Tomato wilt - Ask Extension
What can cause tomato wilt . There are not any black walnut trees in the area. I have already totally lost two plants and the wilt is beginning on t...
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Tomato wilt #798690
Asked June 29, 2022, 7:59 PM EDT
What can cause tomato wilt . There are not any black walnut trees in the area. I have already totally lost two plants and the wilt is beginning on the one pictured. I believe it must be something in the soil. Please advise. Thank you.
Bonnie
Frederick County Maryland
Expert Response
Hi,
There are several possible causes of tomato plant wilt including low soil moisture, excess soil moisture, root injury, and diseases. If you can rule out the first three possible causes it is possible that your plants are infected with a soil-borne wilt disease. (Is it possible that the buried buckets are holding excess moisture?)
Hybrid varieties have resistance to fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt diseases although the degree of resistance varies. Heirloom varieties are typically highly susceptible.
Fusarium wilt is the most common wilt disease in MD home gardens (can survive in the soil for years even without host plants). Wilting usually starts on one side of the plant and is accompanied by leaf yellowing. Verticillium wilt produces V-shaped leaf lesions and yellowing. Wilted stems recover some of their turgor at night but the wilting of plants in both cases is progressive. Both of these fungal diseases block up the vascular tissue which produces wilting. Take a razor blade and slice through the "skin" lower part of a wilted stem (run the razor blade up along the stem to reveal the vascular tissue below. A tan or brown discoloration of the vascular tissue is a confirming symptom of one of these two wilt diseases.
Bacterial wilt of tomato causes a fairly rapid whole plant wilt. Roots systems are usually small and brown. Very few resistant cultivars (Heatmaster is one of them).
http://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/files/ppfs-vg-15.pdf
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/fusarium-wilt-tomatoes-home-garden
If the wilt is caused by a disease you should remove all affected plants. It may be possible to locate and plant hybrid transplants with resistance, or perhaps friends or neighbors will give you suckers from their hybrid plants that you can plant (water them multiple times per day for the first week).
List of heat-resistant cultivars from Cornell University.
Jon
There are several possible causes of tomato plant wilt including low soil moisture, excess soil moisture, root injury, and diseases. If you can rule out the first three possible causes it is possible that your plants are infected with a soil-borne wilt disease. (Is it possible that the buried buckets are holding excess moisture?)
Hybrid varieties have resistance to fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt diseases although the degree of resistance varies. Heirloom varieties are typically highly susceptible.
Fusarium wilt is the most common wilt disease in MD home gardens (can survive in the soil for years even without host plants). Wilting usually starts on one side of the plant and is accompanied by leaf yellowing. Verticillium wilt produces V-shaped leaf lesions and yellowing. Wilted stems recover some of their turgor at night but the wilting of plants in both cases is progressive. Both of these fungal diseases block up the vascular tissue which produces wilting. Take a razor blade and slice through the "skin" lower part of a wilted stem (run the razor blade up along the stem to reveal the vascular tissue below. A tan or brown discoloration of the vascular tissue is a confirming symptom of one of these two wilt diseases.
Bacterial wilt of tomato causes a fairly rapid whole plant wilt. Roots systems are usually small and brown. Very few resistant cultivars (Heatmaster is one of them).
http://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/files/ppfs-vg-15.pdf
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/fusarium-wilt-tomatoes-home-garden
If the wilt is caused by a disease you should remove all affected plants. It may be possible to locate and plant hybrid transplants with resistance, or perhaps friends or neighbors will give you suckers from their hybrid plants that you can plant (water them multiple times per day for the first week).
List of heat-resistant cultivars from Cornell University.
Jon
