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fireduck

Early Blight...what to do....

fireduck
10 years ago

After seeing some great pics online...I now know I have early blight on one of my plants. Two plants right up against it seem to be unaffected. I have sprayed all 3 with lime/copper. Should I trash the one affected and get it away from the healthy ones? Can it come back after spraying?

Comments (6)

  • DownBabylon
    10 years ago

    You might have early blight, but without actually looking at the infected plant tissue you can't be totally sure. There are a couple of viral and bacterial diseases that can look similar.

    If you have a diseased plant, yes, kill it, get it out of there. If it is early blight, copper could help protect the other plants. But it's also possible you bought transplants that were already infected.

    My suggestion would be to get new plants from a different place, and plant them in a different location (if that's possible).

  • fireduck
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    thankyou...I was afraid that was going to be the correct answer! good advice, though.

  • containerted
    10 years ago

    Many folks mis-diagnosed fusarium wilt as blight. I would spray all the plants with something like Daconil or Garden Safe to perhaps put some control on the malady. Either spray will help out with several problems.

    In my gardens, I do "preventative spraying" to help my plants defend themselves against things that kill them. This thing about "organic" has become OCD to a lot of folks and I think that's not good. This world we live in now is getting more difficult to plant something and never spray for pathogens and critters.

    It truly has come down to whether or not you want to harvest or watch plants die slowly. Seems like such a waste of time and material to just do nothing.

    JMHO

    Ted

  • digdirt2
    10 years ago

    EB is one of the most common disease issues with tomatoes and most have to deal with it annually to one degree or another. This year will be a good year for it given all the wet cool weather many have experienced. But it doesn't mean you have to pull the plants.

    This early in the season here I probably would replace it but then I have lots of free back-ups. Otherwise most will just remove the affected foliage and institute a regular fungicide spraying program to help keep it in control if you haven't already done a preventative spray and keep the plant. The spores are airborne so pulling a plant doesn't eliminate contamination of the other plants and it still produces fruit.

    So IF EB is actually what you have and you are using fungicides wait to see how it does.

    Dave

  • fireduck
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    After reading online info I decided to dump the affected plant. I did spray the neighboring plants with copper/lime. Here in Calif...big brother is so intrusive with laws, I never worry about spraying chemicals and ruining the world. Better vegies through science...thanks for advice.

  • spicymeatball
    10 years ago

    How bad was it? If you are vigilant with the copper fungicide, meaning, that you are out there after every time it rains, you should be fine. Even if a few leaves near the soil start showing symptoms, cutting them and disposing of them should slow it down enough for the plant to take hold and outgrow the disease.

    I have had years where the fungi was more virulant than others, but simple practices have always lead to good yields for all my plants. I have ditched one plant over the last 5 years, it was an orange blossom. It was so infected that in the first two weeks I knew it was a lost cause. Other than that, copper spray, keeping the base of the plant mulched and the leaves away from soil splash has done the trick.

    This year one plant has been infected. I trimed the branch that showed the symptoms and am keeping a close eye on things. So far not a single other instance.

    This post was edited by spicymeatball on Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 1:32

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