In this wet and humid weather most of us didn’t have a chance to grow tomatoes outdoors successfully. I thought I had managed to escape the early blight what was reported in several part of the country but if blight don’t strike something else will in this weather. This year is the best for all sorts of fungal diseases as they love humid conditions and cooler temperatures. Sometimes it is not easy to identify the diseases but you don’t always have to. One rule applies to all of them: destroy the affected plants as oon as you are sure that it is a fungi, burning is your best option. All the fungal diseases can survive in the soil for years so crop rotation is essential if you had some sort of tomato diseases, don’t grow the plants at the same spot next year.
Fuzarium wilt
What my plants have developed on their top is something that looks like fuzarium wilt. This fungi can be present in your soil and not affect your plants too much in average years or the spores can come with the wind. And as the leaves were wet most of the time this summer the spores had no problem to infect the plants. So at this case the wilting starts from the top of the plants as you can see it on the picture. Often the you can see that half of the plant or leaves wilt as the fungi grows into the water conducting vessels to infect further parts of the plant. You can see brown discolouration on the stems and inside the stems too if you cut them.
Verticillium wilt
Verticcilium often occurs later in the season when the plant has lots of fruit and there is a dry spell in the weather. Typical on tomato leaves that the edges show V – shaped light brown discoloration which look and feel dry. Verticillium will not kill the plants in most cases and you can have a crop; just remove affected leaves and make sure that there is enough air circulation around the plants.
Solution
Remove the affected plants/leaves and burn them. Don’t plant tomatoes at the same place for 3-5 years. Make sure you remove the lower, yellowing leaves of the plants, this will ensure that there is enough air circulation which will reduce the humidity around the plants. Also if the plants are very bushy you can remove some leaves in the middle too. Spray your plants with garlic spray, this will make the plant tissue stronger and repel aphids too.
