Tom,

If you have Vert in your soil there's really nothing that you can add or do to the soil to eliminate it. Yes, there are products that Garden's Alive and others sell, such as Soil Guard and similar, which they say can help with soilborne systemic diseases, but those products were never devised for systemic diseases such as Vert And Fusarium, they were devised for soil rot fungi such as the same ones that cause damping off and are a huge problem in the bedding plant industry.

I've had Vert a few times on just a few plants over a 20 year period and it's never been a major problem. Most of the time the plants have outgrown it and I'[ve never lost a plant to Vert.

What has happened to your plants and are you sure it's Vert?

If so, we can discuss further what you might do.

Carolyn

Thank you so much for replying Carolyn as I know you're so busy helping others in the GW forums.

I think I have properly identified the disease. It started on one Yellow Pear: Its started from the top - droopy foliage, continual lack of energy even with or without water, and ultimately spreading one by one ( all being the Yellow Pears that were in a horizontal row, got the same symtoms ).

I will note I used no foliar sprays, but I did try to "pinch" affected areas off ( and destroyed )to see if it would help, as well as water tests as well ( watering and minimal watering ). I ultimately pulled them all out of fear of them contaminating my other plants.

I can say, it might have been "tight" in that area. But I don't think it was a circulation problem.

The rest of my garden flourished for the rest of the summer, and it was just that area that seemed to be infected with something, unless I had saved bad seeds from last year.

I was going to try and amend my soil in that area with fresh compost this fall, and see what happens next year.

I was also going to try and grow the following varities in that area next season to see if they are more resistant to my problem or lack there of:
Neves Red, Cherokee Purple, Big Rainbow, and Brandywine.
Only doing one plant of each in my back row. I chose those as I have read in some threads they are more "hardy" for heirlooms.

I hope you can respond back, so I know what to do for next year. I've traded for so many new varieties this late summer (for some reason the Jaune Flamme variety has a high trade value; its nothing special just a cool color and a great color! won't make the cut next year ..) and I don't want to lose them to a soil problem.

Thanks in advance ~ Tom

would like more info !

( all being the Yellow Pears that were in a horizontal row, got the same symtoms ).

Tom,

If it was just the Yellow Pears and they were in a horizontal row that doesn't speak to me of Verticillium, b'c Vert is a soilborne disease and would not be limited to just a horizontal row.

Were there any foliage lesions/spots?

It speaks to me more of a seedborne disease than anything else and Yellow Pear is notoriously susceptible to foliage diseases, especially Early Blight ( A. solani).

Carolyn

I didnt have any problems like that - they just wilted from the top to bottom ..... maybe they were diseased seeds ~ Tom

maybe they were diseased seeds

I would make that assumption as well.

Did you buy them commercially or did you get them in a trade, or whatever? Just curious and no need to specifically cite the commercial source but you might want to let them know if that was the case.

Carolyn

but the funny part is :
I saved seeds from my yellow pears last year - I also rec. a commercial pack of seeds - I planted 5 for myself, 1 for my parents, and 2 for my uncle -
3 of mine were mine from last year, and the other 2 commercial - The commercial ones were the first to get "wilt" - and then seeemd to "pass it on to the others" - my uncles and my parents were fine ... Now thats whats so perplexing is if the seeds were bad - wouldnt we all have a problem with the plants ? And can wilt type foliar diseases spread from one to another ? Needless to say I will not be planting yellow pears next year, as I have gotten better tasting hirlooms , but do you think its the plants and not the soil ? ~ Tom

Now thats whats so perplexing is if the seeds were bad - wouldnt we all have a problem with the plants ? And can wilt type foliar diseases spread from one to another ? Needless to say I will not be planting yellow pears next year, as I have gotten better tasting hirlooms , but do you think its the plants and not the soil ? ~ Tom

Tom,

There are no wilt type foliage diseases; those are limited to systemic diseases.

And seeds can be contaminated with either foliage disease or systemic disease pathogens.

And no, not every seed might give rise to an infected plant b'c infection is quantitative and not all seeds would be expected to have the same pathogen burden on them.

Plants or the soil? Hard to tell. Again, if I had a row of the same variety and they all came down with the same disease I would not conclude that it was the soil b'c pathogens in the soil would be distributed randomly, not in a horizontal row.

Carolyn

I dont understand how it could be bad seed though - 2 seeds/plants via commercial chain - 3 from saved seed - the commercial seeds/plants got it first then somehow spread to plants/seeds from last year ... no clue - very weird ~

There is an easy solution. Put a VF resistant plant back there in the row to see next year. Rutgers, and I think many good old commercial heirlooms have resistance.

Is the back row in the lowest part of your garden? The north side? A newly added extension to the garden?

barkeater - I thought about that as well .. I was going to try a Cherokee purple as I heard they are "semi-resistant" -The back of my garden is west - and is about 2.5 - 3 feet away from my fence ~ Could it be an air flow problem ?