|
Post by raphanus on May 19, 2021 17:37:35 GMT -5
This year I have about a dozen tomatoes in the ground, a dozen in raised beds, two dozen or so in 7 or 10 gallon fabric pots, 10 in five gallon buckets and 1 in a giant clay pot. A hundred or so still in 50 cell trays I need to plant or give away. Mostly brandywine yellow, a few cherries, an indigo rose, a few beefsteak, and a bunch of rando unknowns. Most are in a mixture of half potting mix and half composted manure (organic chicken compost, black kow. Never really any pest issues other than a few leaf footed bugs. Bacterial canker is something I see most years, but it seems earlier this year. I don’t know as much about the disease as I would like. I take precautions like practicing crop rotation and trying to prune off leaves that are close to the ground. I’ve never bothered treating seeds though. I have canker bad on four tomatoes that are in five gal buckets pretty close together on a piece of plywood. The buckets were brand new, I used brand new potting mix, and it was a Ferry Morse seed pack I just bought at Lowe’s a few months ago. They are in full sun. They were supposed to be my main producers. Ironically, all of my other tomatoes that I put less work into are doing fine with no canker, and some were from the same seed pack. My tomatoes in the ground and in raised beds all look great. The ones in part shade are much lusher and darker green and larger than the ones in full sun. The Brandywine Yellow variety I was excited about and got a ton of seed of, there are many large plants, but yields look really low. Tomato season is almost over for me unfortunately. I have some homeycomb hybrid orange cherries I just started in 50 cell trays and plan to keep in the shade house until September for a fun Thanksgiving harvest. In the future I think I will go back to growing mostly peppers and eggplants and just do a few heat tolerant short season determinate varieties. There are a few heat tolerant varieties but unfortunately zero varieties resistant to bacterial canker. Maybe I’ll try to breed one but that seems unlikely.
|
|
|
Post by Wheelgarden on May 19, 2021 18:34:16 GMT -5
That's pretty darn rugged, raphanus . I used to have problems with early canker, so I started using bt amyloliquefaciens as a soil-soak preventative measure before and during planting, and have less problems now. Helps with later virus and fungus issues, too. Available through Gardens Alive (www.gardensalive.com) as "Garden Sentinel Biofungicide". Don't know if it's your answer, but it might help. Don't give up on tomatoes!
|
|
|
Post by pepperhead212 on May 19, 2021 18:41:35 GMT -5
Something that I do to sort of sterilize "used" mix, in my SIPs, was some hydrogen peroxide - about a cup to a gallon of water. Strange things is, the only plants I am having a problem with are two Louisiana All Season in the same SIP, and it has all new mix! Both have signs of septoria - something that usually starts showing up in late July or August!
Today, I sprayed some peroxide solution on just those plants - 2 tb to a quart of water, and I poured the remainder on the soil around the plants. I'll see how it works.
A peroxide solution might be worth trying on the bacterial canker, since it is antibiotic. I haven't had a problem with canker, but it's worth trying.
I just sprayed some Messenger on my plants - this is Harpin protein, which is supposed to trigger the immune response in plants, and it's supposed help against fungal, viral, and bacterial diseases. I'm also trying it on cucumbers - bacterial wilt develops on most varieties in my garden, which is why I have to grow only resistant varieties. This isn't going to help with the existing canker, but has to be started early. Maybe there's some info out there about harpin and tomato canker, specifically.
|
|
|
Post by gardendmpls on May 19, 2021 20:22:10 GMT -5
Canker seems to be spread first on seeds, so seeds should be soaked briefly in bleach solution. If you buy plants, they should be certified disease free. the disease moves between plants in water spray and also remains infectious for several years on garden stakes and tools, so sanitation is important. I found good information in the following article. Unfortunately there are no current resistant varieties and not much treatment either: extension.umn.edu/diseases/bacterial-canker-tomato#chemical-control-1875162
|
|
|
Post by emmsmommy on May 19, 2021 22:26:12 GMT -5
raphanus, I had an issue with Black Kow compost last year and believe it contained pesticide residue. I had used it for several years with no issues but will never buy it again as I've read of several others having similar issues. Could this have caused your tomato issues?
|
|
|
Post by gardendmpls on May 19, 2021 23:08:00 GMT -5
Could this have caused your tomato issues? The disease is caused by bacteria. Hot composting will kill the ones that cause bacterial canker, so if it was hot composted and not handled with bacterially contaminated tools, most likely not. The problem seen with compost lately is contamination with a specific herbicide which does not break down for several years, even when eaten and pooped out.
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on May 20, 2021 6:26:32 GMT -5
Canker seems to be spread first on seeds, so seeds should be soaked briefly in bleach solution. If you buy plants, they should be certified disease free. the disease moves between plants in water spray and also remains infectious for several years on garden stakes and tools, so sanitation is important. I found good information in the following article. Unfortunately there are no current resistant varieties and not much treatment either: extension.umn.edu/diseases/bacterial-canker-tomato#chemical-control-1875162Thanks for the responses everyone. It must have been from the seed pack. I’ve read a lot of good extension info online, but still don’t have a great idea of how easily it spreads from plant to plant. 1. Are plants contagious as soon as symptoms appear? 2. If I don’t share tools/stakes between plants, can it still spread via wind and watering? 3. How far away should other tomatoes be from the infected ones to be safe? 4. Should I just cull all the infected ones even if they have green fruits on them? I think there’s probably some bacteria in my native soil and raised beds since I’ve grown tomatoes every year for two decades and ive seen this before, but I go hard on cover cropping every winter with garlic and mustards and other sanitizing plants. I’ll plan to start treating seeds from now on. Luckily I’ve never seen this disease at my orchard. I wonder why there are no resistant varieties and how hard it would be to develop one? I’ll try preventative hydrogen peroxide sprays next year but I’m not sure if a topical spray does much for a systemic disease
|
|
|
Post by gardendmpls on May 20, 2021 8:30:27 GMT -5
According to what I have read, it is not too much of a problem in the field on farms.
"In the field, infected transplants often die and secondary spread is limited or of little economic impact."
This might explain why they haven't developed a resistant variety. However, it does seem to impact greenhouses with their higher humidity. They also prune the plants, which introduces the disease into the stems if they are not continually disinfecting their tools. Maybe it is just hard to develop the resistant trait.
|
|
|
Post by raphanus on May 21, 2021 6:05:02 GMT -5
According to what I have read, it is not too much of a problem in the field on farms. "In the field, infected transplants often die and secondary spread is limited or of little economic impact." This might explain why they haven't developed a resistant variety. However, it does seem to impact greenhouses with their higher humidity. They also with prune the plants, which introduces the disease into the stems if they are not continually disinfecting their tools. Maybe it is just hard to develop the resistant trait. Thank you, this makes me feel better. It is only on four plants right now and they are all close to each other but aren’t near other tomatoes. Hopefully I can harvest them all this week and then just cull them and the rest will be fine
|
|