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  • From: <sunnfarm AT netscape.com>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tomato transplant disaster!
  • Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 06:31:21 -0700

Its called collar rot. Caused by rhizoctonia. Whenever the base of the stem is scratched usually by plastic mulch, sand blast or insect chewing like from cutworms the fungus enters the stem. Fosphite is a new fungicide I just began to test. It might be allowed in organics. Its very safe and cheap!...
If your a real farmer like me you'll like the cheap part... Mix a tablespoon to a gallon of water  and water around each stem. I submerge trays of transplants in a tub of water treated with the fungicide just before planting in the field to get the root balls thoroughly treated. works in drip too... Bob.
Sunny Meadow Farm
Bridgeton, NJ.

--- burkholders AT glenecofarm.com wrote:

From: "Marlin & Christine Burkholder" <burkholders AT glenecofarm.com>
To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Market-farming] Tomato transplant disaster!
Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 05:26:59 -0400

 

I am having what amounts to a major disaster in my high tunnel planted tomatoes this spring! I am having die off of plants transplanted three weeks to a month ago. Inspection of the roots reveals that about an inch of stem below the soil line has begun rotting and collapsing causing sudden death of the plant. I would estimate that I have lost upwards of 1/3rd of my plants in one house and it looks like I am going to lose more. I posted here one day last week and several responded that it is damping off. The damp off I am familiar with happens in the greenhouse soon after young plants have come up. I don't think you would see damp off of 18 inch to two foot tall plants, some of which had tomatoes on approaching the size of golf balls. I have heard of warnings about putting fertilizer too close to stems at transplanting. I had put about two tablespoons of "Plant Tone" (an all organic product) mixed in the soil around the top of the roots at transplanting. I have done this for years and never had trouble. Once about 15 years ago I had a similar problem when I transplanted tomatoes through plastic mulch into ground that had one foot tall red clover plowed down about a week or two before. I figured that that was triggered by too much bacterial activity in the soil breaking down the clover and also attacking the tomatoes. The soil in one high tunnel had been amended, tilled, and plastic mulched last fall and did not have an excess of freshly decomposing organic matter in the root zone. The other high tunnel had not been mulched and was planted to over wintered spinach last fall and it had lettuce plugged into it in very early spring. I had seen about 5% die off of lettuce soon after transplanting to some similar type of root rot but it was nothing to be alarmed about. There is some tomato loss in that house but not nearly as bad as in the plastic mulched one.

Now I am wondering what the heck is going on and what should I do about it! I'm thinking of buying some replacement plants and soaking the roots in some sort of fungicide before putting them back in the holes. I would also spray fungicide at the base of the plants that are still living. I would rather not use something chemical. We do have an abundance of forage mustard growing in other areas of the field which was planted for the purpose of natural soil fumigation. Would it work to make up an infusion of it and spray it on the soil? I need to pick some brains here!

Marlin Burkholder
Shenandoah Valley
Virginia

 



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