Late blight now confirmed on tomato and potato in Mifflin Co., PA

[Tania]

http://extension.psu.edu/vegetable-f...mifflin-co.-pa

First signs of this devastating disease...?

[Tania]

... and this is from June 4, 2012:

http://extension.psu.edu/vegetable-f...n-pennsylvania

[Jeannine Anne]

I think I will hibernate XX Jeannine

[kath]

Thanks for posting this, Tania. These reports confirm LB in places both west and east of me. With all the rain, it's been hard to spray and keep things protected consistently. Have had a bit of Early Blight so far and a tiny bit of Septoria but I'm not willing to see this trial go completely down the tubes.I lost all my plants before the end of July to LB in 2009 and this is too close for comfort. We've got a day and night of heavy rain coming tomorrow so I'm going to get Daconil, spray on Wednesday and hope the weather cooperates and allows me to keep up with the spraying of all the new-to-me varieties and the doubles of my favorites. I'll take my chances with the early set of favorites that already have large fruits and keep using Actinovate and Excel on them. I was feeling very confident today with fruits setting already even on the youngest set of plants but they're still a long way away from ripe fruits. Things can change quickly.

kath

[Tania]

Kath, is there any way you can cover your plants? That's the only thing that helps me when the late blight hits in our area (and it hits every year, sometimes as early as last year (July 7), and sometimes as late as late September/early October, it is hard to predict).

Jeannine, I think we should be OK so far, as the temps have been too low in our area to activate late blight. I would be more scared when we get to 22C and rain, which is what they seem to be forecasting in a week or two.

[kath]

Tania-
They're in an area that's approximately 50'x17' but I know you have a lot more than I do- how do you cover them?
kath

Oh, and since I spent $40 on new varieties of seed potato to try this year that's another 22'x20' section to cover.

[Tania]

Kath, I have 8 large beds (6'x16') under cover, and my men are building similar cover structures over the other 4 tomato beds as we speak - these are the beds that I have been losing all my plants to blight in the last 2 years, so I am not taking any more chances!

The structures look like tall cold frames with sides that can be rolled up and 'roof' stays on permanently.

I do not have a good picture at hand, but you can see this tall cold frame with rolled up sides at the background here:

[kath]

Wow- that's amazing but it's not going to happen here...only one man and he doesn't build.Guess we'll be sprayin'.

kath

p.s. Your furry neighbors seem right at home!

[Tania]

Kath, I hope spraying will help to keep the plants healthy. It must be very hard to keep the plants thoroughly covered with spray when it rains all the time!

The last time I sprayed copper was in 2006. I still remember I was so frustrated so see all the spray pretty much gone next morning after a heavy rain overnight.

P.S. Yeah, we have been peacefully co-existing since we moved here

[lowlylowlycook]

So is one of them Blight and the other Blitzen?

[kath]

Thanks,Tania- and yes, it's a bit frustrating and a bit expensive but I really want to a least get to try a fruit from each of the plants I've got. Next year is the year I'm really scaling back- really.So I don't want to have to redo all these varieties again.

lowlylowlycook-

[Jeannine Anne]

Tania, I need to put a hoop house cover over mu outside ones, I didn't expect to have to do it so soon but I guess it is a priority now. May I ask where you get your plastic from. I also need plastic hooping, O have tons of the clips that go on.

I know West Coast have the plastic but ut is along way to go and I don't know of it is any better than stuff I may be able to get locally.

XX Jeannine

[greyghost]

Appreciate the website very much, Tania. Thanks for posting it! Darlene

[lakelady]

I thought this was pretty interesting, although finding possible infection about 15 miles from me isn't good at all

http://uspest.org/risk/tom_pot_map

[Jeannine Anne]

I found it interesting in one of the links that they were sayoing to be very sure to remove any volunteer potatoes. The garden next to mine has some and the plot owner is really pleased. I mentioned the blight risk to him and he said he wasn't worried.

His potato patch is about 10 feet from my tomatoes!!

I have never used copper spray although I do have some and we are allowed to use it.

Do you think I should, how often etc, I know nothing about it.

XX Jeannine