Help! Is there life after SB?

After posting a pic in the SB thread, and finding I should "burn it", I've gotten really nervous about the solanaceae family...

I'm now afraid for any drain off water to touch any other area,... I'm worried about what may be infected, and I just don't know it, ...

I worry about my solandras now, and my juanulloa...tomatoes, peppers and datura are replaceable, but I really worry now about my "special" brugs...

I've put large plastic saucers under the ones I brought into the greenhouse, but don't know if I'll ever be brave enough to put one in the ground again...

I'm also nervous about the brugs being so close to each other in the greenhouse.

Bigger than all that, I just don't have the confidence and peace of mind I used to have...I look at them all as poisonous, and potentially infected with deadly viruses!

I know I am probably over-reacting, and I've not even sent a sample in yet(mainly because I have no clue where to send it)... but is there life after SB? Have some of you felt these things, and are now able to shuck it off, and enjoy brugs, again?

If so, please help me!, lol...
-T

May I just say you sound like someone who has had their home broken into. It is so hard to ever feel safe again! Who can be trusted what went wrong, why did this happen? Can I ever trust again? Just be careful, Take precautions, be as sterile as possible, keep new plants isolated for a while. Bad things happen, we just need to be extra careful and not take anything for granted. There are bugs and infections all around us, don't let them take the love of gardening from us! If we are not sure everything is healthy, keep it isolated or remove it. Best wishes for a continued love of plants!!
Bonnie
Bonnie

Ahhh, sounds terrible. I think from what I have gleaned from around town, is that SB is really phoma. http://pdc.unl.edu/othercrops/sunflower/phoma/

I do not have your answers but I will tell you many, many people now in the brug world have had SB and they all have a yard full of different plants. They just cull the infected brugs as they show. We all share brugs so freely, it only makes sense it would get spread so easily! I haven't heard of it on other kinds of plants in people's yard yet. That would be an interesting follow up to ask.

I suspect a plant only succumbs to it and shows symptoms, when it gets stressed, so people sometimes do not know for a long while they have it and in the meantime, bugs and bad technique can spread it.

I have personally had lots of pics of SB sent to me for identification, so I know it is far reaching. It can not only be spread by sending infected cuttings out but by insects spreading it also. I think it is just a fact of life now.

I live in fear of getting it, myself. I will tell you what I do. Whether it helps, I have no clue.

Any funny looking plant gets tossed immediately, pot, soil and plant. I may even have had SB but because I am quick to toss, I do not know. I have tossed a few that looked weird. I keep my eye on all my suavs and yellows so if I get it I hopefully will find out fast before it gets established. I also am not bringing home any more suavs or yellows since they are supposedly prone to it. I have also tossed a lot of them from my yard except the ones I am really attached to. And as room gets tighter, they will be the first to go.

I only want cuttings from people I know use good technique. If they use communal water to root brugs, I do not want to take the chance. If they do not sterilize their clippers between plants, I do not want them.

This year, if I do receive cuttings I am unsure about, (which is all of them, and even all brugs I send out), I keep them at a friend's house. Each gets a different room. LOL. So true.

Every time you get cuttings you are accepting a risk but also every time a disease carrying bug flies onto your property, you are taking a chance also! So I figure if I do my best with good technique, it is then out of my control!

What will be, will be!

Bless your heart
You sound so defeated and discouraged. Hugs
I have had battles that almost made me throw everything away too.
Feelings of doubt and failure creep up, but talking to friends helped regain the perspective, talk it out! Get verification before you throw in the towel.
Contact your local extension service, they should know where and how you could get something tested.
I have been there,maddening but normal.
Vent here if you need to.We'll listen

Thank you to all of you for being supportive. I did do some reading and one site said several things can look so similar that a test is necessary to determine for sure. It could be treatable fungal problems, or non-treatable virus...

I guess I should really have it tested first, to be sure and have some piece of mind. A t least then I would know for sure.

