Latest Tomato Fusarium Wilt Prevention and Control Techniques Tutorial

Tomato fusarium wilt mostly occurs during the flowering and fruiting stage of tomatoes, affecting localized areas while the whole plant shows symptoms. In the early stage of the disease, only the lower leaves of the plant turn yellow, but most do not fall off. As the disease progresses, the diseased leaves turn yellow and then brown from the bottom up. Apart from the top few leaves remaining intact, the rest all become necrotic or scorched. Sometimes the leaves on one side of the diseased plant wilt and droop while the leaves on the other side remain normal. Let us take a look together at the prevention and control techniques for tomato fusarium wilt!

Symptoms of Tomato Fusarium Wilt Damage

Tomato fusarium wilt is a soil-borne vascular disease that is difficult to control and often occurs together with bacterial wilt. It mostly develops during the flowering and fruiting stage, and plants often die during the peak fruiting period. In the early stage of the disease, the middle and lower leaves of the plant wilt around midday and can still recover in the early morning and evening. Afterwards, the wilting symptoms gradually worsen, and the leaves gradually turn yellow from the bottom up without falling off until the plant dies. Sometimes only one side of the plant is affected, while the stems and leaves on the other side grow normally. The stem base near the ground becomes water-soaked, and in high humidity, pink, white or blue-green mold-like substances appear. When the diseased plant is pulled out and the stem base is cut open, the vascular bundles can be seen turning brown.

Causal Factors of Tomato Fusarium Wilt

1. Continuous cropping land, heavy clay and slightly acidic soil, and fields with large amounts of fusarium wilt pathogens accumulated in the soil.

2. When a certain amount of nematodes and other underground pests are present in the soil, the pathogens invade the roots through wounds caused by the pests.

3. Seeds carrying pathogens, seedling-raising nutrient soil carrying pathogens, or organic fertilizer carrying pathogens, or organic fertilizer not fully decomposed, with manure maggots damaging the roots, allowing the pathogens to invade through the wounds and cause damage.

4. Fields with excessive nitrogen fertilizer application and insufficient phosphorus and potassium.

5. Sudden clearing after consecutive overcast and rainy days or after heavy rain, with temperatures rising rapidly. Or alternating sunny and rainy weather, or hot and stuffy weather.

Prevention and Control Techniques for Tomato Fusarium Wilt

1. Before transplanting or after harvest, clear weeds in the field and surrounding areas, and burn them in a centralized manner or compost them. Deeply plow the land to destroy stubble and sun the soil to promote the decomposition of diseased residues and reduce sources of disease and pests.

2. The nutrient soil used for seedling raising should be sterile soil, and it should be sunned for more than three weeks before use.

3. In heavily diseased fields, implement a 3-5 year crop rotation with cruciferous, cucurbit and onion and garlic vegetables. If cucumbers are to be planted, they must be grafted onto black-seeded pumpkin.

4. Select disease-free, coated seeds. If uncoated, the seeds must be sterilized with a seed dressing agent or seed soaking agent.

5. After sowing, cover with medicated soil, and spray once with an insecticide and sterilizing agent before transplanting. This is the key to disease prevention.

6. Dig drainage ditches well to lower the groundwater level so that there is no standing water after the rain stops. After heavy rain, promptly clear the ditch system to prevent moisture retention and reduce field humidity. This is an important measure for disease prevention.

7. For fields with large amounts of soil pathogens or severe underground pests, broadcast or furrow-apply sterilizing and insecticidal medicated soil before sowing.

8. Apply compost fermented with enzyme bacteria or thoroughly decomposed organic fertilizer. Do not use pathogen-carrying fertilizer, and the organic fertilizer applied must not contain diseased residues of crops of the same family.

9. Deeply plow and sun the soil and increase the application of organic fertilizer and phosphorus and potassium fertilizer to promote robust crop growth and improve crop disease resistance.

10. Control pests promptly to reduce plant wounds and reduce transmission routes of pathogens. When the disease occurs, promptly remove diseased leaves and diseased plants and carry them out of the field to be burned. Apply medicine or quicklime to the diseased holes.

11. Use wild water eggplant, poisonous eggplant or red eggplant as rootstock and cultivated eggplant as scion, and adopt the cleft grafting method. This is indeed effective.