The Unthinkable!

My really healthy tomatoes are at this point no so healthy anymore. What I thought was fungus from everyday late afternoon rains for a while has turned out not to be a fungus at all. It isn't even the late blight that Barbara commented on (though I do thank you for the comment, Barbara). Over the past couple of days I've watched really great looking plants start withering at the base with spotted wilt virus. It's actually taken me most of the day researching to figure this one out as I've never seen it before.

I was treating the plants for fungus but that wasn't the problem at all and now the disease is spreading so quickly. Luckily, my neighbor's tomatoes and peppers are not being effected and none of the rest of the plants and trees I have in containers currently have any signs whatsoever. So far so good on that. But my beautiful heirloom tomatoes... so sad. This just strengthens my resolve for a hydroponics room. I've not really seen any signs of thirps, which is the usual carrier for this virus. The rain made it very difficult to keep any DE on the plants so I had little to no pest management at all for several weeks. This was a very serious learning experience.

Luckily, I found a lot of really awesome tools that helped me diagnose the problem, even thought I didn't want to believe it because there's just no saving my plants.

The rest of the garden is doing well. I've not lost anything else. My carrots haven't sprouted yet, but there will be a few more days before that can be expected. This method I'm using seems as if it will be a good way to do it. I skipped the clear plastic wrap part because it has been so mild lately and the self watering container keeps the mixture very evenly moist without it being wet. So we'll see if my instincts are correct.

Spotted wilt virus. *sigh*