaris was one of the few OPs that not only survived but produced well last year.

[GoDawgs]

How I managed to get this in two beds that were only one year old, I haven't much clue unless the mulch that I used was contaminated. The first year I had herbicide infected soil and this year wilts. It's getting harder and harder to garden anymore. The plants will just have to live in my rocky clay with a healthy dose of leaves on top for the next new beds. I'm done bringing anything into my yard to amend my soil.

I hear ya loud and clear!Twelve years ago I brought in soil for the new raised bed building project. I'm quite sure now that's where the nematodes came from because I had never had them before. Over the years they've slowly moved through the garden. This year it was the herbicide tainted compost in the tomato buckets, something I had never bought before. That's it. No more new and unproven outside stuff brought in!

I don't know how much compost I can generate between now and April to mixed with safe bagged stuff so tomato and eggplant bucket inputs this coming year will be drastically reduced.

[MissS]

@GoDawgs I know right. I have been following your challenges and you sure do have them. I don't have all that much yard waste to turn into compost but I won't be bringing any new soil type products into my yard.

I have made two new beds and need something to fiIl them with. I would love to have my neighbors leaves but they had their trees sprayed this spring with something so it's a no go for me.