Monday, May 31, 2010

Tomato Blight spotted in Northern PA...

Excerpt from the site Gardening Tips: Tomato Blight: Causes and Treatment

The first step is to remove all of the damaged leaves. Also, remove all leaves on the ground around your plants as the blight can remain in the soil. Wash your hands in between plants so as to keep from spreading blight to healthy plants or leaves. Dispose of infected leaves away from your garden in either a cull pile or thrown in the trash. You will need to plant your tomatoes in a different location for the next few years, as blight will continue to be present in the soil.

If you want to try to control late blight with fungicides, you need to begin spraying fungicide before you see symptoms – and you need to continue spraying regularly. Use a product that contains chlorothalonil. Even here, these products are only effective if used before the disease appears and should be reapplied every 7-10 days, or 5-7 days in wet weather. Chlorothalonil is a protectant fungicide, with no systemic movement in the plant, so thorough coverage is necessary. For organic farmers and gardeners, the options are very limited, since only copper fungicides can be used, and copper is not very effective on late blight. It is easily washed off by rainfall.

Continually check your plants and remove any leaves showing signs of the fungus. Though this process is tedious, it is the only way of minimizing the damage to your plants and encouraging as much tomato-production as possible.

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