help with blight please
OK, so I get early blight every year. its in my soil I guess. this year it came extra early. before even any tomatoes set. and it keeps spreading and spreading. I've been trimming off the bad branches. I even had DH spray the other night with a fungicide, but he isn't very thorough. I went out last night and chopped off anything that even had a speck of anything or looked like something might be starting on them. my poor plants look terrible.. so scrawny. so I did what someone told me and made some earthworm compost tea and sprayed that just now. as I was out there there are already more branches infected this morning. its just spreading much too fast for my liking. at this point, what else can I do? are my tomato plants just doomed at this point? this bites.
No it's all the same stuff Sheila.
Just that in crystal form or as powder you would have to mix it yourself.
As regards the blight .
There is nothing that you can use that will kill the blight that is already infecting a part of a plant. All any of the sprays do is give uninfected parts
of the plant a layer of protection as spores from the fungus fall on to it.
So it calls for thorough and regular sprays to protect in heavy infestations.
A real devil.
For a stronger ...non organic spray....use something containing the chemical chlorothalonil.
Just that in crystal form or as powder you would have to mix it yourself.
As regards the blight .
There is nothing that you can use that will kill the blight that is already infecting a part of a plant. All any of the sprays do is give uninfected parts
of the plant a layer of protection as spores from the fungus fall on to it.
So it calls for thorough and regular sprays to protect in heavy infestations.
A real devil.
For a stronger ...non organic spray....use something containing the chemical chlorothalonil.
what I have now is the chloro whatnot stuff. the place I got it at told me it was a copper spray. got it home and it was not. (this was last year at the garden center). so, Dh sprayed it once but it did nothing. he was out there for all of 5 min for 50plants, so that tells you how thorough he was. just not sure how often these things can be sprayed I guess.
can I alternate with the copper and this stuff so I can have continued protection?
can I alternate with the copper and this stuff so I can have continued protection?
You would have to check the labels Sheila.
There is bound to be harvest dates and also things like copper should not be sprayed too often as it can build up in the soil.
Whatever you use though ....it must be thorough. just a light drift over will not do the job.......and don't forget the underside of the leaves.
Don't see why you cannot alternate...in fact it's quite wise to vary the sprays you use so that resistance is kept to a minimum.
There is bound to be harvest dates and also things like copper should not be sprayed too often as it can build up in the soil.
Whatever you use though ....it must be thorough. just a light drift over will not do the job.......and don't forget the underside of the leaves.
Don't see why you cannot alternate...in fact it's quite wise to vary the sprays you use so that resistance is kept to a minimum.
Hmmm, I'm wondering if the milk/water solution that we use for powdery mildew of squash would work for your tomato plants?
Have you ever tried it?
Usually, I will mix no more that 1:1 milk:water and spray the plants with a spray bottle. 1:2 or 1:3 milk:water might be better to start out with to make sure it doesn't do any harm (I doubt it would).
Have you ever tried it?
Usually, I will mix no more that 1:1 milk:water and spray the plants with a spray bottle. 1:2 or 1:3 milk:water might be better to start out with to make sure it doesn't do any harm (I doubt it would).
The Daconil (chlorothalo stuff) can be sprayed up until the day before harvest. I don't know about the copper. The leaf receptors that the fungus attaches to is on the top of the leaves so you can get a pretty good coverage quickly, but if he is under the impression that it is a systemic, and just sprayed some on each plant you are in trouble. Both the copper and Daconil work the same way, as blocking prophylactics. They wash off with rain.
Milk spray has been shown to make at least one of the blights worse (Alternaria-Early Blight I think), it only works for powdery mildew, AFAIK.
Milk spray has been shown to make at least one of the blights worse (Alternaria-Early Blight I think), it only works for powdery mildew, AFAIK.
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Shee, I've been fighting blight this year also, first on potatoes, now on tomatoes and peppers. I bought the Daconil liquid spayer mix and sprayed very thouroughly. It took me two evenings to spray 95 plants, and I probably used 5-6 sprayer fulls. I covered the leaves until there was a little of the whitish substance left on them. So far after one time spraying, it seems to have stopped it for the most part. The peppers made a total turnaround after one application. That was a week ago, and we've had rain every day for the last two-three days so I will re-apply the Daconil this weekend. That's the darndest part of it all, last year I couldn't get enough water on the garden, this year it's too much! Sure would be nice to have a normal year every now and then!
You might need to buy a new sprayer, I just used a gallon size plastic cheapie one from Wal-mart. I wasn't sure what I had put in the one I had, so I didn't take a chance.
So, I think I saved the plants, but now I think I will have to fence the garden to keep the chickens from eating the 'maters! Good luck!
You might need to buy a new sprayer, I just used a gallon size plastic cheapie one from Wal-mart. I wasn't sure what I had put in the one I had, so I didn't take a chance.
So, I think I saved the plants, but now I think I will have to fence the garden to keep the chickens from eating the 'maters! Good luck!
I haven't had the chance to finish spraying. rr. the next night it rained. the next night I didnt have help as I was alone, and tonight was birthday celebration food for my DH. I hope to finish spraying tomororw. the tomatoes seem to be doing ok so far, but the potatoes are not doing hot. they're doing worse now. hopefully the sprayer works. I tried soaking the spraying element. I jut bought the thing last year.