Poll: Most significant tomato disease (for you)

[Shule]

I'm making this poll to run indefinitely. It shouldn't show who voted, but it should show the vote counts.

This is only for pathogen-related diseases (not for things like edema, BER, catfacing, etc.)

Edit: I mispelled Pythium as Pithium.

[karstopography]

Anthracnose, I have had this get my tomatoes, but it has been a couple of years.

[Cole_Robbie]

Fusarium will overwinter on Johnson grass roots, especially under black plastic that isn't picked up in the fall, and do so well north of where such a thing is expected. That was my biggest lesson in tomato diseases.

[rossomendblot]

Never had anything other than late blight and botrytis here, the latter only being a problem in the greenhouse.

[Tormahto]

My most significant tomato disease is collecting and trialing thousands of varieties. There is no cure.

[worth1]

I have no idea what takes my tomato plants out.
Some kind of mold or fungus.

[Tormahto]

I have no idea what takes my tomato plants out.
Some kind of mold or fungus.

Mold to the junior prom, and fungus to the senior prom?

[Torquill]

I was lucky enough to get the new strain of tomato pith necrosis (Pseudomonas mediterranea) in its first year in the U.S., approximately 2014. It took out a couple of plants, then next year I realized it was moving down the row by infecting my shears as I clipped tomatoes off the vine. By the third year most of my tomatoes collapsed just as the first fruit ripened, it killed my tomatillos stone dead (that's a feat!), and it stunted my zucchini so badly they never produced. I finally got a confirmation of the bacterial species from the state Ag Department when I brought a sample to them in Sacramento the following year.

The worst part: the Master Gardener Help Desk fielded a bunch of people who reported the same disease, and we figured it was because of the unusually cool and humid weather we were having. It wasn't until the end of the saga that I realized 90% of the people reporting the disease had bought seedlings from the Master Gardeners, of varieties I had supplied the seed for. I scrapped my seed library at that point, but my garden was so contaminated I had to switch to containers. I'm starting over in a different state now, and you can be sure I'll be exceptionally careful.

[Shule]

@Torquill
Oh, wow. That's no fun at all.

[MissS]

@Torquill that's heartbreaking. I'm so sorry to hear that. The good news is that you are here in this forum where tomato seeds fly around everywhere come fall and winter. Also since you have experienced this, nobody is better than you here to identify this when members have it on their plants and nobody has an answer of what it is.

[Torquill]

Thanks for the sympathy.

And yeah, I think I could diagnose pith necrosis in my sleep now. Granted, it's caused by six different pathogens, with slightly different symptoms, but if I never have to see another tomato loaded with blushing fruit whose stems are folding over like wet cardboard, it'll be too soon.

[mama_lor]

The only actual disease problem I have is powdery mildew, which means my conditions are atypical. I have partial cover, so direct water is rare, which makes powdery mildew the only possible disease. Or so I thought. Now, with the rise of the insects, viruses will be more and more prevalent, last year I had for the first time an unknown virus, which caused the typical bad stunting and stiff tips, but also unusual swelling of the pedicel, which does not correspond to any description I can find.

[mama_lor]

Torquill, interesting about the pith necrosis. I saw soemthing that looks like it in gardens around the area, no idea which strain, on tomatoes, with those odd cracks in the stem and little roots coming out in great numbers, but also on eggplants that turn to mush inside. Never saw a tomato plant die yet of it, luckily.