Walnut Wilt is a Thing

Last month, I wrote about my tomato plant succumbing to a wilt disease. Specifically, fusarium wilt. Now, I'm wondering if it's not fusarium wilt, but actually walnut wilt that weakened my Jubilee tomato plants and affected two other tomato plants.

I have a big black walnut tree on the side of the yard. It provides great shade, but as I've come to learn, it produces and secretes a substance called juglone (through its leaves, roots, nuts) that affects a lot of plants, such as tomatoes. Affected plants exhibit signs similar to fusarium and verticillium wilt (yellowing leaves, wilting plant, the eventual death of plant).  The wilting often happens early and midway in the growing season.

Now, it's highly possible that the area I'm growing my tomato plants may have fusarium wilt (or even verticillium wilt). But I think the most likely culprit is walnut wilt. My tomatoes are planted about 200 to 300 feet away from the walnut tree. I assume the tree'ss roots must be affecting my tomato plants in addition to the walnut husks that are littered everywhere by the dang squirrels.

The Jubilee tomato plants are heirlooms and planted closest to the walnut tree, and may not have any resistance to wilt. My Celebrity tomatoes, which are supposed to be resistant to fusarium wilt, actually started wilting at the end of July. I thought it was odd, but then assumed that it was labeled wrong and semi-resistant. Of course, knowing that walnut wilt is an actual disease, it makes sense that the Celebrity tomato plants would eventually succumb to walnut wilt. Of course, I haven't seen the Roma tomatoes wilt, but it is battling some other leaf disease right now (blight or septoria leaf spot).

Since walnut wilt isn't a bacterial or fungus disease, but more of a defense mechanism (in my opinion) for survival, the only real option is to plant my tomatoes elsewhere or cut down the walnut tree. Right now, I don't want to cut down my tree, yet. So, I'll look to plant my tomato plants elsewhere in my yard.

Do you have a walnut tree in your yard? Has it affected your garden or gardening practices?

Dearest Honeycrisp

My Mr. Man has waited seven long years. Seven! And finally this year, our little grafted Honeycrisp tree gave us apples. He tested one yesterday, but it's not fully ready. There are still several more weeks left before the apples are fully ripe, so my Mr. Man will have to continue to wait patiently.

If you've been reading my blog for some time, you'll know that I had planted a dwarf Honeycrisp about seven to eight years ago and a terrible storm broke the graft. I purchased a regular-sized tree, in which I gave away. Eventually, I settled on this current tree. 

I've seen blossoms on it in the last two springs, but no apples. I almost gave up on the tree, but this year it surprised us with lots of apple blossoms. I'm really excited, but not as excited as my Mr. Man, who's been waiting for the last seven-plus years.

I'll blog about the ripened appled at a later time. I hope all is well in your world and your gardens. 

Going to the Market

I love harvesting food from my garden, especially tomatoes. It's like going to my own market. Earlier in the week, I harvested my first tomato of the season, a yellow Jubilee (see the picture below). I quickly gobbled it up with some salt, but after saving some of its seeds.

This morning, I picked several more Jubilees and harvested a couple of Celebrity tomatoes. Since I only have a handful, but there are several more that can be picked tomorrow,  I'll save what I picked today to add to tomorrow's harvest to make a tomato sauce.

Of course, there was a semi-ripened cherry tomato from one of the volunteer tomato plants. I plucked and made a quick snack of it. I'm excited for more.

Are you shopping at your own market? How's your garden coming along?