Can I kill early blight that is in the soil?

[Bdixon]

I want to know if I can do something to the soil this fall to prepare my beds for next spring so that I do not have any issues with early blight.. I only had it on one plant in the ground and one in a pot (I did not change out soil in the pot, my bad) I do try to keep as organic as I can.. I know this will most likely not help me.. But I really hate to lose any plants at all.
Thanks in advance.
BDixon

[JamesL]

Do a web search on soil solarization. It is not a perfect solution, but it could help.
Fairly simple if you don't have a large area to do and you can still get results even at lower fall temps.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by JamesL

Do a web search on soil solarization. It is not a perfect solution, but it could help.
Fairly simple if you don't have a large area to do and you can still get results even at lower fall temps.

But Dixon is in MI and solarization doesn't really work there and no matter where it's used the garden area has to be taken out of any gardening for a whole season. Some have tried it for systemic soilborne diseases, but not for Foliage diseases such as Early blight. And it isn't very effective, either.

Dixon, someone asked the identical question just a day ago at another message site, so I'll try to find that and cut and paste my answer to here.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...0115542.html?8

Hope that helps.

[Bdixon]

Thanks Carolyn. I really appreciate the help.. Mine also started out with something that was not readily identified.. it was on a Mortgage Lifter. At first it was treated as a deficiency because it did not look like blight. Then I saw concentric circles. But everything else next to it is OK. I mulched heavily right away too. This has been one crazy summer. I think I will do something else there for a while.. just to be sure.. I may also try the blow torch just because it sounds like fun. ;o)
Bev

[Cole_Robbie]

I am always looking for ways to justify owning a flame-thrower.

But even if you dug out all of your soil and ran it through an autoclave to sterilize it, wouldn't it just get re-infected when you put it back? That might even happen faster when you kill every competing organism through sterilization.

[Bdixon]

We need bio-diversity in the soil.. without it and the microbial action that comes from the bio-diversity all of that fertilizer (whether organic or in-organic) we put in there will not be broken down. So it's a fine line that we take if we sterilize it.. I have worked on this soil and gotten it to be a great organic soil for the last 13 years.. Then I buy one plant that had bad soil in it and I get an infected garden. I am so frustrated.. I bought it from a reputable garden center that I have purchased from for years - as they always offer many heirlooms. So we live - we learn and we move on.. The plant in question is still going strong is at about 9foot tall now. I spray weekly with fish/kelp recently side dressed with my normal tomato blend and magnesium sulfate. When the blight first happened I stripped leaves and took every fruit and bloom off and did a weak Fertrell 3 spray almost daily depending on the heat. In The Landscape Horticulture bus. this has helped with black spot. I have great growth on top it's the bottom that was bad and I do not want to spread.. But like I said I have mulch there and I do not wet my leaves.. I will lift the mulch up in the fall and discard it with the top of the plant.
Happy Eatin'
Bev