LATE BLIGHT FUNGUS ON TOMATOES - HOW TO TREAT TOMATO

[The Helpful Gardener]

Jamesy is right; the lack of credible info is the hardest part of informed decision making. It is made doubly hard by policy specifically designed to muddy water and make it harder yet (like the inert ingredient, which we have answered by calling them "other ingredients" instead of inert, a pathetic nod to the fact that these are often more poison than the active ingredient! Contrary to the old saying, it is the things we do not know that hurt us...)

The chemical culturing of our food crops has been touted as a "necessary" evil, despite the continual example Nature sets to the contrary. Time and again we return to these natural systems as we learn the failings of the "modern" methods. SnowLeopard it is not hard feelings on our part, it is a sadness for me that you will continue to poison yourself and your soil and the creatures there. I fervently hope I never get my "told you so" minute; I wish there was no need for the stuff at all while I am wishing. We have always allowed for both sides of the discussion when done in a sane and rational manner and you ain't done nothing but, so good on you. I respect your personal decision while disagreeing vehemently. But ask yourself why an ex-grower who has put down in a day the amount of pesticides you will use in your life, someone who was trained and lived in the better-living-through-chemicals world of plant culture has gone a** over elbows green.

HG

[Duh_Vinci]

I completely agree with what Jamesy said.

It is indeed a lack of information that is readily available. And yes indeed, if it was not for this forum, I would be using the the very first (and very last bottle of Chemical Fertilizer I bough in early March)...

I never actually used it, still sitting in the garage This is my first garden, and all I've used up to date was Alaskan fish fertilizer (at the transplant) while adding natural kelp and natural bone meal in small doses as the season went on.

My indeterminate tomato plants are as high as 9'+, and all bear fruit,even standard Brandywine is loaded with fruit (while many report that only a handful of fruit produced throughout the season). More pant than I can manage, but what can I say, I'm learning as I go, later plants I've learned to keep to max of 3 stems, and those bare just as much fruit as the "monsters" set a month earlier.

So while it appears that I can grow veggies, controlling the disease is my next challenge.

Ordered that Fish emulsion, ordered the copper soap, got a gallon of milk, and two 2gal sprayers, one for the copper soap application, one for the milk and fish... Stopped by 3 stores, and one nursery, very very limited selection of organic materials and no copper soaps! Fish emulsion is 5-1-1, which I think is a bit too much from the nitrogen perspective this late in the season. So online ordering as a breeze!

Wish me luck, hoping that this disease does not take over my garden!

Regards,
D

[jamesy]

Well........thanks for the comments , I'm a newbie too and its just an observation,mindboggling but there it was.
Scott , I never gave organic a second thought and didnt much give any thought ..I'm seeing where you are coming from totally.

I don't consider myself Organic or a treehugger or any of the stereotypical characters that are often portrayed , just an average guy that wants food to be as it used to be and respect the earth while I'm using it..if that makes me Organic or even a treehugger ill live with it..come to think of it I love the trees around here
Ill be sticking close by for tips if you don't mind.Firstly I got myself some poultry manure ..smells pretty bad , big ol'bag of it , this is going to be the business when diluted for my garden and veg ? Should I go easy on it or go to town ?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Easy with that stuff; the ammonia in the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea_cycle]urea cycle[/url] is about 40% water-soluble, which is one of the things we don't like about blue goo. Better than one hundred percent, but not as good as plant based fertilizers or fish... Good bridge product (from chems to organic) and a fine compost kicker; it locks up there pretty well... just go easy and build the biologies it needs to release and store efficiently in the soil and you'll be fine

HG

[webmaster]

Article in the [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/nyregion/18tomatoes.html]NYTimes discusses tomato fungal infections[/url] rapidly spreading across U.S. North Eastern states and through the Mid Atlantic. Tomatoes are dying or being discarded by farmers across the region. The seedlings have been found as far as Ohio.

One possible source of the infection is a nursery that sold it's tomatoes via big box stores including Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, and Kmart.

Authorities recommend that home gardeners inspect their tomato plants for late blight signs, which include white, powdery spores; large olive green or brown spots on leaves; and brown or open lesions on the stems. Gardeners who find an affected plant should pull it, seal it in a plastic bag and throw it away, not compost it.

[img]https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/17/nyregion/blight.large.jpg[/img]

[The Helpful Gardener]

Pulled and tossed my first plant, despite strenuous effort to mitigate the problem organically. Other's still seem ok; I am waiting and watching. Dug my Yukon Gold taters (this IS the same disease that caused the Great Potato Famine), and found a few that may have been first stage infection, but most are still healthy. Keeping an eye on tomatoes as well as the Fingerling and Peru blue taters; more on this soon...

HG

[!potatoes!]

many market farmers in my region have lost their entire tomato crops. was just visiting some friends' farm last night, pretty depressing, looking at what, two and a half weeks ago, was almost a thousand-dollar tomato crop...

[The Helpful Gardener]

In a related (Solanum and Lycopersicon are both nightshades, susceptible to the dreaded disease) note I got the potato crop in this week ahead of any infection. Despite devastating losses to the traditionally planted Fingerlings from voles, I still brought in in thirty five pounds of taters. Yukons were biggest, Blues were most prolific. Roasting has been the order of the day; just a little herb and garlic infused oil and a bit of sea salt. Blues are winning the taste tests so far...

Still eating cherry tomatoes and eyeballing a few ripening fruit on the others; sun was good again today but it was cooler and drier too. First time I've had to water for a while thankfully... still no signs of worsening issues

HG

[Quirky]

Chiming in perhaps a little on the late side.....I had thought my tomatoes were just getting normal late summer leaf die-off on the bottom, but no, it's definitely blight. So this is what I'm doing and lessons learned so far....

