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joy_division

question about blight

joy_division
16 years ago

Please bear with me. I was hoping to get an answer in the pests and diseases forum but not a single response.

I just wanted to know what I have to do to my garden to have a repeat of blight. Should I toss my tomato plants now. Do I saturate my soil with Daconil or will that not help? Please don't tell me I have to replace a few inches of my soil completely. Maybe I should just set my garden on fire (kinda kidding).

Comments (17)

  • trudi_d
    16 years ago

    Go over to Hicks Nurseries on Jericho Turnpike in Westbury and go all the way to the back where they have the "treatments", look for a bottle of Serenade. There may be other places that sell it, but I do know that Hicks has it. It's an organic product that seems to work very well. Get it, and spritz your plants at least every-other week until the end of the season. That will help control EB.

    Mulching the soil under your plants can also help.

  • joy_division
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    My tomato plants are pretty much goners. I am more worried about the long-term effect for future years. I read that one shouldn't plant for 3 years after an attack of early blight. Can't I go ballistic on my soil to eradicate it?

  • carolyn137
    16 years ago

    I just wanted to know what I have to do to my garden to have a repeat of blight. Should I toss my tomato plants now. Do I saturate my soil with Daconil or will that not help? Please don't tell me I have to replace a few inches of my soil completely. Maybe I should just set my garden on fire (kinda kidding).

    ******

    Blight is a general word that indicates a plant is kinda sick.

    If you're talking about trying to prevent diseases I think it would be a good idea to find out first what you're dealing with.

    There are four common foliage diseases and several more what are called systemic diseases. Some are caused by bacteria and some are caused by fungi and some by viruses.

    What is your location? I see zone 7 and Trudi puts you on LI, but I don't know that for sure. ( smile)

    Would it be possible for you to do one of two things:

    First, go to the Pest and Disease Forum, look for Problem Solver #2 posted by Earl and then scroll down until you find the post that has the link to TAMU, or you can find it by Googling as well. Look at the pictures, and start with the most common foliage diseases, so look for:

    Early Blight ( A. solani)
    Septoria Leaf Spot
    Bacterial Speck
    Bacterial Spot

    ....and see if any of them match what you see with your plants.

    .....0r

    YOu can try to tell folks here everything you know about what happens to your tomato plants with the hope that they can make a diagnosis.

    Once the enemy is known, then some strategies can be suggested.

    The Serenade that Trudi suggested has helped some folks in some cases, and there are other possible products one can use as well as some cultural practices one can use.

    Carolyn

  • trudi_d
    16 years ago

    Crop rotation is good, also digging in a large amount of greens and turning top to bottom is also good. So is lots of air space about the plants. And mulching the soil.

    Regardless of whatever you do to prevent an outbreak, you cannot change one of the largest factors. We have hot summers and high humidity. In August the wind nearly stops. The garden is going to get problems.

    Grow resistant varieties, and give your seeds a rinse with some bleach water or antibacterial cleaner--let them soak for 15 minutes in that--rinse and then sow the seeds. If there are EB spores on your seeds you are likely to destroy them with the santizing soak.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Early Blight Fact Sheet

  • joy_division
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    What percentage of mixture for bleach/water?
    Could use I use a mixture of the bleach water in the soil?
    What if I were to eat a tomato that had early blight (not visible yet as who would want to eat something so ugly?)

    And thanks Caryolyn. that was an excellent post. Also, yes, I am on Long Island.

  • oldroser
    16 years ago

    I've been living with early blight for quite a few years now though I do practice crop rotation as much as one can in a small garden.
    I use daconil and spray it on foliage - no point in saturating soil. I never start quite early enough but get a good crop so am not worried about damaged leaves.
    No need to abandon tomatoes or replace soil.
    And yes,you can eat tomatoes off blight affected plants as long as the fruit itself isn't damaged so don't toss them.
    I don't really believe that bleach would work but I'm a skeptic of long standing. You might want to try it and report back. Usual concentration is a glug or two per gallon of water.

  • trudi_d
    16 years ago

    A lifetime ago I was an EMT. We made a solution of 1/4 cup clorox to 1 gallon of water. You swab that on anything and let it sit for fifteen minutes, then rinse off and wipe dry with clean toweling, or apply it with a well wrung out sponge and let air dry. You can make the same solution and keep it in a large bottle and pour some into a cup when needed for soaking your seeds. It's such a good mixture you'll likely use it for cleaning and deoderizing around the house too, it's a great for mopping musty basements and garages or stale attics.

  • eileen_gardener
    16 years ago

    I have a lot in a community garden and I think all of us grow tomatoes. About half of the lot owners, including me, had blight in their tomato plants in varying degrees of seriousness. Some of us just pulled out our tomato plants once we realised we had it, but a lot of owners seemed to just cut off the blighted parts whenever they appeared and hoped for the best. I was out in the community garden just now and it looks as if most of the tomatoes were saved. The tomatoes look really good and healthy. I wish I hadn't been so quick in pulling mine.

  • carolyn137
    16 years ago

    And thanks Caryolyn. that was an excellent post. Also, yes, I am on Long Island.

