How to get rid of early blight?

[RayR]

Originally Posted by pmcgrady

The Pro Mix BX has the mycorrhizal fungus in the mix, you have to add water/wetten the mix to activate the fungus.

Originally Posted by pmcgrady

The Pro Mix BX has the mycorrhizal fungus in the mix, you have to add water/wetten the mix to activate the fungus.

I know Promix and some others have mycorrhizal fungi spores in it, that's all well and good but the method used in the research was priming with the spores at the point of sowing the seed. I've used MycoGrow, Great White and others which have a higher mycorrhizal spore count for that and more species of mycorrhizal fungi. I've had great success in dealing with Early Blight by inoculating as early as possible. I believe the reason for this is that it takes about a week or so for the spores to germinate and successfully infect the roots. It then may take weeks more for the mycorrhizal fungi to have a positive effect on inducing resistance in the plant to Early Blight. You want that systemic induced resistance to be there well before the environmental conditions are right for Early Blight to attack.

Here's some links to more research done that I posted in another thread a few years ago.

Interplant Communication of Tomato Plants through
Underground Common Mycorrhizal Networks

Mechanism of tomato plants enhanced disease resistance against early blight primed by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Glomus versiforme

Resistance induction in the pathosystem tomato – Alternaria solani

[RayR]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

I plan to use this for my fall tomatoes and next year from the start.
http://www.montereylawngarden.com/do...Label_(01).pdf


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacill...loliquefaciens

I know strains of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens have shown potential against various foliar and root pathogens but I haven't found any solid research on tomato plants with Alternaria solani (Early Blight) and Septoria lycopersici.
I'm interested in trying it myself against Septoria.

[My Foot Smells]

Makes sense to build up plant immunity through soil building to combat EB; as once EB rears it's ugly head, measures seem to be only retardant and not curative. I have not been successful with foliar sprays after EB has become self evident. The weather here is a perfect storm for EB and even the most diligent effort can result in a lost cause. The mold is bold down here in the south.

[carolyn137]

I have a completely different take on Early Blight control,but I'm tired of sitting here so long right now but will be back to explain my thoughts about it when I can.

Carolyn

[b54red]

I have used the mycorrhizal fungi and really couldn't see any real change in EB showing up or not but I did see some improvement in root growth in young seedlings. I did find that using Daconil as soon as the plants go outside and every week after to be quite effective; but if you get a lot of rain it will not work nearly as well. Copper will help if you are fighting EB in rainier weather and using the diluted bleach spray every two days or so when the showers are persistent. My plants were doing fine before the rainy spells that have hit the last two weeks and all of a sudden EB shows up. I don't think it has hurt production much and I seem to have gotten it under some control. For me it is a minor threat compared to some of the others I see every year like TSWV.

Bill

[wildcat62]

Bill, do you alternate between copper and anything else or just consistently spray the copper as a preventative? Do you have a max number of copper applications per season? Should I be concerned with this or am I overthinking it? Sure appreciate all your invaluable info.....

Mark

[BigVanVader]

from the label:

NOTE: Do not apply more than 400 tsp. of Liquid Copper Fungicide (.04 lbs. metallic copper to Tomatoes per 1,000 sq. ft. per year

[wildcat62]

400 Teaspoons (US) = 133.332432 Tablespoons (US)

[BigVanVader]

If you use that much you may want to buy a copper mine

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I have a completely different take on Early Blight control,but I'm tired of sitting here so long right now but will be back to explain my thoughts about it when I can.

Carolyn

My take is that it does no good to take off leaves,spray with this or that,solarize?,nope,nada.

Early Blight, Alternaria solani, can infect foliage either early or LATE in the season and I don't think most folks know that.

Late Blight,P.infestans is a totally different disease with a high mortality.

So I would concentrate on prevention,no treatments with copper,Manzeb,Mancozeb, etc.

The best preventative I know of is Daconil(chlorothalonil). When I moved to where I am right now I found a place where I could grow lots of plants inground. I bought a small Chapin sprayer and was ready to go with the Daconil, when it occured to me,why not do a twofer and add some Neptune's harvest fertilizer a swell.

But then i said to myself maybe that's not a good thing to do.The Daconil I was using was an Ortho product,many companies sell it,here at home Freda,who does my garden ing for me uses Bonide.

