This looks like bacterial wilt disease. You can diagnose this disease by cutting a 3"-4" section from the main stem toward the base of the plant and suspending it in a glass of water. If it is bacterial wilt, you will see a milky stream of bacteria ooze from the stem into the water after it sits awhile. If it is bacterial wilt, you should not plant back in the same spot again since the disease is soilborne.

Thanks for the reply.

I took off about 6"-7" of the main stem because the plant is about 3' tall. When I put it in the water, it stayed clear. Nothing came out of the stem after about 15 mins. of it being in the water. I'll give it a little longer.

What's confusing is that all your other plants look fine and you see no whiteflies or other insects that could transmit one of the more common gemini viral diseases found in FL.

What were the initial symptoms? Initial symptoms if it were Bacterial Wilt would have been sudden wilting with the leaves still green. Were there any leaves that curled, any leaves with spots on them?

If it were Fusarium, even delayed, it wouldn't go down that fast. Same with Root Knot Nematodes. But again, all your other plants are fine and I assume all have a PVC pipe next to them as well and all are growing in the same soil.

I see a label there so this appears to be a purchased plant. Were all your others purchased plants and all from the same place?

How long did it take for the plant to go from looking great to what you show us now?

Carolyn

Hi Carolyn,

I would say that all day Wednesday, it looked great. It had quite a few new buds, no discoloration, bugs or anything like that. We did use some neem oil on all the plants about a week before.

On Thursday, it started to wilt and by Saturday, it looked really bad.

The tomato is store bought from the local Lowes I think. I bought this back in Sept. of 08'. It was in a 5 gallon pot and has been in the ground for about 2 months.

I have some romaine lettuce planted about 1' to 1/2' from the tomato. The lettuce was not store bought. I have about 6-8 roma tomatoes that we started from seeds and 2 cherry tomatoes that were store bought. The cherries are on the other side of the garden which is about 13' long.

The test I did for bacterial wilt might not be acurate at all because I did not cut the stem towards the base. I actually cut one of the lowest "branches" off towards the base.

Is there any way I can do an accurate test without destroying the plant? If it can be salvaged, that would be great. lol

Anyway, I took some more pics for you. I wish I had taken some of the plant before it wilted. It was like night and day.

Base of the plant:

This is the top of the plant:

Here are some pics of the leaves. To the best of my knowledge, it did not have these spots before it wilted. I know for certain, it was not yellow at all.

Here is a picture of the romaine right next to the tomato. You can also see some of the new roma tomatoes in the picture.

Thanks for everyone's help.

I appreciate it.

A remote possibility is that the plant was struck by lightening. Rapid wilting of a healthy tomato plant is usually a symptom of bacterial wilt but a lightening strike can do the same thing. I see you have a metal cage around the plant, which would make it more susceptible to a lightening strike. If you split the stems on plants struck by lightening, you will see that the pith in the stem has collapsed. Lightening can really knock the pith out of tomato stems, and you too if you happen to get struck.

This plant is not going to produce any more tomatoes for you and if it was in my garden, I would dig it up and take it to the local extension office or a good full-service garden center (not a big-box hardware store) for diagnosis of the problem. The sooner you do that, the more likely you are to be able to protect the rest of your plants from the same thing happening to them. If this is a disease then it can easily spread to the rest of the garden.

Sandy

So more than likey my problem is not due to over or under watering right?

So more than likey my problem is not due to over or under watering right?

No. This plant was badly stressed/weakened by over-watering - the severe leaf toll while still green proves that - but that just made it more susceptible to whatever finally did it in. There is far more wrong with it than just over-watering. And I agree that it cannot be saved and should be pulled. Check the root development when pulled as it looks like it suffered severe root damage of some kind as well.

I know that doesn't help IDing what happened to it but don't put anymore energy into trying to revitalize it - ain't gonna happen, sorry. Re-do the wilt test once pulled - a large branch cut next to the stem will work - or take the plant to the county extension office.

Dave

Thanks everyone!
Happy Easter BTW...

You have that plant in a pot mixed with local sugar sand. That stuff is LOADED with nematodes. Since the plant is dead anyway, pull it up and check the roots for massive lesions. Nematodes can and will do exactly what you show under some conditions in South Florida.

DarJones

I'm going to be pulling the plant in an hour or so. I'm going to do the wilt test and I will also check the roots for lesions and knots. I'll snap a few pics because I obviously need help.

For the nematodes, do I fight these things with compost or some sort of insecticide? I'm kind of worried about these now because have have quite a few tomatoes in the same garden and if that's the problem I have, then I need something to kill them without killing the rest of the plants.

I'll let everyone know what I find.

Looking at the leaves the first thing that came to mind is the Tobacco Mosaic virus.

Darrel, agreed that pathogenic nematodes do prefer sand to build up to destructive populations but that plant is inground and the other plants did not come down with the disease, so unless big nodules are found on the roots of this one plant I think it's a bit premature so say it is nematodes.

lazyhat, plants with TMV have leaves that are very spindly and distorted and that's not what I'm seeing. In addition, TMV is really no longer a problem for backyard gardeners with few exceptions.

It is more likely to be transmitted manually in large commercial operations and besides, the poster said no insects were seen which is how TMV is usually transmitted.

For the past 20 years or so all tobacco grown in the US has been TMV tolerant although turkish tobaccos are not.

Most infections that resemble TMV are actually due to CMV ( cucumber mosaic virus) which is often confused with TMV symptomatically.

Carolyn

I dug up the plant and did the wilt test again and I saw no milky stuff come from the stem. I also checked the roots for lesions, knots, and bugs. Didn't see anything.

I'll let you guys and ladies tell me if the roots look damaged, but I didnt think they did.

I brought in a tomato off the plant and sliced it open. It looked ok.

I did see this 1 black looking worm thing on the base of the stem though. It was about 1/4" long. No pic of that though. Not sure if it did all that damage in such a short time. There we no holes in any of the fruit.

1st 2 pics are not washed off.

now that you cut it did you try the ooze test?

Am I on the wrong track, or could it Fusarium wilt?

http://www.avrdc.org/pdf/tomato/fusarium.pdf

I know Carolyn that you said F. would not happen that fast, but all the symptoms seem to match up. Perhaps the conditions were just right for a rapid infection and wilting of the plant? I don't know...