Woe is me!!!

After a bit of reading/research, I have concluded that the problem I had
with my plants last summer was fusarium wilt. In further reading, the very
pessimistic view is to go plant somewhere else. I can't do that as I can only
plant in containers on my floating docks as it is all shade ashore. If I were to dump all that soil (new last summer), I would just be buying more of the
same at the big box stores. Anyone know of a treatment/cure or even a
thread that deals with this issue?

Someone over in T'ville recently posted about the same problem. You might check this thread.

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=20047

Good luck!

Just testing first to be sure this posts since I write a long reply and then got a message that there was a server problem.

Carolyn

A few points.

First, I can't remember if you live in MN full time and buy your plants there or you just summer there and buy your plants elsewhere, and if so, where would that be.

The situation with the person in the link given I think is different from your situation b'c she lives in NJ, maybe a zone 7 or so, and yes, it is known that Fusarium has been imported to some places in NJ from plants shipped in from the south. But this last winter was brutally cold here in the NE and Fusarium cannot exist where the ground freezes deeply so I think it's a good bet that no Fusarium overwintered. And I'm assuming that where you were growing those plants is about a zone 3 or 4 if in upper MN.

In that same thread you saw that Dice mentioned that there are other diseases that can cause wilting, which is the only symptom you mentioned, and I'll add certain environmental conditions as well.

Since there are other diseases and environmental conditions that can cause wilting, what was it that convinced you it was Fusarium? Verticillium is another possibility and that infects plants randomly in all gardening zones and is not one that ahs been known to be associated with shipped in plants from the south.

How many plants did you have out on the dock and how many were wilting and were all the plants bought locally or wherever?

If it was fusaium and those containers were left on the dock or even brought ashore, I would think that the very cold temps of MN would not allow for Fusarium to overwinter this year simply b'c it cannot, and that's the reason that Fusarium and some other diseases are ones that are seen almost exclusively in the southern states and not much here in NYS or the other NE states nor across the upper mid-Atlantic states.

methinks I'll stop here and wait for your answers, especially on how you thought Fusarium was the cause when you only mentioned wilting and where you bought the plants.

Just typing this makes me long for a fresh ripe tomato right now.. LOL

Carolyn

Boy, thanks for the immediate aid.

Carolyn, all the tomatoes were grown from seed in San Diego and
transported toCanada (most about 4" seedlings and a few larger)
The ailment showed up as dying of the lower branches and moved
steadily up at a moderate rate. Tomatoes grew but got to be of
smaller size as the lack of foliage seemed to take a toll on the
fruits. By the time I was ready to leave and pulled and burned all
the plants, the plants looked like palm trees with a long stem (trunk) and green foliage only at the top (fronds). I gave away some of the same seedlings in Calif. and Wyoming and they were
all beautiful, healthy plants with huge and abundant fruits. I have
to conclude that the potting soil was not the cause.

OK, so we know that your seed starting stuff was not the cause for the reasons you gave, And I think you said that the potting mix you used for the containers was new this past year, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

That leaves somthing in the air that got to your plants and the most probable would be one of the four common foliage infections.

If it were splashback infection from the previous year then the symtoms could have started from the bottom and worked their way up, and many's the year when I had plants like you describe, as being palm trees with green leaves at the top near the end of the season.

Have you looked at any of the disease sites to see if the leaf symptoms were the same as you remember seeing?

The four most common are:

Early Blight ( A, solani), THE most common one in the world, and fungal
Septoria Leafspot, also fungal
Bactrerial Speck
Bacterial Spot.

Each of the above has very specific spots on the leaves that one can use to distinguish one from the other.

Do you know of anyone else on that lake who also grows tomatoes? Or how far away? I'm just thinking of possible source, but all four can be spread embedded in rain droplets as well as via just wind.

Carolyn, also wondering if you had the windows down at any time on your trip from San Diego to Canada. ( smile)