Geography of Early Blight

[Fred Hempel]

I am trying to learn more about Early Blight, in large part because it is a major disease in my fields.

I am also interested in breeding for Early Blight resistance.

Please let me know:

1. Where you grow tomato plants

2. Whether you grow in pots or in the ground

3. If you get Early Blight

4. How severely your plants are effected, and how it ranks, compared to other problem diseases your plants get.

5. Whether it is a persistent problem, or an occasional problem for you (or not a problem at all)


I will update this thread with what I learn about Early Blight.

[Salsacharley]

Fred, I don't know if you wanted these answers in this thread or by PM, but I decided to answer here.

1. Albuquerque
2. Pots, ground, raised beds, bags
3. Yes, I get early blight.
4. My plants usually succumb to frost before EB can kill them. EB is minor compared to spider mites...my mortal enemy.
5. EB is a regular occurrence and it would be my worst problem if not for spider mites. I find Artisan varieties are no worse than any other for EB, and they have proven to be quite tough in producing amid spider mite infestations.

[Fusion_power]

Early blight is endemic up and down the east coast. Here in Alabama, it is the third worst disease affecting tomatoes. A conversation with Randy Gardner would be useful since he has extensive breeding experience and released lines with early blight tolerance.

I grow in the ground with 50 to 150 varieties per year. My worst diseases are septoria and gray mold with occasional hits from bacterial speck/spot and early blight. We can see late blight but not often. It is more prevalent north and east from here.

I have Piennolo X LA0417 F3 seed available if you are interested. Early blight tolerance is better than any commercial variety I've trialed. Also, LA2175 S. Habrochaites is highly tolerant to all foliage diseases in my garden. Breeding something useful from it would take years, but it is arguably the best option I've seen for introgressing multiple foliage disease tolerance.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Early blight is endemic up and down the east coast. Here in Alabama, it is the third worst disease affecting tomatoes. A conversation with Randy Gardner would be useful since he has extensive breeding experience and released lines with early blight tolerance.

I grow in the ground with 50 to 150 varieties per year. My worst diseases are septoria and gray mold with occasional hits from bacterial speck/spot and early blight. We can see late blight but not often. It is more prevalent north and east from here.

I have Piennolo X LA0417 F3 seed available if you are interested. Early blight tolerance is better than any commercial variety I've trialed. Also, LA2175 S. Habrochaites is highly tolerant to all foliage diseases in my garden. Breeding something useful from it would take years, but it is arguably the best option I've seen for introgressing multiple foliage disease tolerance.

Darrel, I know of only one variety Randy has released with EB tolerance and he told me that all it means is that a farmer could spray an anti=fungal perhaps every 7-8 days rather than the normal 3-5 days, but for large commercial tomato farmers that's a huge savings of money as to labor costs as well as antifungal costs.

Fred, I am in upstate NY and the major problem for me and others here in the East and the midwest, well I don't know any area that is always free of EB, has always been the two foliage diseases of EB and Septoria Leaf spot and it makes no difference if I'm growing ingound or in containers.

Some years are worse than others and when there's lots of rain it's worse since both of those fungal ones are transmitted via wind but also embedded in rain drops and it also depends on how far you are from others who have the same diseases and which way the wind is blowing. Also a problem for large farms where they use those huge overhead sprinkler systems

I still have Freda use Daconil ( chlorothalonil) here the same day that seedlings are put out. If it rains, must reapply and spreader stickers are not that helpful. I continue to use Daconil although for fertilizers have switched to organic, since Daconil has less toxicity than for instance Rotenone which is approved by any organic certifying agency I know of. and Daconil is THE most widely used antifungal in the world, so lots of info about it. And it's also useful for not just EB but also Septoria and marginally effective against Late Blight ( P. infestans) which is quite lethal if not caught early which we also have here in the East as do commercial and homegrowers everywhere


Commercial farmers can use a stronger formulation of it called Bravo, which is not available to home gardeners but that varies by state and here in NYS one needs a pesticide license to buy and use it.

