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Transmitting Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

Making It Grow! Minute logo

  Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Ah, what greater pleasure can a gardener have than to scout the garden on a coolish morning with a cup of coffee in hand and admire the budding okra pods, the plump cucumbers, and the bean pods dangling from their trellis. All of that happiness evaporates when you get to the tomatoes and see distorted, purplish colored leaves. Tomato spotted wilt virus is just like the common cold – there is no cure, but the plant doesn’t recover from it. And just like the common cold on an airplane, the confined space promotes transmission to other tomato plants. A small, slender insect, the thrips, is the vector for this devastating disease. Thrips acquire the virus feeding on the myriad winter weeds that serve as an over-wintering source of the disease, then they  move into gardens in search of new food sources. 

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.