Tomato Wilt disease is popping up in various plots throughout the garden. With this heat, you may think that a plant is “having a bad day”. When you come back tomorrow, the plant will be dead. It hits that quickly.
We will contact you if we see it, but also please be proactive and check your plot to try to prevent it from spreading further.
The plant will not recover from this disease and should be removed asap.
Pull it out gently so the soil does not scatter. (the disease is in the soil). If you are using the Compost Kiosk service, you can compost it. Otherwise bag it and take it home to dispose of.
There is no treatment for this disease besides sterilizing the soil.
We have had a plant pathologist test and said it was Southern Blight. It loves hot and humid and said it was very hard to combat.
Do not plant another tomato in it’s place. It will get infected too.
If you do have green tomatoes on the vine, you CAN pick and let them ripen to eat. The disease does not affect humans.
You can read more about Southern Blight here.
More Advice
When watering, do not splash up from the ground. You can water gently or with buckets, but no splashing.
Trim away bottom leaves to prevent the fungus from splashing up onto your plant. Leaves should never touch the ground.
Maintain spacing between plants for airflow and protection (You can plant other vegetables/flowers/herbs in between).
We have tried multiple experiments to combat this problem. You will see people planting tomato in buckets, straw bales, and soil replacement (dig out hole, replace with potting soil) throughout the garden.
