Verticillium Wilt in Tomatoes

Summertime is a great time to try your hand at growing your own garden. People throughout America grow things like tomatoes, squash, green beans and potatoes every year. However, to be an effective gardener, you should be a knowledgeable gardener. One of the ways to increase your knowledge is to make yourself aware of different diseases that could affect and possibly kill all of your hard work. One such disease to be aware of is verticillium wilt. Let's look at what it is and how you can prevent it.

Verticillium wilt can affect a large number of vegetables, especially tomatoes. It is caused by Verticillium albo-atrum and Verticillium dahlia, fungi that are soil borne. One of the characteristic signs is wilt on the lower leaves of the plant. The leaves turn yellow then brown, and also have v-shaped lesions surrounding them.

Although symptoms of verticillium wilt usually show during the month of August, the actual fungus shows at a different time. Being considered a cool-weather disease, the fungi start developing in temperatures between 65 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, there is no one way to prevent verticillium wilt from affecting your crops. There are a couple of different methods that may have some success, but nothing that is guaranteed. The methods include planting varieties of tomatoes that are resistant to wilt (like Big Beef, Roma, and Husky Red); removing any affected plant materials that may have verticillium wilt to prevent the fungi from flourishing during the winter; keep your garden weed free, since weeds are incubators for fungi; and, as always, rotate your crops year after year with things like grasses and cereals. However, with rotating crops, remember that fungi can exist in soil for four to six years, so it will be a while before you can plant tomatoes in the same spot again.

Now that we have covered what verticillium wilt is, hopefully this knowledge will help in your gardening efforts. While the information covered in this article is about spotting the disease in tomatoes, it also applies for potatoes, since they are both from the same plant family. By taking preventive measures to make sure that verticillium wilt doesn't happen to your crops, many other diseases and fungi should be able to be prevented. As the old adage says, 'An ounce of prevention brings a pound of cure' definitely applied to tomatoes, potatoes, and other produce.

Sources: extension.umn.edu