I'm in central NJ and it's been so durned wet all summer....in hindsight I wonder if NOT mulching with hay would have been the better option. Or at least pulling it off after all the rain we've had lately.

I have one 4 x 12 raised bed that's all tomatoes (I think 30 plants in all), supported with Florida weave and some stakes. All raised from seed from Seeds of Change by me, no big box starts. (IIRC I have 12-15 different varieties but my helpful toddler pulled all the markers so I'm having to do detective work to figure out what's what.) All organic methods so far.

Before the blight came I had gone through and pruned all the leaves off the lower 8 to 10 inches but in hindsight I wish I had kept up with the pruning even more to keep the air circulation even better.

I am still getting ripening tomatoes and I have a ton of green ones so I'm trying to salvage what I can, pruning off all branchlets with any diseased leaves. I'm seeing mostly leaf spots, very few affected tomatoes and no stem lesions. But at least so far even after very heavy pruning I still have enough unaffected foliage that I'm hopeful the plants will survive long enough to get more ripe ones.

FWIW, my paste tomatoes (San Marzano and Roma) have done the best, producing heavily in spite of the blight and ripening well. My cherries and grape tomatoes in different beds are so far unaffected (knock wood). It's the slicing tomatoes that look like they're potentially going to be lost if they don't ripen and the plants succumb. Tigerella has also done quite well although prone to catfacing with the rain.

Next year I will definitely rotate and not put tomatoes in this year's main bed although unfortunately unless we take down some major trees I don't have the space to do longer than a biennial rotation. I will probably add 3-4" of compost and mulch when the tomatoes come out and try to get in a crop of overwintering greens if I can.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Thanks for that Quirky; always good to get a take from the trenches. Sorry for your losses but sharing the info gives meaning to their sacrifice. They will be missed

Just got off the phone with pal Lisa, one of my radio buddies; ([url=https://www.wtic.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=3683645]this is us a few months back[/url]). She has been having good luck with nettle tea but cautioned against dosing rates as it can be herbicidal at higher doses. She dilutes about 8:1 (water to tea) for prevention and 5:1 for curative use, and has graciously coughed up a gallon for me to play with (with a caution on smelliness; we'll see). While it is touted for [url=https://www.attra.org/attra-pub/compost-tea-notes.html]antifungicidal and pesticidal qualities[/url]for plants, it has been known for years as a [url=https://www.liveandfeel.com/medicinalplants/nettle.html]human health tonic[/url]. One of those ancient secrets we lost in the rush to chemicals? Lisa says yes and she's the one who got me organic, and she says she is doing ok; hasn't lost a plant yet, despite seeing first signs on a few plants. Good enough for me; I will let you know how my trial turns out...

HG

[Quirky]

Is she brewing from fresh nettles or from dried? How is she brewing the original tea that's then diluted? Is she using it as a foliar spray?

Nettle tea is excellent during pregnancy among other things.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Lisa used fresh from her yard (she has had a patch of big bull nettles for a while and finally made use of them). Just mahed 'em in a bucket to my understanding; a passive brewing, in compost tea parlance... As foliar spray for blight, insects and foliar feeding, and drench as soil tonic and fertilizer...

HG

[applestar]

I've been wanting some nettles -- the stinging kind -- I've got plenty of dead nettles, but was loath to actually buy seeds (I'm a cheapskate, what can I say? ) but FINALLY had a good big clump volunteer this spring, which was allowed to go to seed, and am now spotting several smaller volunteers (Don't know if this is from the new seeds or if I had some more growing) I'll soon have enough to brew some tea! The BIG question is shall I brew this tea for the garden or for myself (Nettle leaf tea is highly nutritious and has a lot of medical benfits you know. I used to drink them while I was pregnant....)

[Quirky]

Just coming back to report that I haven't lost any plants (so far). I've pruned the heck out of them so they're mostly just vinestalks with tomatoes on them and a few leaves on the top, and I have had a few blighted tomatoes, but I'm still getting ripe, healthy tomatoes. Yay!

I certainly can't ascribe it to my superior gardening skills, but I'm very happy and grateful that my plants didn't totally succumb. My CSA ripped out a HUGE plot of tomatoes -- I saw them before they got ripped out and it was a terrible sight.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Quirky, thankfully we don't have to grow as many as a CSA; I am not the only organic nut in the family, as brother Dennis works at an organic CSA and thankfully was on top of it, yanking many plants in first stages, which on that scale is the best remedy (speed is the most important factor). You and I can be proactive and intensive on a plant by plant basis, which brother Dennis has pointed out they can ill afford, but at least being more proactive than reactive has been successful for his operation and they have not had to haul them all out yet (although he still does not rule it out).

I am still seeing early signs and cutting off leaves or picking fruit accordingly; as long as you keep it out of the stem I think you can fight it (Lisa says the same). Once it is in the stem, chuck'em...

S

[trigger]

We've been trying the nettle compost tea since our plants were hit pretty hard by the late blight.
So far, twice daily sprayings of the tea and pruning have slowed the progression quite a bit. We are seeing quite a few tomatoes start to ripen, so there is hope!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Glad to hear trigger; same here

HG

[funnyguy]

Just came on to ask about my tomatoes with a picture and saw this thread. The link to the article no longer works. Can someone tell me if this is what's wrong with mine?

The left one is a cherry tomato, which has the brown slotches, and the other is a better boy bush, which has the white-ish crawl-ies. They looked fine until I moved them into the greenhouse for the cooler weather, and they've started looking like this.

Thanks!

[img]https://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq332/funnyguy/tomato-problem.jpg[/img]

[The Helpful Gardener]

The left looks like first stage blight and the right is certainly a leaf miner ...

HG