For many years I grew tomatoes, but for some reason for the last 3 or 4 years they all get wilt & die before the crop ripens.
I have made sure that I used new pots, new potting mix, in fact everything has never touched another tomato plant or indeed anything else.
I have tried every variety but they all die.
Every year I tell myself – never again, but being the eternal optomist I still keep trying, as we LOVE home grown Toms. I tried putting in a late crop of ‘Rouge De marmande’ in February but the same scenario.
I am beginning to think that the virus is actually in the potting mix.
Does anyone have an idea / answer about this?
I think that the even the best potting mix looks suspect.. have found all sorts of strange things in it.
Say 20 years ago compared to now what is different re Potting mix??
Thanks guys

possum said:

For many years I grew tomatoes, but for some reason for the last 3 or 4 years they all get wilt & die before the crop ripens.
I have made sure that I used new pots, new potting mix, in fact everything has never touched another tomato plant or indeed anything else.
I have tried every variety but they all die.
Every year I tell myself – never again, but being the eternal optomist I still keep trying, as we LOVE home grown Toms. I tried putting in a late crop of ‘Rouge De marmande’ in February but the same scenario.
I am beginning to think that the virus is actually in the potting mix.
Does anyone have an idea / answer about this?
I think that the even the best potting mix looks suspect.. have found all sorts of strange things in it.
Say 20 years ago compared to now what is different re Potting mix??
Thanks guys

I’ve found that buying seedlings is always fraught with difficulty.
Buying potting mix to be the same.

I avoid Bunnings like the plague., Woolworths or any large chain .. It simply boggles my brain that these people are allowed to spread fungi and fruitfly.. yet we are fined for the same crime. I never buy potting mix.

Having worked in nursery propagation for most of my waking moments, I have often been amazed that people can go about it quite scientifically and still fail.

Mix your own potting mix from sources you trust. Sow your own home collected seed from the source you trust or buy properly saved seed from sources you trust.

Do not smoke tobacco and handle tomatoes. Do not handle tomatoes after handling other tomatoes that may appear to have fungal or viral disease.
Always keep tomatoes well drained.
Try to be watchful when watering, that the soil does not wash up onto the leaves.
Try to avoid watering when the soil is cold
Try to avoid overwatering. Tomatoes prefer to have water once a fortnight rather than once a day.

Lastly.. I have come to accept that climate change may have made growing tomatoes in southern Australia far more difficult these days.

More.. Could you explain the situation where you grow the tomatoes?

Many tomato growers find that growing continually in the same place can lead to diseases building up to the level that the growing of tomatoes needs to be moved to a different site.

Tomatoes will most often perform better where they have never been grown before.

What RoughBarked said, plus are your tomatoes getting enough air circulation? A little breeze that keeps the atmosphere too dry for any kind of wilting organism to take hole?

Altho’, contrary to RoughBarked, I prefer seedlings. I buy them only from the local nursery that I trust…we don’t have a Bunnings, we only have a Mitre10, but that’s not where I buy my seedlings from…you need to allow for some seedlings to die, this is what I have found.

What I do is put a third of a toilet roll core around the transplant, this stops some mystery thing from gnawing at the base of the new transplant. Also, I buy the seedlings with quite a few leaves…sometimes 1 plant per pot: the $amount$ per pot of a seedling is a fraction of what you save when you crop the plant…

Lastly, I do believe that a seaweed extract, sprayed on the tomatoes on a regular basis, will either prevent or minimise the effect of fungal episodes…

good tip about the toilet roll. ;) There is notthing wrong with the seaweed approach.. only don’t allow yourself to believe that seaweed is the cure.. it is just a part of a balanced garden.

Good seedlings are fine yes but many seedlings have been handled by many people before you walked into the shop.

roughbarked said:

Good seedlings are fine yes but many seedlings have been handled by many people before you walked into the shop.

and could still carry a virus that doesn’t become apparent straight away.

bluegreen said:

roughbarked said:

Good seedlings are fine yes but many seedlings have been handled by many people before you walked into the shop.

and could still carry a virus that doesn’t become apparent straight away.

It’s all a chance you take, think of the number of seeds that don’t germinate.

The main considerations as I see it are: good airflow (breezes don’t hurt staked tomatoes), sound nutrition, buy stock that looks healthy from a nursery that you trust, try not to overhead water the plants…

This time last year I had all my tomatoes in the ground: this time this year I’m still dreaming…

I’m still picking tomatoes from plants that looked dead in January.

roughbarked said:

I’m still picking tomatoes from plants that looked dead in January.

I just picked a few cherry toms from a self-sown plant in amongst the ferns