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Questions & Answers
Tomato plants die after 4 months
Howard asks:
Question
I live in San Diego and every year I plant tomato plants sometime in April. They generally do very well for 3 months or so, but every year for the last four, sometime in August, the leaves start to turn brown, and the plants die. Often there are many good-sized tomatoes still on the dead plants. I was told that I was likely overwatering, so I cut back this year, but the same thing is now happening, maybe a few weeks later than last year
Answer
Sounds to me like your tomato plants are being infected with a soil borne fungus. There are two soil-dwelling fungi that commonly affect tomatoes in farms and home gardens, Fusarium wilt and Verticillium wilt.
Fusarium wilt starts with leaf yellowing and wilting that progress upward from the base of the plant. Initially, only one side of a leaf, stem or plant, will be affected. The symptoms soon spread to the remainder of the plant causing it to wilt and die. Fusarium wilt is a soil-dwelling fungus that only affects certain tomato cultivars the best defense is to plant fusarium wilt resistant varieties. In addition to planting disease resistant cultivars new seedlings should be planted in disease-free, well drained soil. Rotate tomato crops every four years to reduce fungus populations in the soil, remove and destroy all infected plants promptly. The letter “F” following the variety name indicates resistance to one or more races of the Fusarium fungus.
Verticillium wilt presents similar to fusarium however it does not appear only on one half the plant in the beginning but does start at the base and work its way upward. Verticillium wilt affects over 200 species of plants around the world. As with fusarium to control the verticillium wilt plant disease resistant cultivars, and plant seedlings in disease-free, well drained soil. Rotate tomato crops every four years to reduce fungus populations in the soil, remove and destroy all infected plants promptly. Names of Verticillium-resistant tomato cultivars are followed by the letter “V.”
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