Tomato blight

[estorms]

I have tomato blight for the third year in a row. This year I started my own plants, dug big holes, added composted horse manure, planted them deep, sprayed with copper sulphate, (three times) and I still got blight. I see some in the tomatoes I planted in pots on the porch and a little in the ones in a raised bed, but they all have it. Some were so bad I pulled them out. Others have lost almost all their leaves and I have green tomatoes clinging to a bare stalk. Even the one I put out front in my flower bed has a little. Two feet away, there are tomatoes growing wild on the site of my old compost pile. They are not affected. I have no more space where tomatoes have not been grown before. Next year, I plan to put down mulch the day I plant the tomatoes.

[rainbowgardener]

Definitely put down mulch when you plant the tomatoes, remove bottom leaves so nothing touches the soil, and water the soil, not the leaves.

But the tomatoes growing unaffected out of the compost pile is a clue. Compost has lots of beneficial microbes which can help combat the blight organisms. Next year, instead of the copper, try spraying with aerated compost tea (there's a huge long sticky about it at the top of the compost forum). Brewing the compost tea is a way to culture all those beneficial microbes. But you need to do it preventatively - it works way better as prevention than cure. So spray with the compost tea early in the season, before you have seen any signs of blight and every few weeks thereafter. You can use it as a soil drench also.

Sounds like too late to try it this year. Fold up the tomato tents and plant cold weather stuff for a fall crop.