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Making It Grow! News Articles

June 17, 2005

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Even with the recent hot humid days, it is a busy time for gardeners in South Carolina. It is also a busy time for Making It Grow. We will have a special live program on Tuesday, June 21, at 4:30pm from Parks Seed Co in Greenwood. I invite you to come be part of a live audience as we all learn more about the fascinating mysteries of gardening.

Question: My tomato plants were growing beautifully, but in the last two weeks, five plants have suddenly died. The whole plant looks wilted. I have been spraying the remaining plants with a fungicide but another plant is showing symptoms, too. What can I do?

Answer: Gardeners are bringing specimens with the same symptoms to all our County Extension offices these days. The culprit is Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, TSWV for short, and it is tough and heartbreaking disease. Plants usually show bronzing and soon the entire plant is wilted. Sumter Agent Greg Harvey describes the condition well. "It looks like you poured boiling water over the whole plant."

This virus is spread by thrips and no chemical controls are available.
The thrips insect, a very small individual, is in the piercing and sucking category and it harbors the virus within its body. Like the mosquito which spreads malaria when it bites and sucks blood from a person, the thrips transmits the virus as it feeds on plants. Putting chemical poisons on your tomato plants will not stop this disease, and once the plant is infected, there is no rememdy. The plant must be removed and destroyed.

Plant breeders have developed several varieties that are resistant to this virus. The most easily found is Southern Star, marketed by Bonnie Plants. Other cultivars are available and your local Extension office can help you find a transplant grower in your area. It is not to late to replant with resistant transplants. Sadly, the flavor of these is not as mouth wateringly delicious as some of our old favorites, but any garden tomato makes a tasty BLT on a hot summer evening.

Cultural controls can help non-resistant varieties avoid infection. Thrips overwinter in weedy growth near gardens. Keep brush and weeds controlled to eliminate those havens for this pest. If you have infected plants, don't throw them in the compost heap. Destroy them so they won't serve as a source of infection for other tomotoes in your garden.

The tomato, which was carried from the New World back to Europe and adds flavor, vitamins, color and zing to so many of our foods, is susceptible to many diseases and insects. Plant breeders have made remarkable strides in producing cultivars that fit every niche of the market. Thankfully, there are heirloom tomatoes that have been preserved and can serve as material in the plant breeding programs. Let's hope that our agricultural scientists will soon offer us a tomato with that good old fashioned taste that can withstand this pernicious virus.

The Clemson Home and Garden Information Center Web site has pages of information on tomatoes. From the proper soil, lime, fertilizer, and planting recommendations to treatises on diseases and insects; this is the place to go for information that is tailored for South Carolinians. If you click on "Related Links," you can go to the Clemson Entomology site which has pictures and discussions on some of the insects whose presence reminds us that we must learn to share the earth with other of Mother Nature's children.