Report on the Eastern New York Bacterial Canker Cultural Practice Demonstration

Abstract

For Northeast vegetable growers, bacterial canker can be a very serious tomato production problem. Bacterial canker is difficult to control because early symptoms are difficult to detect on infected seedlings or plants. Bacterial canker can spread quickly and easily. there are many sources of inoculum. There is no chemical treatment that is effective. Researchers have concluded the foundation of control lay in sanitation and preventive measures. Not all growers have an ongoing problem with bacterial canker. Working with five vegetable growers who have a chronic problem with bacterial canker, the goal of this demonstration was to see if hot water seed treatments would reduce bacterial canker in the field. A hot water bath was obtained for the growers to use. Two of the five growers did not hot water treat their seed as the seed was fungicide coated and they did not want to wash it off. Three growers used the hot water treatment on seed. One grower saw a reduction of disease levels while the other two growers did not see any significant reduction in the amount of bacterial canker in the field. The conclusion we drew from this was the growers needed to do a better job with all the other sanitary practices from the greenhouse to the field.