Late blight weather predicted for August in midwest, NE

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Originally Posted by KarenO

I think trying to prevent fungal infection is certainly worthwhile but once late blight is actually in a garden, I think home gardeners spraying this and that ineffective treatment and trying to salvage doomed and dying plants contributes to spread most certainly. If everyone pulled and properly disposed of late blight infected plants at first sight the disease would not be as rampant and fast spreading. It will likely never happen but if it did, the problem would diminish significantly.
I think home gardeners like my self should try to help by being vigilant and learning what it looks like from first signs of infection. My livelihood does not depend on my garden but ommercial producers' do.
Surprises me how many serious gardeners don't have the ability to diagnose and differentiate between really obvious diseases such as Early and late blight in the garden. Education is key and the information is out there. Bottom line: nothing kills late blight once the infection is present. Pulling and bagging and disposing of infected plants is the best course of action to reduce spread not only in our own gardens but every farm and garden within a ten mile radius.

KarenO

You are certainly right about not recognizing diseases early enough. Part of the reason for that is most gardeners don't see some of these diseases often enough to realize what is happening until it is too late. The first time I got late blight I had been gardening for over 10 years and had never seen it so I had no idea what to do. I sprayed all the regular fungicides available to me at the time with absolutely no positive results. By the time I found out what I was dealing with my tomatoes were history. The second time it hit my tomatoes I did recognize it but still I was too late combating it with the diluted bleach spray to prevent significant loses. The third time my tomatoes were hit by LB I immediately started a very thorough spraying with the bleach spray every day for three days in a row and really stopped it cold. I think that by the time symptoms are visible you only have a very short time to react or it will spread and be unstoppable.

Bill