ATTACK OF THE TOMATO KILLERS

Tomato growing and tomato eating is a rite of summer.

And part of that ritual is dealing with the bumps along the way to growing a plump, red tomato.

Between planting and harvesting, the thousands of Americans who annually become tomato growers may encounter some problems:

* An occasional virus which will strip the plant of its leaves.

* Tomato worms, which will eat not only the leaves, but the fruit as well.

"A lot of gardeners this year have met the tomato hornworm," said Paul Schnare of Sunny Hill Garden & Florist, 206 N. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau. "We've also seen some aphids and blight in some tomato plants."

These problems are common among many gardeners, added Schnare. "Your commercial growers do a lot of preventative things, but home gardeners don't do anything until they see a problem," he said.

Schnare recommends a couple of powders for the hornworm problem -- Dipel dust or Sevin dust.

"We haven't encountered any worm problems," said Richard Graham, a tomato grower who sells vegetables at farmers markets in Cape Girardeau and Southern Illinois. "Earlier on we did have a virus that caused a wilt problem in the plants."

Graham, who farms in Union County in Southern Illinois, and a number of vegetable growers in Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri say their crops have been free of insects this year, resulting in an abundance of tomatoes. A spokesman for the Switzer Farm near Cobden and Marilyn Peters of Cape Girardeau, who has a vegetable farm in Southeast Missouri, agree with Graham about the early virus problems.

"The tomato crops look good now," said Switzer. "We should have tomatoes for a long while."

Tomatoes and other vegetables have been good this year.

"Some worms have been discovered in sweet corn, but we haven't heard of any widespread insect/worm problems in tomatoes," said a spokesman of the Missouri Agricultural Statistics Service.

The report was the same from the local extension office at Jackson.

A few reports of worms have come from gardeners.

"I found a couple of small worms on my tomato plants," said one local man who raises a few tomato plants in his back yard. "But I haven't seen the real tomato worm yet."

By the "real" worm he was referring to the tomato hornworm, which is often referred as the "monster" of the caterpillar world.

The hornworm has a prominent black horn at the rear. It is green with eight diagonal white stripes, and grows to be four to five inches long and big around as a dime.

Two different hornworm species damage tomatoes, by eating foliage and sometimes the fruit.

The worm can be controlled with various insecticides. Or, if you're brave, you can hand-pick the plump little guy off the plant.

Tomatoes also experience some fungal diseases which include Fusarium wilt, which turns leaves yellow. The affected leaves eventually wither and die. These disorders can be controlled with the use of various fungicide sprays. Tomatoes also can experience mosaic virus and spotted wilt virus.