Everyone, I've been researching this Fusarium Wilt problem for some time now and suspect I also have this problem in my garden. It seems that once your garden soil has been infected the cure requires treatment such as.. many years (up to 10) of non-use or.. expensive fumigation treatment or.. solarization treatment over the hot summer months. All undesirable due to expense or loss of use of the garden. I want a quick inexpensive fix.
I'm thinking outside the box and wondering if we could possibly burn out the disease. Since solarization invloves covering the soil with plastic and allowing the sun to super heat the soil for several months which kills the fungus in the soil I'm thinking that the disease must be in the top few inches of soil.
Ok, with all that said, I came across this torch in my tool catalog
I was wondering if this torch could be used to super heat the top soil in my garden where I suspect is infected with the Fusarium Wilt. seems like this torch would be powerful enough to heat the top few inches of soil to over 500 degrees F. within about 15 to 30 seconds. I could probably do a 1 foot by 1 foot section in about 1 minute or a 10 by 10 area in about 1- 1/2 hours.
I can't try it now because I have tomatoes planted. My plants are now about 3 foot tall with no fruits yet. For me, the wilt problem usually dosen't kick in until about the end of July and I'm usually able to get a half decent harvest before the wilt really kicks in.
Anyway, do you think that torching the soil is a feasible solution for killing the fungus in the topsoil?
---pete---