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.
The plant will not recover and should be removed asap to prevent spreading to others. Pull it out gently so the soil does not scatter. (the disease is in the soil) Put it in a plastic bag and tie it closed. Please take this home to throw away in your trash.
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. The recommendation was to not replant tomato.
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).
Do NOT replace a wilt victim with another tomato plant. It will most likely become infected too.
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.
