Last Year my Garden died; This Year??? Fungus?

This is primarily a fungus question. I've grown tomatoes and Swiss chard and beans for 20 years, just to get some free produce (perfection not required), but never was I required to become a "disease expert" until last year. And I failed. I had moved 3 yrs ago, my first plantings worked fine, but then last year happened...
I don't recall why I settled on it being a fungus problem. I'm primarily concerned with my water from a rain barrel. This is the second year with that, also. The rain comes off a brand new shingle roof. Last year, it rained a lot here in NE Pennsylvania, So water did sit in the barrels a few times for a couple weeks, and was never emptied completely all summer.
It's a small garden, I grow pole beans, tomatoes, Swiss chard, cucumbers, basil, and last year I tried eggplant and a few carrots. Near the beginning of July, the carrot greens suddenly died altogether, like a light switch turned them off. The tomato leaves started dying from the edges 1st; the Swiss chard started shriveling up from the leaf edges also, and half of the cucumbers died, again beginning with the further portions of the plant and leaves. The summer continued and within a month, the tomatoes and cucumbers completely died too, and the chard became stunted (never completely dying, with wilting on the outer edges, and totally stunted), and the eggplant stopped blooming. The beans and basil were not much affected. I'm sure I've had summers in the past with a lot of rain, but maybe not as much as last year, don't know. I did not measure it.
The garden is about 15 x 25, and I had a couple piles of tossed weeds that I had planned to mulch back in the soil later. I won't do that again. My neighbor said his garden didn't suffer. Some other locals say they had a hard time. I had grown a few tomato plants 30 feet away from the garden, and eventually (a few weeks later) they succumbed the same way. So the problem was either too much rain, airborne, or transmitted via my plastic watering can, and hence, that water came from my rain barrels. Rutgers University (after a thorough Google review) says you can add 1 oz of bleach to a 55 gal. drum to kill bacteria, without hurting vegetable plants or soil.
So, anyone, any thoughts or hints? I had never seen anything like that before in my garden history. I pretty much got wiped out but for beans and basil. Thank you for reading and any contribution you might make. Tom (in PA, USA).

Hi Tom,

So, if you were having a lot of rain, you really didn't need to use the water from the rain barrels ?? What do you have in the way of a water supply for the house?

In case material has been accumulating in the rain barrels over the years, I suggest you open them up and clean them out thoroughly. Like you were going to drink the water from them yourself, only you aren't.

" The rain comes off a brand new shingle roof. "

That is suspect. What kind of shingles are they? Asphalt? Wood? Bleach won't neutralize many chemicals that could be leaching from those shingles. Most people don't use rain barrels now days, and most of those that do don't have new roofing.

If you need to supplement your rainfall, I suggest you use well water or municipal water. You might want to experiment with landscaping cloth as a mulch to control weeds and to conserve water.

ZM

Thanks ZM. The shingle roof is asphalt, no frills, and nothing died the first year of collection. I just like the idea of having free water, in a barrel, right there next to the garden, ready to go. Otherwise it's municipal water, which costs $50 a month! I also have MS, which makes lugging heavy things like a watering can awkward. The regular spigot is not right there. The barrels are new too, made of plastic. I don't think they open. I'll take another look, but they couldn't be very dirty (only 2 years use, they were new.). It's 1/2 of a small 12 x 14 or so new garage. It only takes a couple of hours of heavy rain to fill a 55 gallon barrel.
So fungus doesn't seem to be much a possibility in your opinion? It rained a lot, but I don't know, after 4 or 5 days with no rain, shouldn't I go back to watering? When it's 90 degrees? I may have only watered 6 or 8 times until things started to die. Just 3 or 4 gallons in the evening. I also read watering is better in the morning.
One could make the argument the garden doesn't drain very well. But that was still true in 2017 and I had no problems. The two tomato plants 20 ft. from the garden which also died the same way, were on an elevated area, so drainage was not an issue for them.
As it stands now, I'll water less and hope for less rain! Probably put a little bleach in the barrel too.
Anyway, thanks again for viewing my concern. Tom

Hi Tom,

" Otherwise it's municipal water, which costs $50 a month! "

So, I don't understand the motivation for using or not using the municipal water. If you don't use municipal water, do you not get a bill? Or is your normal house usage $50 and if you used it on your garden, it would cost lots more than $50 that month?

