Re: [tomato] OT
margaret lauterbach (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Sun, 04 Jul 1999 10:34:45 -0600
At 11:01 PM 7/3/99 EDT, you wrote:
>I am having some strange things happening in my garden this year. My
>eggplants were looking great, then the largest plant had many of the leaves
>turn brown and crinkle up. Some of my tomatoes have some brown and dry
>leaves as well. My squash some are okay others when the fruit is about 3"
or
>4" long turn yellow from the end and start withering. I don't know if it's
>the weather extremes of 107 deg F in the day to 60 deg F in the day and cool
>foggy and windy nights sometimes and other nights in the 70's.
>
>Any ideas? I have never seen such a thing.
>
>Mary-Anne
>SF Bay Area
>Sunset 14/15
>
Mary-Anne, I'd be most suspicious of the 107 degree days and lack of water,
but were I you, I'd contact the county extension agent. There is a disease
called curly top virus that is generally intermountain in the U.S. (we have
it, and the chile-growing areas of New Mexico have it in spades this year).
I have learned that it does occur in Oakland, CA, and I think you're in the
east bay area...don't know whether it occurs in your area or not. It's
conveyed by an infected beet leafhopper that can ride the winds for up to
200 miles, according to UT research. They're transient, so there's no use
spraying. It's called curly top because that's one of the symptoms on
tomatoes (when a six-foot tomato plant gets it late in the season, you
grieve), but it also affects other solanaceae, beans, beets, squash, etc.,
and some flowers.
No cure, only defense is prevention or plant curly top resistant plants.
AFAIK, the only resistant plants are tomatoes: RowPac, Saladmaster, Roza,
Payette, Columbia, Owyhee, and I think there's another, but I can't recall
the name and my seeds are in the basement (physical constraints prevent me
from going there). They're all red, smallish and from determinate plants.
I hope it's just drought-related crisping. Margaret L