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the5gnetwork

Treatment of fusarium wilt-monistat and tea tree oil

The5Gnetwork
12 years ago

Here's the story,

I am a military wife living aboard the base. Gardening has been a part of my life for many years so raised beds were built in our small back yard. This is the second year of gardening in Yuma, AZ for me and my family. Admittedly, I've committed crimes in the tomato world, namely that I have replanted tomatoes in the same place that they were the previous year. My punishment for said crimes would be the infestation of fusarium wilt. UGH. What was once beautiful tomato plants turned into awfully pitiful looking scraggly tomato plants. ALL of my plants are of the indeterminate variety with which, of course, comes less tolerance of diseases. Out of desperation and throwing caution to the wind I decided to treat my tomato plants to abate the disease process and maybe reverse it (who knows...).

My first treatment was just simply soaking the ground throughout the raised tomato bed specifically with a tea tree oil solution. 20 drops of tea tree oil in a 5 gallon bucket filled with regular water. I also added a few drops of dish detergent as a surfactant. 2 weeks later, a very notable GREEN regrowth and vibrance. Huh! Originally I was doubtful that this would work and I am still not entirely convinced that I've taken care of the soil problem and successive treatments are still indicated. However, I was surprised that the plants responded.

My now second treatment might be a little over-zealous and I just did it so there is nothing to report at this time. I continued with the tea tree treatment but after the application I started thinking about fusarium just being a fungal disease. So I then I thought "hmmm....what treats fungal problems in humans etc.?" Clotrimazole (athletes foot treatment cream) and Miconazole (treats yeast infections but is also effective against fungal issues as well). To make a long story even longer I did a quick google on it and found that there are uses for miconazole indicated for plants but what I saw was only regarding tissue culture. So, I said "what the hey" and got a generic brand of Miconazole. I doubted that it would dissolve into the water as it's in cream form but it did (mostly). 1 teaspoon in a 5 gallon bucket full of water. Treated as a soil soak as well.

Here's hopin' that this will help the situation in the ground and prove to be successful so that replanting the tomatoes next year in the same spot will be attainable.

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