Bacterial Wilt of Tomato

The disease is caused by bacteria and occurs in moist soils, coupled with high temperatures and soils with high pH.

It is mostly spread through contaminated irrigation water, contaminated farm tools or infected planting seeds.

The disease has no cure, so monitoring, preventing, direct control measures remain the best practices.

Symptoms and identification

1. The younger leaves appear to wilt during hotter parts of the day which then recovers at night when temperatures are cooler.
2. Rapid wilting of the whole plant without yellowing. Plants appear to have a stunted growth.
3. When stem of infected plant is cut a brown colour resulting from damaged tissues is seen with a slimy substance oozing from a fleshly cut stem.

Cultural control and preventive measures

1. Do not plant in infested soils by avoiding fields where tomatoes had been planted before. Crop rotate with non-host plants such as maize, beans and cabbages.
2. Remove infected plants immediately and discard them using bags to avoid spilling the infected soil which could infect healthy plants. Apply wood ash in the affected holes after uprooting infected plants.
3. Destroy other crops that carry the disease like Irish potatoes and night shade which could harbour the disease.
4. Use certified seeds that are tolerant e. g Zara F1 from Amiran Kenya, Bawito F1 from Syova.
5. Keep all farm tools and equipments clean and disinfected to avoid infecting healthy plants while working in the farm.
6. Use soil conditioners such as humipower or lime to maintain soil pH of 6.2 to 6.5.

Tips

1. Avoid planting in low wet areas because such areas are favourable to the disease.
2. Disinfect farm equipment with jik solution 500ml/10l for 5 minutes.

This is where we will be ending our discussion for today.

Do you have any questions or other forms of contributions, kindly use the comment section below for all your contributions.

by Agronomist Kiruchi