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amberroses

Disease Problems

15 years ago

Ok, first the nasty green worms and now this! My garden has been attacked by what I think is a virus. I first noticed a problem on one of my tomatoes. It had stunted leaf growth, little brown spots, and a purple area on the main stem. Well it looked exactly like TSWV so I pulled it with a heavy heart.

Next other tomatoes developed stunted leaves. The new leaves on some are small and very ruffled on the edges. Others have curly distored leaves. There is no discoloration at all on the plants, but the leaf veins have an irregular pattern of development. This problems is also now on my peppers, my squash, and even my zinnias. It doesn't really look like the classic TSWV so I think maybe I have two viruses to worry about. Yikes.

In the Fall I didn't have any disease at all. After reading up on TSWV, I found out that thrips are most active in April-June. So my new plan for next year is to plant bullet proof hybrids in the Spring and heirlooms in the Fall.

Comments (6)

  • 15 years ago

    Oh Amber I feel your pain! I had a whole post typed up this morning and lost it. But I think you were the one on the FB forum that responded to my Diva Cucumber problem last month and I'm sad to report that I had to pull them yesterday. Cucumber mosaic virus was the likely culprit, they were stunted, leaves were small, ruffled and curly. The shoots that shoot out and attach for growth were turning brown and shriveling....then there's my beans...rust like crazy. I don't know what TSWV stands for but aphids and whiteflies are my enemy right now and they are everywhere.

    I feel your pain.....

    ~Jo

  • 15 years ago

    Thanks Jo, only a fellow gardener could understand. I hate it when I type something lengthy up and lose it too. Maybe my "other" virus is cucumber mosaic. It is so hard to tell with viruses. They all look similar but express themselves differently in different plants. TSWV is Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus. Pray you never have to deal with that. I don't even see what is spreading this thing.

  • 15 years ago

    Could it be the whitefly ? almost invisible.. I didn't know what it was until Tom pointed it out, but my tomatoes were similar to yours, and not setting fruit, Tom showed me the tiny little culprit..... now I spray sometimes daily, with little hand spray-bottles that Windex etc. come in... alternate Malathion, Neem Oil, and Organocide, I mix up a gallon of each and keep the little spray bottles full to make it easier, I just grab one and go at it.... and I have been getting 'maters now... but I tossed those that were so bad and started over..... if you shake the plant and see "dandruff" come off it, that is whitefly..... I got rid of my Hibiscus because it is a host, and stopped growing pole-beans, and I spread my 'mater plants around instead of in one bunch, and it seems to work... sally

  • 15 years ago

    It could be whitefly or thrips. The little devils also carry the viruses. I haven't seen any white flies on them, but I'll check my jasmine (whiteflies love it) to see if they are in the yard. The tomatoes did like it better in the Fall when I grew them on my concrete driveway. It was so messy looking though.

  • 15 years ago

    Amber, one of my containers has a tomato with the same curly destroyed leaves. It was so bad so it could not grow for at least a month. Interestingly, 4 feet from it, there is a row with all other tomato containers, and they are not touched by that at all. I started spraying it with mix of neem and spinosad every weeks and it seems to be better now. They are still far behind in size but growing. Leaves still don't look perfectly normal but not as bad as they were. Of course I don't expect many toms from that plant!

  • 15 years ago

    I also have a healthy tomato next to the bad ones. Brandywine Sudduth of all things is the healthiest most advanced tomato. It has three giant beefstakes and more setting. The worms are eating the virused tomatoes in the Earthboxes even though I sprayed Spinosad and Bt. I think I may be missing the inside part of the plant because it is so dense with leaves.

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