i'm in shock, i found late blight

[tjg911]

so why am i in shock? read on.

my 10 plants have been inspected every day for at least 4 weeks and no sign of LB. 2 weeks ago i started to spray the plants with a milk solution as a preventative. milk has the ability to feed the micro herd that live on the plant leaves to strengthen the plants and hopefully attack or reduce LB spores. so friday (7/24) i sprayed for the 2nd time. it rained hard at night so i wanted to have the milk on the leaves for over 24 hours so i sprayed again on saturday, the following day.

at 11 am saturday my reif's red heart was healthy. it is the tallest plant, well over 6', and has the most foiliage. it is loaded with tomatoes, not just 8 or 12 i'd say 20-25, some big.

24 hours later to the hour, my reif's red heart has a lot of LB signs on many leaves and leisons on the stalk. the final proof is that some of the leaves that have the dark spots have the white fungus growing on the underside of the leaf. in exactly 24 hours this plant went from not having any sign of LB to being very obviously infected!

it killed me to see this. i carefully cut the plant into small pieces so as to not touch adjacent plants or drop any leaves and placed them in the trash. i removed all the straw at the base of the plant and it too went into the trash.

i do not and will not spray chemicals so now i ask "with 11 plants, planted in 2 rows 4' on center, if the RRH got LB is it possible that no other plants will? that seems impossible. if spores drifted via the air to the RRH isn't it safe to assume that all the plants were infected with the spores? so isn't it likely every plant will be infected in a day or 2 and i will get not tomatoes from these plants as i'm removing them in the hopes of saving the other plants.

here's the planting again 4' on center the red x is was the RRH, 1 cage has 2 plants in it:

x x x
..x x
..x x
..x x


i have picked a few sun golds and 4 other tomatoes that need to ripen inside. i can't believe this may be the sum total for an entire year's tomatoes! i grew 5 new hearts this year to see how they taste. i am so depressed i can't explain the anxiety i am experiencing right now. what use is summer if i can't have tomatoes?

tom