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Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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Posted by hunter_tx 7bTx (My Page) on Tue, Jun 18, 02 at 15:35
| I am trying using cornmeal tea to treat early tomato blight after the humid rainy spring we had here. About half of my tomatoes were looking like gonners about 2-3 weeks ago, and I thought it wouldn't hurt to try. So far, so good. It's along the same lines as compost tea, using cornmeal instead. Maybe just coincidence, but it seems to be effective. -Mrs Hunter |
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RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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- Posted by Vgkg 7-Va Piedmont (My Page) on
Wed, Jun 19, 02 at 8:06
Hi Mrs. Hunter, there are a few of my tomato plants that have what I believe to be early blight on their bottom leaves too. These are right next to otherwise healthy blight free plants. With all the corn meal waste at my work place I'll give your method a shot, nothing to lose. If I understand you correctly it's just some corn meal fermented for a few days in a bucket of water then diluted to use as a watering tea on the soil? or as foliar spray on the plant? Thanks, vgkg
PS, hope your grasshoppers are gone for you now. |
RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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| Yeah- I use the tea as a drench around the base of the plants. I just figured that if cornmeal promotes organisms that will fight fungi, that brewing up some tea would get the microbes going in a hurry. I needed a quick fix to try to save the Brandywines. It's the first year I have grown them, and they are huge- supposed to be very tasty too, which is what I was going after. I even went and bought some Daconil, but just couldn't bring myself to use it. Does this mean I am officially an organic head? As for the hoppers, the Nolo was very effective where I used it when they were babies. Very few grasshoppers near the garden, but I have been hand-picking a few here and there and get great pleasure from squashing them. hehehe There are still plenty out in the wildflower (aka weed) field, but it seems they tend to stay in close proximity to where they hatched. -Mrs Hunter |
RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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- Posted by Vgkg 7-Va Piedmont (My Page) on
Thu, Jun 20, 02 at 9:20
| Thanks Mrs. Hunter, I'll whip up a batch of corn meal tea this weekend and give it a shot. I confess to having applied daconil once already due to about 6 plants lower leaves turning yellow and appearing to be working their way upward. I don't like it either so only sprayed the effected leaves and not the rest of the plant/fruits. If your cornmeal idea works then I may try it on my squash & pumpkin leaves (as a foliar spray) later on for powdery mildew. vgkg |
RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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Hi,
I'm interested in trying this.
Do you think it will also work for late blight?
anyway, I can try it. My question - do you use the corn meal that can be bought at a supermarket, or is it some other kind of cornmeal? thanks,
ellen |
RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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| Ellen, always use cornmeal purchased from the grocery store on edible plants because it has been tested for aflatoxins which are harmful to humans. I strongly urge those who discover Late Blight on their tomatoes to pull the plants, bag them and get them off their property PDQ. This is a serious fungus which I doubt can be controlled by cornmeal. |
RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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| A week ago, prior to leaving for a vacation, I noticed some suspicious rotting on a few tomatoes. It looked like the photos of blight published in the NY Times. As the problem was not widespread, I removed the problem fruit, sprinkled cornmeal(straight, not tea form) liberally around the base and leaves, and left on my trip. Cornmeal has helped to prevent or slow hollyhock rust, so I figured it was worth a shot. To my happy surprise, everything looked great when I came home. A few caveats: I have only gardened for a few years, these tomatoes are raised from organic heirloom seed and I have not experienced blight before, so it is fully possible that the bad tomatoes had bottom rot. However, as they resembled the images of blight and many of my neighbors have big box tomatoes, I thought it would be worth sharing this experience. |
RE: Cornmeal tea for tomato blight
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| How about a box of cornbread mix ? |
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