Never heard of such a thing. Will follow this thread to see if there actually is such a thing as a snow bacteria that's bad for tomatos and peppers. Initially it seems really unlikely that any bacteria active in freezing temps would remain active in summer temps, but who knows.

Sounds unlikely to me.
The flamethrower is a good idea tho.

I remember hearing a 'lead on' on the weather channel or one of those educational channels about bacteria in snow. I didn't get a chance to see it though. So I did a google and found it on the discovery.com website. The article did say it could cause disease in several different kinds of plants including tomatoes and beans. The link for the whole article is below.

Kat

Here is a link that might be useful: Bacteria in snow

So it is nothing new happening in Nature just a new discovery by us. I am not about to start shovelling snow from the garden :)

Wow, thanks for the link Kat.
In the words of Eric Bourdon, "This really blew my mind"

Apparently the report was presented on Fox news last week. Like Maplerbirch said, it's nothing new, we just know about it now. May help us explain why some years we all have the same problem growing certain things.

Now, let's put our heads together and find a cure so we can have a good harvest.

It appears one particular strain, Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, affects tomatoes and causes bacterial speck. I had not heard of this before either.

tj

Here is a link that might be useful: Bacterial Speck of Tomato

Now, let's put our heads together and find a cure so we can have a good harvest.

I say we make bleach bombs and fire them off at clouds. Nuke those little buggers. I don't need any more disease problems with tomatos and about now I could care less about more snow as well.

Yes, I am joking. Kind of.

Amen Justaguy.
The article went on to say that without this bacteria it wouldn't rain. Moisture needs something to condense on, so the clouds form on this bacteria.
I'm guessing that we always have it, just more of it when we've had more rain and snow.
Compost seems to cure all, and I should have a big batch of it this year so I think I'll spread it on heavy this spring. Maybe the compost bacteria will eat this Pseudomona syringae and form Compomomma Psuedosyringae which is good for plants but will eat my dog.

The article went on to say that without this bacteria it wouldn't rain. Moisture needs something to condense on, so the clouds form on this bacteria.

Who needs those lousy bacteria when we have plenty of industrial pollution for water molecules to form around? Bleach bomb the bacteria and just leave the SUV run a little longer each day to compensate ;-) Somebody hand me a Nobel!

More seriously I find the idea of snow bacteria causing plant disease kind of interesting. I wonder if compost would do anything to mediate the problem. Is this a bacteria that goes on to live in the soil and infect plants via their roots or is it a bacteria that is introduced on the foliage (as in when it rains?)

The link I provided above implies it affects fruit & foliage. It also hints that it may live in the soil.

This was in Florida.

"...Past outbreaks occurred under conditions of unusually high winter rainfall and low temperature. When these conditions occur in the future, bacterial speck epidemics may be anticipated..."

tj

Read your link TJ.
Looks like this PS bacteria can't handle soil temps above 89F.
Perhaps covering the soil with plastic this spring for a few weeks before planting will help? On the other hand, that might only raise soil temp enough (mid 70's ?) to get the bacteria growing faster.
Can you get soil temp into the 90's in spring?

I have not yet tried this myself, but they say that AACT, Actively Aerated Compost Tea, Contains plenty of beneficial bacteria/archaea, fungi, protozoa,etc. to actually crowd out and elimate the evil bacterias.

Perhaps spraying the garden this spring before working up is not a bad idea. I suppose a well cured compost couldn't hurt either.

Maplerbirch, looks like you read this months issue of OG. I read that article too. I thought it had more to do with foliage spray. Which I'm glad you mentioned because I'll need to keep some compost in reserve to make the tea this year.

I don't think I'd worry about this until I saw it actually occuring. Solarizing the soil kills both good and bad guys.

tj

I'm not worried. There's all kinds of bacteria in the air and soil and Mother Nature is pretty good at controlling it. If there's too much of one kind then something that eats that kind will thrive and knock the population down until it's back in balance. And if the summer is anything like this winter was with precipitation then it's got to be better for tomatoes than the drought last year.

Mike

daddylonglegs,

Actually I missed that particular article so perhaps my comments were merely a confirmation from other sources. :)

I hope to experiment with AACT this coming season and hopefully learn some things for myself.

I tend to agree with mike1970. Disease is an environmental thing and healthy plants with healthy soil needn't worry too much about snow bacteria.