Regina,

I can't see ants as being the cause of rapid wilting.

What was the result of taking an affected stem and putting it in water?

Carolyn

Really? Uh-oh. I didn't try it, I was so confident it was whatever critter was colonizing the roots. I will have to try it in the morning. Also maybe poke a stick around in there, see if I can see if it's really ants or something else.

No milky white stuff came from the cut stem in water. I also poked around in the soil & mulch around the base and saw no bugs of any kind. The base of the stem is all white and pithy, and there is white stuff -- looks like the same as the pithy stem -- in the surrounding mulch. I took another picture, I thought clearer than the first, but it seems like photobucket lowers the resolution..... Carolyn, can I e-mail it to you? Or do you pretty much have an idea what I am describing?

If you think the plant is a loss, I will be interested to see what I see when I pull it out by the roots. Sad, though. This is why I did not want to plant just one of each variety, although that is what I ended up doing. Relieved to have fruit to save seeds from, anyway. There is another one ripening on the wilted vine, too.

The base of the stem is all white and pithy, and there is white stuff --

Check out Southern Blight casued by Sclerotium, pictures in the Problem Solver # 2 thread or via Google Images and also text via Google.

Carolyn

Yes, Carolyn, that's it! I'll pull out the plant this evening and try to take out surrounding soil along with it. Since it doesn't seem to have affected neighboring plants, maybe I can nip it in the bud. Then plant corn in that bed next year!

What a shame, too bad it was not a more common tomato. Or something mediocre like the Yellow Pears.