So I called the number on the Ortho bottle and got connected to an outstanding man ,who was head of their R and D division.

I already knew that there are specifc attachment sites on the upper leaf surface for both EB and Septoria, but he told me so much more.

Never mix anything with the D since it's already titrated so that the right # of molecules bind to the specific attachment sites and cover them so the pathogens can't attach,and in addition,what ever you might use with D can completely bind to D in solution thus what you spray doesn't have the right # of D molecules

Don't buy the already diluted D,it doesn't last that long.And D is THE most used anti fungal in the WORLD, not from him, but I already knew that and that means if there were any serious side effects they would be known already.

If you want to check that out Google EXTOXNET and look up chlorothalonil.

A few more comments

EB is not spread from plant to plant

Putting down some compost near the plant is OK to do.

All NEW infections are due to spores that are spead via air and embedded in rain or irrigation drops. So all NEW infections cause symptoms at the top of the plant.

Yes,spores can fall off to the soil whatever,and can remain viable for up to 5 years. Heavy rains or irrigation can cause those spores to splash back up on the lower foliage,as was mentioned above,not the top foliage.

EB/Septoria do not occur every year.It depends on where you live as to spores in the air in any one season,which way the wind is blowing, for me in upstate NY it's W to E.

Summary? If it were me I'd concentrate on prevention as the best way to go.

Carolyn

[pmcgrady]

EB is not spred plant to plant...

OK I'll buy that, now that I think of it... my plants were probably all infected at the same time and different varieties, spred at different rates? Some succumbed to it quicker than others...

[pmcgrady]

Something else I noticed last year, I planted 6 tomatoes at my cabin which is about 5 miles from my garden, in crappy timber soil, no EB or anything... they produced until frost.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by wildcat62

Bill, do you alternate between copper and anything else or just consistently spray the copper as a preventative? Do you have a max number of copper applications per season? Should I be concerned with this or am I overthinking it? Sure appreciate all your invaluable info.....

Mark

I prefer Daconil for preventing EB but find copper better on some other things so I do alternate but I don't usually start alternating with the copper until a bit later in the season. I find keeping the Daconil on the plants the first 6 weeks every week really helps and I don't usually have diseases that copper is better for until about 2 months or more into the season.

Bill

[carolyn137]

And I just remembered something that I should have posted.

First,Fusarium is a soilborne pathogen vs EB, where spores can accidentally fall to the soil.

It turns out that there is another way than what I posted above how Fusarium can spread,please see this in the link below, and it can spread via DUST,the following from Keith Muller.

http://www.kdcomm.net/~tomato/Tomato.../fusarium.html

Carolyn

[b54red]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

And I just remembered something that I should have posted.

First,Fusarium is a soilborne pathogen vs EB, where spores can accidentally fall to the soil.

It turns out that there is another way than what I posted above how Fusarium can spread,please see this in the link below, and it can spread via DUST,the following from Keith Muller.

http://www.kdcomm.net/~tomato/Tomato.../fusarium.html

Carolyn

Carolyn it is so bad around here that even when I planted in containers with no soil or access to the soil most of the tomatoes would eventually get fusarium before the season was over. I began to think it came in with the rain or even in the city water. The only advantage with the containers for me was that it usually took a long time before the fusarium showed up while in the garden it could sometimes start almost immediately after setting the plants out in the garden.

I'm not so sure about the soil ph conclusions because my fusarium problems increased with a higher ph.

I do think that the mulch makes a big difference at least in delaying the onset of symptoms.

I did notice that when my beds had a high organic content that the fusarium would generally be less severe and when the beds got sandy the problems would increase.

It finally got through my thick skull that despite every thing I tried to get fusarium out of my soil that it wasn't going to happen unless we got some awfully cold winters which are not likely down here. With the basically awful taste of all of the FFF resistant hybrids I tried I had no choice but to go to grafting in order to enjoy really good tomatoes again with at least some certainty of success. When I could use some of the still fairly good tasting FF resistant hybrids like Big Beef I was okay with it along with the limited success I would get with my constantly sick heirlooms but once that third race of fusarium started showing up the jig was up. I'm still kicking myself for resisting grafting for so many years. I could have saved myself so much despair and hard work for the little bit of inconvenience that grafting carries with it.

Bill