Carolyn

[Labradors2]

Carolyn,

According to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorothalonil Your Daconil doesn't sound very friendly at all! Toxic to bees and aquatic life? Cancer of the kidneys? I think I'd rather have my tomato plants suffer from Septoria and Early Blight! Well not really, but we have a large pond beside the veggie garden full of fish and frogs, and we like our bees. We are also on a well.....

Linda

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

Carolyn,

According to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorothalonil Your Daconil doesn't sound very friendly at all! Toxic to bees and aquatic life? Cancer of the kidneys? I think I'd rather have my tomato plants suffer from Septoria and Early Blight! Well not really, but we have a large pond beside the veggie garden full of fish and frogs, and we like our bees. We are also on a well.....

Linda

Yes, I read it linda and did you also look at the references that whoever wrote the article used as to timliness as to going back to the 090's, etc.

And Yes, I also read about the honeybees and yes, there are MANY theories that have been assciated with colony collapse.

and did you also see that most of the studies were done with lab animals and one with amphibians?

No one does that anymore since there is no correlation of what happens in lab animals and in humans.

All to say that I do not consider Wiki articles to always be up to date on what the say.

I wish I could find that colony collapse article to show you what I mean, I'll take a quick look now, but with about 2000 items in my faves I may not stay awake long enough to do that.

I could not find the article I wanted to find so am linking you to a Google search and amongst the links you'll find any viewpoint you want as to cause, even the ones that say CC finally solved.

The article I wanted to link to was from the Glens falls Post Star near me, since commercial production of honey is a major industry around here.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...ally+explained

Stupid Carolyn just regoogled adding Glens Falls to Colony Collapse and found that article.

http://poststar.com/news/local/disap...a4bcf887a.html

Multiple possible causes and no one cause Ided and similar articles from especially Vermont where commercial honey is also a big industry.

Carolyn

[Bipetual]

1. Chicago's western suburbs
2. In containers with new potting mix each year.
3. Yes.
4. It doesn't kill my plants, but it does affect yield. We grow very few determinates because indeterminates keep growing as blight goes up the plant from the bottom. With determinates there is nothing left by the end of the season unless we spray. It is the only disease we really have a problem with.
5. Yes, all of our tomatoes get it every year.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Bipetual

1. Chicago's western suburbs
2. In containers with new potting mix each year.
3. Yes.
4. It doesn't kill my plants, but it does affect yield. We grow very few determinates because indeterminates keep growing as blight goes up the plant from the bottom. With determinates there is nothing left by the end of the season unless we spray. It is the only disease we really have a problem with.
5. Yes, all of our tomatoes get it every year.

Point 4

If the disease starts at the bottom of the plant and goes upwards, that's called splashback infection from spores that dropped to mix the the preceding year and yet you say that you use new container mix each year, so I admit I'm confused.

Confused b/c All new infections start at the top part of the plants since new infections are transmitted by wind and rain as I mentioned above and thus infect the upper foliage first.

Carolyn

[Fusion_power]

Carolyn, your information is a bit dated. NCSU has 8 lines released with EBR. Randy is also working on some new material that incorporates multiple traits for Early Blight Resistance. I spoke with him several hours ago and discussed in some detail his work with early blight resistance. Why? Because I wanted to be sure it was ok with him to suggest Fred get in contact to discuss resistance breeding.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/pro...mato/releases/

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Carolyn, your information is a bit dated. NCSU has 8 lines released with EBR. Randy is also working on some new material that incorporates multiple traits for Early Blight Resistance. I spoke with him several hours ago and discussed in some detail his work with early blight resistance. Why? Because I wanted to be sure it was ok with him to suggest Fred get in contact to discuss resistance breeding.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/pro...mato/releases/

I haven't interacted with Randy lately, so yes, my info is dated.

And by released I had hoped to the public, and yes, eventually since some of the places his releases go to include Bejo, yet again and what a mess that one was as to getting seeds out there, Syngenta, and now I forget the other ones b'c my brain is also becoming somewhat dated as well due to short term memory.

and from past experience it's going to take those companies quite a while to ramp up seed production to make them available to TGS, TT, Johnny's, etc.

