The best way I could answer your question is to do what I did, buy books on gardening. The best of the two books I purchasered was two book from Rodale, called "The Encyclopendia of Natural Insect & Disease Control", which goes into detail about insects and diseases, and "Garden Answers", which tells about organic gardening, insects and disease. Both of these books have helped my wife and I with our gardening problems.

You mention that the VA Tech Extension has no info, have you explored the county extension sites? I did find the one article linked below that lists the common tomato disease problems in Virginia (apparently) since that was where the research was done. ;) Also check out this list of Tomato Resources offered by U of VA: Tomato Resources

Another option is the local Master Gardener program. Members are usually long-time gardeners in your area with lots of info to share.

Lastly, if you Google any of the specific diseases by name you can usually find info that pinpoints the regions it affects.

Hope some of this helps. ;)

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Southwest Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Center - Selected vegetable Diseases

Carolyn or some others will say that in that area disease X is or is not an issue. my question is which common problems should i be on the look out for and which ones are not an issue for me here in coastal virginia? the va tech extension website has nothing for me. is there a website that will show where certain diseases and fungi are most likely to be. you folks are an incredible resource. ahead of any answers thank you, jason

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Jason, knowing where certain diseases are or are not a problem is a problem, especially with the general sites since they do not usually discuss regionalization. And most state sites don't make a distinction either and just list everything.

If you do enough research reading you begin to understand what's where.

My knowledge of disease distribution came about in the following way.

Years ago in the early 90's Craig Lehoullier and I published a newsletter about heirloom tomatoes, or shall we say OP's, that was called Off the Vine (OTV)

At one point we wanted to do a disease survey with our subscribers. I had received for free 500 copies of a tomato disease guide from Ciba Geigy and we were going to send that out to participants.

But I wanted to know for myself which diseases were where although I had a general idea about that already from spending a lot of time online reading.

I contacted about 8 Universities or theii associated Master Gardener prograns or Coop Extensions, wherever I was sent when they knew what I was asking for. And these were in vaious regions of the US

I asked those folks to list for me the 10 most common diseases in their area other than foliage diseases which can be found almost everywhere, and that was wonderfully helpful to me.

Over the years the distribution of many of the virus diseases has changed and spread but I kept up with that in answering lots of disease questions, which I've cut way back on doing for lots of reasons.

Carolyn

Grey Mold (Botrytis)
Leaf Spots: Early Blight (Alternaria )and Septoria Leafspot
Anthracnose
Late Blight
Powdery Mildew
White Mold, Sclerotinia Blight
Phytophthora Blight and Fruit Rot
Bacterial Canker , Bacterial Speck and Bacterial Spot
Tobacco and Tomato Mosaic Virus
Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

Timmy's answer above covers most of the diseases you will encounter, however, it does not indicate which ones are most damaging and it leaves out two that can affect some areas. Tomato Spotted Wilt has devastated commercial growers in Virginia over the last 5 years. It is insect vectored on thrips and is very difficult to control. Grey Leaf Spot has been rampant on non-resistant varieties the last few years in areas that received higher than normal rainfall.

Both Verticillium and Fusarium have been seen in coastal regions of Virginia, unknown status in the western part of the state. The reason I know about this is emails from a couple of Virginia gardeners who had problems and got them diagnosed at state labs. They were asking for heirloom varieties with tolerance to these diseases. The list is rather limited, but Cherokee Purple holds up pretty well as does Red Mortgage Lifter, Heidi, and a handful of others. Tropic is very tolerant to several diseases such as Grey Mold though it is a commercial open pollinated variety from Florida, it is still a decent tomato in areas with serious problems. TSWV tolerance is currently available only in hybrids such as Amelia from Harris Moran.

Fusion

In addition, Fusarium has appeared in MD, NJ, MA and the lower part of NYS over the past years, which was a surprise to everyone, although sporadic reports from those areas had appeared before.

The Fusarium in MD was diagnosed following a submission of plant material to Rutgers. Normally Fusarium is restricted to those areas where the winters are mild and the ground doesn't freeze hard.

But again, it's the foliage diseases that are most common and are going to be the major problem for almost everyone. And they have a better prognosis than do the systemic diseases for which there is no cure.

Bacterial Wilt also is now recognized as being a problem in NYS in general, which surprised me.

Alternaria Stem Canker is almost completely restricted to CA.

What wasn't on the above list were all the many virus diseases which are becong a real problem as they move from the SE states such as FL along the Gulf Coast.

