Thank you Carolyn. Your posts are often helpful, but this one was particularly so.

I've almost completely abandoned F varieties this year...

I'm bumping up this old thread because I just lost the two plants at the end of my raised bed for the second year in a row. After much reading and some post wilt forensics, I'm convinced that it was probably a strain of fusarium wilt. Knowing that, what advice do you give for me going forward. Should I leave that spot fallow of tomatoes for a few years? Not ideal as I built a trellis on that bed especially for the tomatoes. Or should I go out and try some resistant varieties in that spot? Could I try them this year, or should I wait until next year. Would any kind of fungicide help improve my chances? Is there anyway to treat the soil, or to know that the fungus is finally gone? What should I do?
Susan

Great summary, Carolyn.

I recently lost an entire raised bed planted with potatoes to Verticillium wilt. Since the fungal spores stay in the soil for many years, I have learned that it is best to either let the bed go fallow for a few seasons, or plant non-host species, such as corn, legumes, or cereal grains for at least 2 or 3 years. You can learn more details from your local County Extension Office. If you live in a Mediterranean climate, The Daily Garden has good information, too.

frdnicholas,

I know it's been several years since you posted, but considering how Albuquerque, New Mexico is semi-arid, I'm guessing you don't encounter VF fungal wilts as often as some areas, if at all. I've never seen them in my semi-arid area (SW Idaho). That's not to say they can't thrive here, but I haven't seen them. Please let me know if you see them there. I have, however, seen other fungal infections (e.g. anthracnose, some kind of mold, alternaria, powdery mildew, and another thing, but fungal infections are not normally a big issue for tomatoes here, even when the plants are infected; the plants tend to live until it frosts).

Actually. I recently moved to Hinesville, Georgia which is near Savannah. I can't seem to figure out how to change my location in my profile. We inherited a large garden in buying our home. It's very sandy soil, so I'm adding raised beds, commercial soil and compost, so we'll see how that does next spring.

I am trying a product called (edit Humagro Promax) ProMax this year, and though it is mainly aimed at RKN in my patch it has the ability to stem the fungi you are describing which have been burning me up the last couple of years. I stole this list off the product page. I would not use homemade compost in the garden unless you know for a fact it got hard cooked and sterilized. Importing soil is risky too. It would be worth it for sterility purposes to know everything at least starts out clean. Its just too humid and hot here to hope for a natural sterility from the weather, but I have been tilling in Promax and am hopeful the freezing weather of late will also have a sterile effect on the RKN and other nasties in the top layers of soil I have been exposing. Here is the pathogen list of Promax, which is Thyme oil, and humic material from a mine in Arizona.

Pathogens

• Club Root Plasmodiophora brassicae

• Black Rot Xanthomonas campestris

• Anthracnose Fruit Rot Colletotrichum sp.

• Charcoal Rot Macrophomina sp.

• Crown Rot Fusarium sp.

• Damping Off Fusarium sp., Phytophthora sp., Pythium sp., Rhizoctonia sp.

• Grey Mold Botrytis sp.

• Root Rot Fusarium sp., Cylindrocarpon destructans, Pythium sp., Rhizoctonia sp.

• Stem rot Phytophtora sp., Sclerotium sp.

• Verticillium Wilt Verticillium sp.

• Stem Rot Sclerotium rolfsii

• White Rot Sclerotium cepivorum

Nematodes

• Burrowing Rodopholus

• Root knot Meloidogyne incognita

• Spiral Helicotylenchus

• Lesion Pratylenchus

• Lance Hoplolaimus galeatus

• Ring Criconemella xenoplax

• Cyst Heterodera glycines

• Reniform Rotylenchus robustus

• Stunt Tylenchorhynchus

• Sting Belonolaimus

Folks should be careful about ProMax. There is a fungicide called Promax, and a powerful herbicide (Roundup brand) called Pro Max (glyphosate). Just sayin ...

Yeah this is HumaGro PromMax. I do not think the fertilizer crowd is very creative with the names. ( I edited the previous post. If you need a character witness at your trial please let me know.)