Grow Tomatoes Journal News: 2009 Late Blight hits East Coast
Roma Tomato Displaying Late Blight Effects
“I don’t say my golf game is bad, but if I grew tomatoes they’d come up sliced” — unknown
Dot’s Thot: If our tomato gardening goofs only “sliced” out tomatoes, we would be in BLT heaven.
I was surfing the net again to learn more about tomatoes and came across this news item about a current tomato disease from The Washington Post today. “Late Blight Comes Early, Hitting Tomatoes Hard, Experts Say“. You can follow the link for the full article. If you are growing tomatoes at home here is my quick summary of the news.
Late blight threatens commercial tomato production and can affect the home grower as well. It is a fungal disease that is the same problem that affected the potato crops in Ireland in the 1840s. That caused a potato famine and was the impetus for one of the large migrations to our eastern seaboard. Both tomatoes and potatoes belong to the nightshade family.
The problem is being reported from Maine to South Carolina and even as far west as Ohio. California was not mentioned — and tomatoes are a huge crop out here. The official name for the disease is Phytophthora infestans and there are pesticide sprays for it. However, for organic farmers, neem oil sprays can be used, but must be reapplied weekly.
Usually late blight appears late in the tomato growing season (April to October, according to the article — though we get our seedlings in March here in southern California). This year, because of the more rain and cold weather than usual, the fungus has appeared early.
To see more pictures to help you identify the disease, the article says to go to the Maryland cooperative extension service blog, Grow It, Eat It, at http://www.growit.und.edu. Go to the site above for the full article and go to the site in this paragraph to see more pictures. If you find plants with the disease, you are to put the plants in a plastic bag, seal it and trash the lot; do not compost as the spores from the fungus will continue to spread.
I went to that recommended site and stumbled upon another useful site called the HGIC Plant Diagnostic Web Site (home page) and their page on Spots/Blotches: Late Blight of Tomato and Potato. I have now put that on my list of useful, horticulturally sound information. They endeared themselves to me even more, since I spotted a thumbnail photo of the Monarch Butterfly Caterpiller in their banner; Monarchs are my favorite butterfly.
Tomato Growers' Store (Even for Growing Tomatoes Upside Down)
