Hey everyone, this is Ben Scow with Utah State University Extension down in Washington County.
As we're going through the month of June, I have a gardening tip that I wanted to share with you guys.
This has to do with tomatoes. Tomatoes are kind of the pinnacle for a lot of gardeners.
We love that first tomato and having it on a bacon and tomato sandwich every year.
With tomatoes, though, they are more prone to diseases and viruses than a lot of other crops.
There's one specific one that I wanted to talk about today that we're seeing a lot more in the southern part of the state, which is an indicator that we might see it more in the northern part of the state as well. This is the Beet Curly Top Virus.
This is one that's transferred by a small leaf hopper. Usually, it feeds on weeds that are infected with this virus that don't show the symptoms.
Once it's picked up by the leaf hoppers, though, they can infect other plants, and tomatoes are very susceptible to it.
So, as they move into our gardens, about two weeks after feeding, this virus will start to show up in our tomato patches.
It's very sad and devastating. We can lose up to 50-90% of a tomato crop to this virus, and it's one that we don't have a treatment for. There's no cure for it.
The only thing we can do is to pull the plants up.
So, once infected, the plants, after about two weeks, will start to turn yellow, the leaves will start to curl up, and the veins of the leaves will start to turn purple.
If you're missing one of the symptoms, you may have a different type of wilt, for which the treatment is similar. We would have to remove those plants.
If you have all three symptoms, you have the Beet Curly Top Virus and need to remove those plants.
You can send some samples into the lab and have it tested if you would like to, but chances are, if you have all three symptoms, the plant's not going to improve, and you'll need to remove it.
Unfortunately, that's just one of the things that we're dealing with this year with the tomato crop. Be on the lookout for that one.
Hope everything goes well, though. Otherwise, we can stay in front of some of the problems and pests that we have.