Carolyn

[bower]

Growing near St. John's Newfoundland, in containers in a greenhouse.
I see Early Blight every year, but sometimes not until mid or late season.
Some varieties are more susceptible than others, and a few have needed constant pruning maintenance all season to prevent EB from spreading to others in the confined space.
EB ranks lower than other pathogens here, in general, because it is not usually so severe as to be fatal. This year I had pest issues as well and I blame that for the spread of EB to stems - distinguished from other stem rots by rings - but was surprisingly tolerated ie it was superficial and didn't rapidly affect stem functions. Botrytis is the worst pathogen here in all weathers, Fulvia and Oidium in hot humid seasons, and all of these spread more rapidly than EB and are soon fatal if conditions allow them to persist.
EB could be described as low level chronic problem. It is neck and neck with botrytis for most commonly removed leaf during sanitation rounds in any given year. I am less likely to grow again or grow often a variety that is especially susceptible because they are high maintenance and increase maintenance time for others by spread. With less susceptible varieties, control of EB by sanitation is no big deal (I don't spray).

[Bipetual]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Point 4

If the disease starts at the bottom of the plant and goes upwards, that's called splashback infection from spores that dropped to mix the the preceding year and yet you say that you use new container mix each year, so I admit I'm confused.

Confused b/c All new infections start at the top part of the plants since new infections are transmitted by wind and rain as I mentioned above and thus infect the upper foliage first.

Carolyn

You would think that would be the case, but for us it's generally not. Even with new mix, plastic mulch, and bleaching containers/cages, it definitely starts at the bottom and moves up. This is even with pruning to increase airflow. I don't know why.

Daconil definitely changes the progression, though. The bottom gets a little bit, which doesn't get too bad once we started spraying. The middle area stayed pretty nice, but the new growth got mighty blighty when we stopped spraying since, I suspect, it had never seen Daconil.

I'm really grateful to members of this forum for helping us recognize what this awful stuff was, and what to do about it.

Edited to add that these containers are on our deck, so it's quite possible that when it rains hard, rain could be splashing up on the bottom of the plants.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Bipetual

You would think that would be the case, but for us it's generally not. Even with new mix, plastic mulch, and bleaching containers/cages, it definitely starts at the bottom and moves up. This is even with pruning to increase airflow. I don't know why.

Daconil definitely changes the progression, though. The bottom gets a little bit, which doesn't get too bad once we started spraying. The middle area stayed pretty nice, but the new growth got mighty blighty when we stopped spraying since, I suspect, it had never seen Daconil.

I'm really grateful to members of this forum for helping us recognize what this awful stuff was, and what to do about it.

Edited to add that these containers are on our deck, so it's quite possible that when it rains hard, rain could be splashing up on the bottom of the plants.

EB starts at the bottom leaves of the plant because the oldest growth is the least resistant to infection. Read chapter 4.1.2 Leaf age dependent susceptibility in Resistance induction in the
pathosystem tomato – Alternaria solani

[Bipetual]

Originally Posted by RayR

EB starts at the bottom leaves of the plant because the oldest growth is the least resistant to infection. Read chapter 4.1.2 Leaf age dependent susceptibility in Resistance induction in the
pathosystem tomato – Alternaria solani

Ray, I actually laughed when I looked at the graph and realized what it meant - that the researchers found old leaves and newer growth to be more susceptible, ie leaves from the bottom and the top as opposed to the middle. Okay, mystery solved.

[Gerardo]

1. Tijuana

2. Containers

3. Yes.

4. Some plants are affected more than others (SOO, Rutgers, Belize P Heart, NAR), but with cultural practices (mulching especially) and preventative treatments it is not severe. Been fighting off a little septoria, bacterial speck and fungal invasions, but only on select plants. EB is the main disease pressure.

5. Persistent on some plants, occasional on others. This season I've placed more emphasis on the overall health of the plants via frequent inoculations with microbiological amendments and worm teas, plus earlier applications of daconil. The net effect is reduced disease pressure/progression.