Early Tomato Blight on the Rise

[fallen_sputnik]

Hey gang,

I just wanted to let you all know that I've heard from other gardeners
in the area that they had been experiencing early tomato blight. This
plant pathogen spreads very easily and can foul up plans for a tomato
harvest. It is likely to get out of hand this year as it has been a
cool damp spring (tomatoes hate this weather). Please read up on
Tomato blight and preventative measures to take in order to keep our
gardens free of this. As soon as you see tomato blight please remove
your plant and dispose of it (not in the garden compost ) as this
pathogen can live from year to year in your soil.

Here is some info about the blight ( the full story is available at
http://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19980504.htm )

Early blight shows up as a leaf blight on the lower part of plants.
The disease moves upward, and by early to mid-summer, early blight has
caused a "firing-up" of foliage over most of the tomato plants in the
garden.

As the disease progresses, leaves turn yellow, wither, and drop from
plants. Tomato plant severely infected by early blight produce low
yields of undersized fruit. Generally, fruit are also show signs of
sun-scald since leaves aren't present to protect fruit from direct
sunlight.

Staking and mulching are important in an early blight control program,
since staking keeps foliage and fruit from contacting the soil
surface, and mulching cuts down on "soil splash" onto lower parts of
the plant. Since soil particles often contain the early blight fungus,
this is a good way of keeping the fungus from invading plants.
Organic mulches (pine straw or even newspapers) are equally
effective. A rain canopy is often suggested in our area to help keep
the foliage dry, you may also try a spray of baking soda, water and a
drop of oil to help keep the foliage healthy but this must be
reapplied after each rain.

-R

[Linda]

Hello Community Gardeners,

Aside from crop rotation, the best method for combatting early and
late tomato blight in growing plants is to spray in 10 - 14 day
intervals from first bloom to early fall with a fungicide. A good
organic for this is Neem Oil. Spray in early morning or late afternoon/
evening to allow drying and to avoid spraying beneficial insects such
as lacewings, bees, butterflies, etc. Neem can also be watered into
the soil to kill pests below ground and to allow the plant to take up
the oil, causing leaf hoppers, grass hoppers and other chewing insects
to avoid the plant.
Neem oil has many complex active ingredients. Rather than being simple
poisons, those ingredients are similar to the hormones that insects
produce. Insects take up the neem oil ingredients just like natural
hormones.
Neem enters the insect's system and blocks the real hormones from
working properly. Insects "forget" to eat, to mate, or they stop
laying eggs. Some forget that they can fly. If eggs are produced they
don't hatch, or the larvae don't moult.
Obviously insects that are too confused to eat or breed will not
survive. The population eventually plummets, until they disappear and
the cycle is broken.

Hope this helps save some tomatoes :-)

~L~