terrdog

You could try solarizing your soil in the spring but it does a job on your microorganisms too.

 

Maybe solarize and mulch.  Rotate blight susceptable crops so you don't grow them in the same spot every year, and buy plants that have as many letters after their names as possible.

 

There's more than this but here's a short list:

http://www.tomatodirt.com/blight-resistant-tomato-varieties.html

 

Note that smoking in the garden or having tobacco residue on your hands can cause diseases too.

Alternaria is Early Blight.

 

Disease Resistance Codes

V Verticillium Wilt

F Fusarium Wilt

FF Fusarium, races 1 and 2

FFF Fusarium, races 1, 2, and 3

N Nematodes

A Alternaria

T Tobacco Mosaic Virus

St Stemphylium (Gray Leaf Spot)

TSWV Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

 

 

 

Thank you for your help.

Will treatment for the soil work?

Yep, clean that garden like you're cleaning the kitchen.  Spotless clear down through the top layers of soil.

 

Check out these photos to see if it looks close to the bottom leaf damage that you mentioned.  This is Early Blight.

http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/early_blight.htm

Yeah that looks like it petee, all the plants have it

Late Blight on Bittersweet.

 

I think we've all had this pestilence growing in our gardens!  Ugh, a carrier of Late Blight if the fruit ends up underground for the winter.  Go to the bottom of the photo section.

http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm

So is it best at the end of season to make sure no fruit gets tilled under?

 

The Jackson China plant was right behind the store. They made dishes. Some folks still go crazy for Jackson China plates.

 

I think the plant closed in the late 80's? Greed? Owners didn't put money back into the plant?

 

I moved to the area when I was 18 or 19. The plant closed soon after.

 

Netshape sits on a site that used to be a brick factory.

Closed in 1984, I worked their for 10 yrs. And you are right about the china people pay big bucks for it on ebay. I have a nice collection myself. the ware with the air brush brings the most.

If only the bottom leaves turned yellow and then brown it may just be Early Blight.  Late Blight (watery black spots on leaves, stems and fruit) starts in the middle or top of the plant and on the fruit about the same time.  Early Blight will progress slowly till fall, not affecting the fruit much till late summer, but Late Blight is very fast spreading, destroying plants in days.

 

If it's Late Blight then you can trim off the diseased branches portion just till you get a little fruit, spray with  then pull and destroy the plants.  You can plastic bag and trash the plants or burn them.  Don't compost any of the plants or fruit.  Don't leave any dropped fruit in the garden or leaves.  Also, eat the tomatoes well washed and fresh, or cook them immediately.  Don't can with them as the PH can be affected.  I'm not sure about freezing them.

 

You can try to spray but it all depends on how early you started preventative measures.

http://www.extension.org/pages/18351/organic-management-of-late-blight-of-potato-and-tomato-with-copper-products

 

If it's Early Blight then it happens to most tomatoes sometime in the summer.  No problem till later, and frost will probably get them before it gets to the fruit.  That's a soil problem from soil splashing up onto the plant from rain.  

 

Maybe these photos will help you make a decision:

Late Blight/Early Blight?:  http://extension.unh.edu/Agric/lateblight.htm

Preventative Pruing for Early Blight:  http://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Organic-Gardening/Preventive-Pruning-for-Tomato-Early-Blight-Control.aspx

Thank you, looks like its early blight.

and sorry for hijacking this thread. was desperate for answers.

Well, technically they would say pull them now and dispose of them but I don't think that I could do it. Many years we get blight and still ripen tomatoes. If some of them really go then pull them all. The fruit will start to get soft spots on it and that is bad. Crying for you here. :cry2:

Thanks again,  i'm doing some online research to try and prevent this from happening again. Learning more on watering the plants, treatment and rotating my crop, as well as getting rid of the infected ones.

From the Down to Earth Garden Club newsletter this month:

 

Late tomato blight is with us again this year. It remains to be seen how widespread it will be but currently, according to Penn State

Hey petee i have 25 tomato plants in my garden, over the last few weeks the bottom leaves look like they got hit with a blow torch, is this possibly blite ? I keep pulling the dead ones off but it jus keeps spreading up the plant.HELP!!

What about "going to get a bottle of pop, you don't hear that to much anymore.and how about some of the sayings from the 70's like Groovy and solid, far out and right on. LOL!!!!!!!

Check with Penn State.  They're really working on it because that's their job.  

I will, thanks

You know, people used to burn their gardens once in a while.  I wonder if this would be a good idea for infected gardens?  You would definitely have to do a soil test in the spring to bring it back into balance.

Going to research this to the utmost, and learn as much as I can on blight pervention. Hopefully next year I'll be armed and ready.

Another plant that is apparently carrying and harboring the disease is a weed, and now I can't think of the name, Nightshade, vine, has a purple flower with a yellow cone in the center?  Ugh.

 

Terrdog, if you need tomatoes just call Pine Valley in the Business Referral section.  At least you will have something to can or freeze.  In the meantime get a soil test done, and make sure all weeds are gone along with everything else from that section of the garden.  You may have to spray with Daconil right from the beginning next year.  

 

Other people have it spreading to plants not usually affected, like peppers.  

Thanks for the info petee

For those who have Late Blight this year, did you plant in the same spot this year or where you grew potatoes last year?  Did you pull out all volunteer tomatoes and potatoes this spring?  Do you think it came from a neighbor's garden?

 

It is natural for tomatoes to get Late Blight further on into the fall season but this is too early for that.  It has to be an unnatural infection from another source.  I've seen a couple of gardens with Late Blight and I'd like to know what to tell them.  I think all may have been from bad garden hygiene and planting practives but it would take more research and some guesswork.

 

When I saw my son-in-law's garden this spring he had volunteer potatoes that he refused to pull.  Luckily he had no Late Blight.  

roatated my plants this year, never grew potatoes, just ticks you off!!! two years in a row.

Late blight wiped me out, all 40 tomato plants look like they were hit by a blow torch and every tomatoe has black spots and blisters all over them. Fricken ticks me off. Sykesville area

My garden looks good so far, no red tomatoes yet, Cut 4 nice heads of  brocolli the other day and my green pepper plants are huge but only one pepper so far, cucumbers all over the place.

chef boy r dee  out of the box