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craiger_ny

Another blight question

craiger_ny
14 years ago

Well here I am in upstate NY and it is my turn for the blight......inevitable this year.

At any rate I am going to remove everything. My question is how do I keep it from coming back next year? I am not a fan of chemicals so if I don't have to go that route I'd prefer it. Should I refrain from planting tomatoes at all next year? Or plant them someplace else? If I do skip a year in that spot will that be sufficient enough to return to the same planting spot the following year?

This is something I have never dealt with before.

BTW, been a terrible year Japanese beetles, aphids, spider mites pretty much devastated my hops. Already writing this year off.

Comments (3)

  • catmint
    14 years ago

    The future. That's what I'm starting to think about having looked at my plants today. They're loaded with fruit and covered with blight. So sad.
    Next year to help keep them disease-free I'll scatter tomato plants instead of planting them together in one bed. Maybe that'll help a bit altho' because we're dealing w/ an airborne fungus I don't expect that to be a guarantee.
    I wonder if we'll have a better time if next summer is a dry one. If the fungus is in the environment any watering could still cause a spread.
    Sounds dicey no matter what.

  • petzold6596
    14 years ago

    Tomato blights, early and late, are caused by funguses. The fungus will over winter in garden debris and the soil. Remove ALL garden debris from infected plants and destroy or dispose of in the garbage. Next year, water the plants at ground level, allow the soil surface to dry and at the first sign of the blight: remove the infected leaves and spray the plant with a fungicide containing a copper compound. Other solution for prevention/control are: plant tomatoes in an other area of the garden or plant blight resistant varieties, if you can find them.

  • dazmom
    14 years ago

    Couple of other things to do might be;
    sterilize the soil with a spray of fungicide.
    bleach the tomato baskets/stakes/tools
    spray fungicide as a preventative next year