Your plastic rain barrels are only as clean as your roof. So, bird poop is just added fertilizer? Does a cat ever go up there? Asphalt shingles are not plant friendly, and they may contain a fire retardant chemical that is also herbicidal.

" So fungus doesn't seem to be much a possibility in your opinion? "

Fungus is just one cause of plant disease. There are also bacterial diseases, virus diseases, nematodes, nutritional disorders, contamination from herbicides, the Witches Broom type diseases, and insect damage that looks like disease.

" ...after 4 or 5 days with no rain, shouldn't I go back to watering? "

That seems excessive. I would wait until the plants show a need for water. Also, how are you applying the water? Some people think it is harmful to get the foliage wet. I live in a rural area. The farmers around here don't water their plants -- they just let the rain do that. Sometimes it goes for weeks without raining, and the crops do just fine.

ZM

Hello again ZM, and thanks for your response- Municipal water runs me around $50 a month. Keep in mind, I've been planting stuff (tomatos etc.) for a long time, in various locations around the US. Something is going on that hasn't gone on before. Tomatos don't just up and die in July.

Anyone can buy cheap vegetables in the summer. Along with the garden fresh taste, I like the idea of "free". So buying stuff, including the plants themselves, or water, defeats my purposes.

And the roof was brand new (not deteriorating).

And it is much more convenient for someone with MS to walk 5 feet versus 25 feet with a 15 lb. water can. Using a hose from a spigot needs to be removed after every use before the lawn guy comes, so that's not a solution for me (just as much of a PIA).

Rutgers University answers the water barrel safety issue pretty clearly: "Rain Barrels Part IV: Testing and Applying Harvested Water to Irrigate a Vegetable Garden": at https://njaes.rutgers.edu/fs1218/

Toxicity from the shingles- 1) Rutgers tested that pretty good, and 2) if that were the problem, I would also have had issues in 2017, which I didn't. Poop and toxicity are not the problem.

Anyone worried about animal poop shouldn't have a garden anyway. Plants want animal poop. Animals frequent gardens. Fertilizer often contains poop.

Yes, I'm sure there are many issues that affect a garden. I am hoping someone will stumble across this post, and if they're familiar with my issue, will say "Oh yes, that happened to me and ...". If I don't get that response, it suggests to me that "Fungus" is not the issue.

Finally, like I said, the rain last year was heavy, all summer, really never stopped. I googled the subject, and this is a typical sample of what I got: "The worst month was July, which was the wettest July on record and the fourth wettest month on record in Harrisburg. The previous July record was 9.72 inches in 1969.
More than 12 inches of rain officially fell this July, but totals were higher than that throughout the region. "

So as I said, I'll take it real easy with the water this year, as you suggest too. I'll wait a few times until the plants look thirsty. I'll be sure to till the soil (which I didn't do too much of last year). Actually, my garden is flat, surrounded by a very compacted clay ground, so it's kind of like a pool. Drainage may be an issue, although it didn't get suspiciously muddy.

And I'll through an ounce of bleach in now and then when the barrels are full.

Tom

Hi Tom,

" And the roof was brand new (not deteriorating). "

My point exactly. A new roof would be likely to have a lot of chemicals in the runoff. Fire proofing stuff and fresh asphalt stuff.

" Something is going on that hasn't gone on before. Tomatoes don't just up and die in July. "

You are right. Something killed them. Maybe drainage is your problem. Maybe they drowned. Try digging a test hole, in the tomato patch, but not so close to a tomato as to damage its root system. See if the hole fills up with water. If so, drowning may be the culprit. Our natural soil here is a dense sedimentary loam, so I routinely add sand to my garden soil. I buy it a 20-ton truckload at a time to keep the unit cost low. Sunflowers like to grow on my sand pile. Parts of my garden have become sandy loam, and that increases every year. Sand contributes to good drainage. I like seedless tomatoes.

ZM