Tomatoes...verticillium wilt/fusarium wilt

First: my area is very humid, overcast, low temps and to top it off... my house blocks the east so the sun takes a while to fully hit my garden...

So a while back I got a few doz tomatoes in a tray from my neighbor... kinda late but what the hell... I planted in 3 gal pots and most really took off (not nearly like the older/bigger ones near me that have been growing for a while obviously... but great growth). Some stayed kinda small... some tomatoes started coming in nicely.

I think it's a month+ prob much plus... and some of the plants, the bigger ones mainly, have started to wilt. This is weird for me because like a said, very high humidity... like, fog almost every night... the soil stays moist for a lot fo day just from that, not just the top but an inch or so deep... so mostly I worry about my plants drowning, which is what I thought was happening... until I unpotted one plant to check it's soil and it looked good... roots too.

So then I looked into it and verticillium wilt/fusarium wilt came up... are there the likely culprits? Could it be cold temps at night? It gets into the mid-low 50's... To me it looks like too much water or too cold at night.... plants wilted... more like limp, but not dry at all...

A few (other) plants have shown signs of nitrogen deficiency (bottom leaves yellowing/dropping) but these don't... I don't know what to make of it...

Any thoughts before I do surgery on one to see what I can see?

Do you know what variety your tomatoes are? If you have a variety that is resistant to wilt you can look elsewhere for your plants problems.

I have no idea... they look like the more popular type of tomatoes (beefsteak?)

pics would help. do the plants "perk" up overnight but then re wilt during the day and is the wilt getting worse each day? You can slice the main stem vertically close to the soil and see if there is any brown color under the outer bark. V. wilt discoloration usually won't extend much above 12" from the soil. mine tended to get this if they were crowded or no air circ. usually they're fucked.

BarnBuster said:

pics would help. do the plants "perk" up overnight but then re wilt during the day and is the wilt getting worse each day? You can slice the main stem vertically close to the soil and see if there is any brown color under the outer bark. V. wilt discoloration usually won't extend much above 12" from the soil. mine tended to get this if they were crowded or no air circ. usually they're fucked.

Click to expand...

Yeah sorry, I need to find my camera...

I haven't payed attention at night, thanks for the thought (I feel a little silly that I hadn't now).

The wilt is getting worse.. no drying at all, just wilting... seemed to improve with a little watering (after I made sure that it wasn't over watering), but only for a day or two...

The plant are in individual pots outside... with over a foot between plants... BUT, I live in a very wet climate, and chill (50's at night)... so humidity problems can arise even in conditions that wouldn't be a problem (just a few hours shade in a spot here and mushrooms pop up).

Thanks for the tip on how to check, I knew it was something like that, now I know more (I will of course go read a lot about it ).

So far it only seems to be the biggest plants, which sucks but hopefully the rest can make it. People down the street's, even my next door neighbors tomatoes, look pretty good (though those are in soil, and been growing longer). But they all get more sun than I do.