Do I just call information and ask for my county's extension service?

I feared even posting "this problem" on this forum, for fear of being "blacklisted" from brug trading, but hopefully I can rectify the situation, and won't be treated that way, lol
-T

Taylor, too many people have it now for anyone to be blacklisted. I rather get a cutting from someone that had SB and dealt with it the right way and practices good technique than some one who has no clue if they have it and doesn't use good technique.

To be fair, I do not think anyone has ever been blacklisted for having SB even when it was new to us. I have cuttings from people who had SB. I think you have to be careful with ALL cuttings now and use common sense. You know how they say you must treat all patients as if they have HIV, well, I think it is the same with all cuttings. You should treat them all as if they have SB, meaning use good technique.

And a lot of brugs are just sent out for postage, so trading is not the only way you can get brugs.

T
Yeah, Extension Service should be listed, but if not,
information will have it.Or try your county's web site.
I am sure they would want to know also
Jerry Baker claims that using a pepper plant
spray is something to use to make plants more resistant to viruses.
Have not tried it, can't use peppers, allergic to them.
If you are interested in trying it, I can look up the recipe

I just found this article while researching something else which is interesting if you think you have contaminated soil. Though it doesn't say how far down the soil will be sterilized.

"To sterilize a large portion of soil outdoors, first moisten the area and cover it with a large, clear sheet of heavy plastic (about four to six ml thick). Be sure to use only clear plastic--black will not work for sterilization.
Anchor the plastic down in place around the edges with bricks or large rocks, making sure it's pulled tight. Allow the plastic to remain in place for one to three months."

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_soil_water_other/article/0,1785,HGTV_3635_1382873,00.html

Great info Kell. I have sand, 55mph perking sand. I am going to burn anything that looks close to diseased.
Sidney

Question:

You received a cutting, rooted it and have had it growing in a container in your garden for a few months. Then it starts showing signs of SB.

How can you be sure that the SB was in the cutting when it was received and not brought to the plant while it was growing in your garden?

I thought when I got out of the medical feild, I was progressing to a more relaxed environment: gardening!
...I guess not, lol...

Kell-
That is great news about the soil. I have tons of 6mil plastic left over from wrapping the greenhouse last week. I could even go grab scraps out of the recycle bin and place them NOW where I'll want to plant a brug in Spring...(of course I'll keep a backup of each brug, under quarantine somewhere, lol, just in case). I hope my worms will just move to another area, and not get "sterilized".

It is definitely worth a try, Taylor. I would make sure your piece of plastic is big enough though to really get hot in the center. I wonder if you poured some water with bleach on there too. Bleach gets weaker and weaker so it would not stay in the soil for long. I think I really would try that too. Then I would add lots of compost and manure when I was ready to plant to make sure it had lots of good things in it. I also read when I was researching yesterday that compost naturally has virus fighting things in it.

Donna HI!!! I have no clue if there is a way you can tell. I try to keep all my new cuttings in a different yard than mine. LOL. I really do. I guess I would really suspect the cutting of being the one that brought it in but you never know if a sucking insect transported it from another infected plant to your cutting.

I am unclear how long a plant has these terrible diseases before they show symptoms. Does anyone know??? I have heard up to 2 years in the past which is terrible if true.

Because you could have a healthy looking plant that really has it and if it only shows itself when stressed but is contagious even when it is healthy looking, the cutting could have caught it from that plant and show the illness before the original sick one even shows it itself to be sick. If you follow me. LOL

SB is a fungal disease. The fungus spreads through fungal spores. It doesnt show up, when a plant is stressed but when the spores germinate successfully on a compatible host. SB is carried in to a healthy brug collection with infected plants. Infected means that either the cuttings are infected or carrier of spores.

We are trailing a new Fungicid. We have high hopes in it. We will know more in appr. a year.

Anxiously waiting for results Monika. Good luck to you all.


