Apple, are you sure you're dealing with Fusarium?

Stripping the lower elaves on a plant can help with splashback infection, but that's in regard to foliage pathogens that are shed to to ground in the previous year.

Fusarium is found in the soil but infects plants via the roots and Fusarium spores and vegetative forms would not be on the surface as part of concerns about splashback.

In addition, there is very little Fusarium to be found in most zone 6 areas b'c Fusarium cannot survive where the ground freezes.

So Fusarium is primarily a tomato disease found in the south, but not the middle states and the north.

If you had a wilting type disease there are other candidates besides Fusarium, but again, most tomato diseases where wilt is a prominent symptom are due to infection from the soil via the roots.

Verticillium is one such systemic disease that is found in your area, but again, stripping foliage would have no effect at all on preventing that disease either, but Verticillium is also not all that common and most of the time the plant outgrows the disease anyway.

So if you'd like to describe exactly what the symptoms are that you see and whether you've been planting in the same area for several years, perhaps folks here could help you make some kind of diagnosis that might help.

Carolyn

Hmmmm, and I thought I finally had if figured out. I used Earl's link in the Problem Solver 2 post about tomato diseases and read the article ANR-895. The description and photos of Fusariam are exactly what I've been dealing with for the last 6 years or so. The local TV expert, nurseries and other gardeners have all told me it's a soil-born fungus, spread by infected debris and splashback from the soil. It only makes sense if it's "soil-born" it would spread up through the roots.
The symptoms are yellowing of the lower leaves which eventually turn brownish, dry up and fall off. This continues up the plant affecting both foliage and sometimes fruit, depending on how mature the fruit is. Sometimes the plants outgrow it, sometimes they completely die. I planted several hybrids last year and the year before thinking all the ones with VF in the name would outdo the heirlooms and OP varieties. Not so. Most of the OP and heirlooms did better than the hybrids. I've tried to rotate the beds every year, but it doesn't seem to matter. We sometimes get rain for 5 or 6 days in a row and by the time I can do anything out there it's spread to the whole patch. Certain tomatoes, like Yellow Pear were totally wiped out last year, while Pink Ponderosa kept churning them out despite all the dying foliage. I keep records of what does well and try to stick to those varieties that have survived well in the past. Is there anything else I can do?

apple,

I still say it isn't Fusarium.

Fusarium does not cause fruit symptoms while certain of the foliage diseases do.

Fusarium causes profound wilting of plants, which you haven't mentioned, while foliage diseases never do.

The fact that your VF varieties did not do better, and the VF doesn't mean total resistance, it means increased tolerance, also tells me that it probably wasn't Fusarium or Verticillium.

All NEW foliage infections are acquired by airborne means, while splashback infection can and does occur when the soil has been contaminated in previous years by spores/'bacteria, depending on which specific foliage diseases are at work.

In addition, as I said above, Fusarium is only a problem where the gound doesn't freeze in the winter.

And the lower branches are affected first when it's splashback reinfection.

You haven't described any specific lesions on the leaves and it's those spots that can help diagnose what foliage infections you might be dealing with, thus give you some idea of how you might go about preventing those diseases.

The four most common ones are:

Early Blight ( A. solani)
Septoria Leaf Spot
Bacterial Speck
Bacterial Spot

Early Blight can appear either early or late in the season.

While pictures are static and disease is progressive, you might want to take a look at some pictures of the above four to see if you can make any matches.

it's important b'c there is excellent prevention and control for the first two, which are fungal, but not for the last two, which are bacterial.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn

Thank you so much, Carolyn. We are so lucky to have you! Until it shows up again, I really couldn't tell you what the spots on the leaves look like. I do know on the fruit it gets kind of gray/brown dried out spots. I can't be sure however that it's a disease on the fruit. I also have those nasty little bugs that suck the juice out of the tomatoes and every place they puncture ends up with a hard dried out spot. Either way, the groundhogs don't care! Gardening in Arizona was sooooo much easier. All I had to worry about there was sunscald and water.
I will be watching more closely this year and try to borrow a digital camera so I can take pictures. Then, maybe I'll know for sure what I'm dealing with.
Since it probably is a foliage disease, then stripping the lower leaves would prevent some of it, right?

I also have those nasty little bugs that suck the juice out of the tomatoes and every place they puncture ends up with a hard dried out spot.

Sounds like stinkbugs, but the exterior area where they bite would be yellowish, with maybe a tiny black spot where they inject their toxin, and the underlying tissue would be hard and white. The condition is called Cloudy Spot.

(Since it probably is a foliage disease, then stripping the lower leaves would prevent some of it, right?)

It would help to prevent, but not totally prevent, splashback infection, but would not and could not prevent any new foliage infections that are airborne.

Mulching would also help prevent splashback infection.

The best way to go, I think, is to get on a regular schedule of spraying with Ortho Garden Disease Control, which is Daconil. It's an antifungal and the best around, and wouldn't help with the bacterial foliage infections, but the fungal ones progress much faster and most of the time are much more serious infections than are the bacterial ones.

And this year do pay attention to what lesions appear on the leaves, as in size, color, shape, whether they have yellow halos, etc., and record that data, the digital camera record would be fine, so you can figure out what you're dealing with for next year.

Carolyn