Tomato Blight
All home gardeners need to know about tomato blight and learn methods to reduce the spread of this disease.
Tomato blight and another blight, Septoria, are diseases that will attack tomatoes and kill the plants almost before you realize there is a problem.
These diseases begin at soil level and begin working their way up the plant. The leaves of the tomato plant will begin to get brownish-black spots that soon cover the leaf, causing it to fall to the ground. The same brownish-black spots of the tomato blight will appear on the tomato and the fruit will rot.
Spraying with copper compounds will help only if spraying is done before any symptoms of tomato blight appear.
Tomato blight spores are not killed out during the winter months. The fungal spores can live in the plant debris that is left in the garden. When the garden has finished it chores for the season, put it to bed in a clean bed!
Do not compost vines and roots of tomato plants. It is best to bag the debris and throw it away. This will help to reduce tomato blight problems.
Tomato blight and Septoria will infect potatoes, eggplants and peppers. Since these plants are susceptible to the same fungal diseases as the tomato, yearly rotation of your garden crops is highly recommended. If your garden is small, you may not have the room to properly rotate your crops, so it might be wise to skip a year before re-planting one or more of these plants.
Remember to keep your tomato vines off the ground by using the tomato trellis and tomato cages. Good air circulation is important for keeping the tomato leaves dry. And spacing the plants at least three feet apart will help in the control of tomato blight.
Mulching around the tomato plants will help to keep the tomato blight spores from splashing up onto the leaves. And never work around the plants when they are wet. Any movement can scatter the mold spores. The tomato blight spores can get on your clothing and then be transferred to healthy plants; and that makes you a carrier of the disease.
Watering at night is not advised. Without the sun to help dry the plant leaves, tomato blight spores and fungi thrive. Using soaker hoses or ground irrigation is highly recommended for watering the garden. It is also important not to over water or over fertilize.
The Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary definition of 'blight' is: "Mildew; decay; anything nipping or blasting; blight is a general name for various injuries or diseases of plants, causing the whole or part of the plant to wither, whether occasioned by insects, fungi or atmospheric influences." This is a perfect description of tomato blight.
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