Until then ........... I still like the Physan 20 that Calalily got me to try last year.

http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=PHY702

I discussion of this can be found at http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/387882/

I don't understand if it is a fungus, why it can't be treated with a fungicide?

By they way...I've been doing what Kell said for several months, now. I've been treating every cutting I receive like it "could be the one". So each one has gotten a bleach water soak before I even root it, or stick it in coir.

Still need to call the extension center and find out if I have a treatable fungus, or not...

Monika-are most fungicides just not able to kill SB?..., but you think this new one might actually be able to?

I am really surprised more people aren't telling their experiences and stories with SB. I know I can't be the first one to be concerned about it, or suspect I may have encountered it..., but I guess they feel like me...don't want anyone to know & then think "Eew", lol...

I just don't want to cover it up. I want to "air it out" and fix it,( if in fact, it is what I am even actually dealing with...)

Wonder what the people at Bonnie's might say...they are the largest producers of tomatoes here in TX. I'm sure they could tell me a great deal about this...AND what they have done successfully...might be worth a few phone calls. Tomatoes are in the same family and are prone to the same diseases...
-T

Go for it Taylor. And then tell me. LOL. I never thought to dip cuttings in bleach water. Do you do 10%? Great idea!! We wipe down our counters in our lab with 10% bleach, I believe it kills on contact! The trouble is though, phoma is in the cutting itself. But it sure should kill anything on the outside.

When you get your results back from your extension center, let us know what they think. And do check with Bonnies. Sound slike they would have lots of info on fungus that attack tomatoes.

Thanks, Scoot!
Sounds like that Physan would be a great product to just have on hand, for just about anything...

Kell-right...I will do that...(both). I'll call Bonnies(probably Monday), and then the extension center, too. And, yes, I dip it in (well probably a little stronger than 10%) diluted bleach water. The cuttings always look so nice and clean when you are done! lol...

I learned that from a rose propagation chapter in a book, that said this will kill the mold and fungus on the stems of your cuttings, so they will root properly, instead of die and turn black. I figured if it were good for roses, it was probably good for just about anything else, too, so now I "dip" most all my cuttings...
-T

I am sold!! I will try it. I remember the days I would just go around happily in my garden cutting whatever with the same clippers, just sticking cuttings into the ground where I stood and never had any problems with anything. LOL. Now I am so hi tech, I am just begging for trouble. LOL

Just watch. disaster is right around the corner. LOL

Taylor,

Do you do a quick dip, a slow dip, a prolonged soak in the bleach solution? Also, how far up the cutting do you go, just the bottom, and inch or so, the whole thing?

Seedpicker, we have fungicids for different fungus. Unfortunately, there are almost no fungicids available, to fight Phoma and Fusarium.

Kell-Yep, that was me too, ...La la land, and butterflies and fairies! lol...

Dstartz-I think Kell was right about the correct dilution being 10%, but I use a little stronger. I soak and submerge the entire thing. I usually use the bleach jug to set on it, so it doesn't float, and the bleach contacts the whole piece...here is a little picture I posted in a rose propagation thread: http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=1871843

Monika-Thank you. I guess I really need to identify what I have, first(by the professionals), so I know what exactly I am trying to treat...

Thank you everyone for you help, and support.
;0)
-T

Kell,

What kind of lab do you have??

Jeremiah

We do bacterial and fungal cultures. Hey, I could plate up our diseased plants!! LOL

I called the extension service for my county, today.

The master gardener volunteer who answered the phone, didn't know what a brugmansia was...

I explained the situation and he said to send pictures via email and he'd have one of the inspectors take a look. He said if testing were necessary, it would be $30 per specimen.

Guess I won't have all my brugs tested, lol...but certainly worth a few choice ones, if the inspector ends up recommending it.

Hopefully, since he is an inspector, he'll be able to tell me what it is right away.

Still going to call Bonnies, just seems time is getting away from me, today...
-T