I'm always being surprised when certain diseases turn up in areas where they weren't a problem before. But especially with certain virus diseases where it's the changing/shifting populations of insect vectors that's the problem. And here I speak to the several Gemini viruses.

Carolyn

once again thank you. I knew y'all would come through with suggestions. seeing books suggested is odd in this day but i prefer them cause they don't make my eyes water. the va tech site contains many articles and i read many. i did not mean to say they had no info, just not exactly what i was looking for. Carolyn you are a treasure :) and I hope you continue to let us pick your brain for info. timmy and fusion, perfect answers thank you. my problem seems to vector with aphids. I sprayed the plants to disperse the aphids before i put out ladybugs and then some kind of wilting started. local extension here i come, jason

Wilting, fusarium, and verticillium can be caused that the tomatoe plants are infected. Select resistant cultivars. Solarizing the soil before planting may help.

Wilting, fusarium, and verticillium can be caused that the tomatoe plants are infected. Select resistant cultivars. Solarizing the soil before planting may help.

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Joe, Wilting can be due to many things and not just infection.

There are no resistant varieties.

The tomato industry changed the word resistant to tolerant following a series of lawsuits by large commercial farmers when their so called F and V RESISTANT varieties came down with F and V.

There's no variety, hybrid or OP, that's totally resistant to diseases bred in, in the case of the former, it's a matter of degree, and infection is quantitative and environmental conditions also come in to play.

F1 hybrids that have VFNT tolerance are just that and they last a few weeks longer than if they didn't have those tolerances. That's of importance to the commercial farmer who uses Brix measurements( soluble sugars) to determine when to harvest but is of little use to the backyard gardener.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

remember that with trading seeds and buying plants that have been grown elsewhere, diseases normally not present in one area may show up.

Same with insects of shipped plants.

So just because someone else hasnt seen it before doesnt me that you wont.

It may be better to go through some kind of checklist diagonsis guide. There are also steps one follows to diagnose a problem from scratch instead of assuming. When I worked at the diagnostic lab at KSU this is what we did.

Kay Kieler had a decent guide on the net at one time and so did the APS (American Phytopathology Society but for some reason they took theirs down).

When trying to get a diagnose done here:

Rather than just a picture, one really needs as much info as possible to Dx a problem in order to really get what's going on.

Things like:
how much light
area its grown in (whats surrounding it)
preveleance of problem (one plant or many, localized area or scattered)
location of problem on plant (top/bottom/leaves/stems)
insects present
how water
how fertilized
any chemicals applied (to the plant or in the area)
types of mulch
recent or past weather patterns
soil type

and there are more

rememeber also that you can easily have more than one problem present.

I second the suggestion by Joesgarden 2007. 'The Encyclopedia of Natural Insect & Disease Control' by Rodale Press is a very helpful book and worth the cost!

essentially what i'm looking for, is areas where problems are native. do you remember when you were younger and you would get flash card on animals and this card had everything you would want to know about that animal. on the back would be a map of the country with a shaded area showing where that animal was generally present. I'm looking for something like that. I'm not looking for a diagnoses (though i have problems). that is a wonderful checklist hortist. I'm just trying to expand my knowledge so that in the future I can save a trip to the local extension.

Timber,

I've got a great idea for you.

Workman Press in NY City puts out all these game cards that fan out titled Brainquest. All sorts of topics such as Presidents, animals, etc.

Your new venture is to do a Brainquest with tomato diseases.

I can give you the contact info for Workman Press. ( smile)

Carolyn

You want to keep in mind that many of the diseases will migrate or surface in regions during the growing season. These outbreaks are typically weather related.

There are a few relatively newer "Tools" that mainly commercial tomato growers have come to rely on in forcasting the possibility of a disease outbreak in their area. Two particular forcasting "tools" that you might want to do a web search on are TOMCAST and BLITECAST.

By monitoring outbreaks in certain locations those programs help all within certain regions to be able to take some corrective actions.

Carolyn, I think I am having a fusarium problem with my Brandywines this year (southern Maryland). The interplanted Cherokee Purples don't seem to be affected.

The Caspian Pink and Prudens Purple are planted in new soil and aren't having a problem. I have a bleach bucket to dip my tools into when I do anything around the Brandywine soil, I'm hoping that helps. I'll be solarizing the soil at the end of this season and planting less vulnerable crops there for a couple of years.

Anything else I can do to reduce this problem? Like pouring boiling water into the soil or anything? I've read that there is no cure... I want to try to stick with heirlooms.