    *****

    You're welcome and it looks like you and Trudi know each other b'c she ASAP said go to Hicks, etc. LOL

    When I see just a zone 7 I don't ASAP assume it's LI. ( smile)

    As long as you know that your blight problem is fungal, and probably Early Blight ( A. solani) and not one of the common bacterial foliage pathogens, then what others have shared with you will certainly help.

    if it is A. solani then mulching as was mentioned above will help cut down on splashback infection.

    And no, there's nothing that you can spray on the soil that will help.

    And turning over the soil completely each Fall, as was also mentioned, helps to bury any foliage pathogens.

    Almost all of us have to deal with these foliage infections and the fungal ones seem to progress faster and do more damage.

    it's up to you what you want to use but old roser mentioned Daconil ( Ortho Garden Disease Control) which is an excellent preventative for the fungal foliage pathogens.

    Your own personal philosophy re gardening should determine whether or not you want to try that as well as other products such as Serenade or Messenger in a future year.

    I don't mean all of them at once. LOL

    Carolyn

  • trudi_d
    16 years ago

    You're welcome and it looks like you and Trudi know each other b'c she ASAP said go to Hicks, etc. LOL

    No, I don't know Joy, personally. There are a few million of us on LI Carolyn, it has four counties--Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk, so it's unlikely that I would know Joy. In NY, the only zone 7 areas are on Long Island, so it's easy to figure out location, lol.

    NY State has one of the largest ranges of plant zones in USA, encompassing zones 3b through 7a, though there are some very small micro-climates less than two miles inland in southern Queens and Brooklyn that could be 7b, and there are micro climates in the Upper Catkills and Adirondacks with zone 3a weather patterns, elevation and an unprotected northern slope factoring into that. California and Texas also have a very large ranges of plant zones.

    Hicks is an enormous nursery here, the family has been in the horticultural trade since the mid 1850s. Hicks Yews are iconic shrubs in almost every sububrban community--that would be the very same family name. Hicks is among the few nurseries in Nassau county that carry a wide range of organic products. You can find ortho anything anywhere, but a large selection of organics is difficult to find under one roof, that is why I suggested Hicks--it is easy to find and covers all products for everyone.

  • carolyn137
    16 years ago

    In NY, the only zone 7 areas are on Long Island, so it's easy to figure out location, lol.

    *****

    Hmmm, I thought there were zone 7 areas in the burbs of the city, but I guess I was wrong.

    Yes, I know Hicks. They asked me to give a presentation there quite a few years ago. And for many years I was somehow on their e-mail list although that's stopped now.

    Carolyn

  • trudi_d
    16 years ago

    Brooklyn and Queens are in NYC.

    They've asked me a few times to lecture there but I always have to turn them down. My work with AgNIC limits my association with commercial enterprises, so I do non-profits, schools and gov't. agencies.

  • trudi_d
    16 years ago

    Hi Joy,

    I found a link from Nassau Extension about growing toms.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Growing toms, nassau county

  • carolyn137
    16 years ago

    Brooklyn and Queens are in NYC.

    *****

    I know that Trudi. LOL Where I went to college there were a lot of folks from the city and I was so good I could ID folks by borough re speech. LOL

    Anyway, tho technically at the western tip of LI, I just have never associated Brooklyn and Queens with LI.

    No different that those folks who consider upstate NY to be Westchester County. LOL

    Carolyn

  • joy_division
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Wow, thanks Trudi, something so locally relevant.

  • maupin
    16 years ago

    1. Clean cultural practices reduce all fungal diseases. Do not compost tomato waste--burn it or throw it in the trash.

    2. Mulch your soil so rain does not splash soil up on your plants.

    3. Keep your plants and fruit trellised or caged with the bottom suckers pruned off so they do not touch the ground.

    4. If you are a practitioner of the organic method, use aerated compost tea with molasses and baking soda as a foliar feed. Others use cornmeal or hydrogen pyroxide instead of baking soda and report success. Some folks spray milk, but that never worked for me.

    5. Till in cornmeal in the spring and fall if you till.

    6. Never touch your plants or fruit when they are wet. Keep a weak bleach solution in a bucket to rinse your hands and tools when moving from plant to plant so as to avoid spreading disease. I use torn Goodwill bedsheets to tie up my tomatoes to the trellis and soak them in weak bleach solution before I use them.

    7. Continually improve the quality of your soil with compost and test for Ph to see if you need lime, as many eastern soils do. Better soil means healthier plants, which in turn are more disease resistant.

    8. Make your garden attractive for predators who eat leafhoppers to reduce their role in spreading disease.

    The first couple of years after I bought my formerly non-organic place I had a lot of trouble with fungal diseases. Things were out of balance. Not enough birds, bees, dragonflies, and insect predators, and nutrient weak soil.

    Through the religious application of the above practices, I still get some fungal disease, but not very much, and the plants have a better fighting chance.

    In sum--look at things from the plant's point of view. Good food, reduction in opportunity for fungal diseses to attack through soil or animal (man and insect) sources makes the plant healthy and more capable of withstanding the onslaught.

  • pepbob1
    16 years ago

    I was skeptical but i tried "Serenade" on my tomato plants and was pleasently surprised, as i was with the use of a fish/seaweed fertilizer. I knew what the "Serenade" was supposed to do, and i had read somewhere that the fish/seaweed combo might help with making the plants better able to withstand certain things,and i think it worked! Ive had very minor problems with blight since i started using the "Serenade." Gee, i sound like an infomercial, but i swear i dont work for them!

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