Tomatoes

Vegetable and Fruit News, Volume 13, Issue 4 (July 2022). Topics in this issue are: Disease of Garlic Scapes, Blossom End Rot, Preventing Bruising in Apples and Peaches, Corn Disease Identification, Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus, Tomato Pith Necrosis, July IPM Tips, Mowing: IWM Tool, and Upcoming Events

Fruit and Vegetable News, Volume 13, Issue 1 (April, 2022). Topic in this issue are: Check for Allium leaf miner in onions and leeks over the next few weeks, Edema problem in high tunnel tomatoes, Using Plant Growth Regulators to Improve Apple Return Bloom, Botryis Fruit Rot (Gray Mold) and Crown Rot in Strawberries, Spring Pest Scouting in Strawberries, and Early Spring Vegetable Insect Scouting Tips.

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While visiting a tomato field this week I saw the tell-tale signs on the flowers that this field was being visited by bumble bees that were pollinating the tomato flowers. In the field wind movement is usually enough to cause pollination in a tomato flower, but at times there are very calm days and nights with very ‘heavy’ air and little wind movement. However, even with wind action it is always beneficial to have bumble bees perform buzz pollination, which can greatly in-crease fruit set..

Bacterial Canker of Tomato

In the last week or so high tunnel tomato plants have been reported that look a bit squirrely. I thought it was possibly herbicide or virus or nutrient problems. After eliminating the first and third possibilities we had the plants tested for a battery of vi-ruses. There were 3 viruses found.

Over the last few weeks in almost all of the tomato fields I’ve been in have rain check on the tomato fruit (fig. 1). Rain check is the many, tiny concentric cracks that form on the shoulder of the fruit and these small cracks can expand over time into unsightly scabs.

I recently received an inquiry from a high tunnel grower about unusual symptoms on tomato leaves.

An odd problem was seen in tomato plants being grown for harvest in a greenhouse that showed blister- or callus-like growths usually along veins that first appeared on the underside of older leaves (fig. 1). Leaves also showed unusual curling and other odd distortions on the top side of the leaf (fig. 2).

A very unusual and seldom seen tomato foliar blight was found by an intrepid county educator in Southern Maryland last week.