Blight disaster/New England

tnpeppers · July 27, 2013

Heat, humidity and tropical downpours have finally taken their toll here in New England...on my way to losing over 100 beautiful tomato plants to...something. Blotches on the stems started at the bottom and headed upward...out onto the stems, and onto the leaves. Leaves all crunchy like the ones that fall off the trees every October...copper and bleach not effective at all. Shame of it was I was really looking forward to sampling some of the tomatoes I received in the swap with heather and 'Tormato' last year...Tarasenko 6, Dances With Smurfs, Bosque Blue Bumblebee, Helsing ★★★★★★★★ Blues, and so forth. Losing others that I had ordered; the Pink and Purple Bumblebee along with the Captain Lucky from Fred Hemple, other treats from Brad at Wild Boar, Steve at Heritage, Remy over in New York...thank G-d I have seeds left over so I can try again next year. 6 months of hard work shot to...well, you know where.

Time to relocate...after I'm done weeping, of course.

Then there will be the anger 'throw in the towel' phase that others have mentioned. On the other hand; we'll have beans, sweet potatoes, beets, corn, and carrots. Peppers seem to be okay, as well. I'm going to spend the rest of the day clipping dead branches...rant over. They were beautiful plants. Simply beautiful.

b54red · July 27, 2013

Don't give up too soon. If the diseases are that advanced it may be late for the bleach to do enough to kill all the disease and leave you enough healthy growth to still produce well; but usually the plants recover if there is any healthy growth on them. All of the plants I have been setting out since early June for my fall tomatoes have suffered major foliage diseases and have lost a lot of leaves but they are just now starting to produce a few tomatoes even though they are starting higher up on the plants than usual. My older plants which if they were stretched out would be 12 to 15 ft long now don't have any leaves on the lower 5 or 6 ft of the plant but the tops are healthy and producing. I have had to spray at least once a week for the past couple of months with the bleach spray and have applied fungicides when the rain stops but they get washed off usually within 24 hours. Despite all the problems I have only lost a couple of plants to foliage diseases. I did lose some to fusarium and some got broken in the high winds we have had accompanying some of the storms. We just had 2 days without rain and I used that time to plant about a dozen more for the fall. You have to be an optimist or mule stubborn to grow tomatoes down here.

Bill

tnpeppers · July 27, 2013

Mule stubborn is good.

kath · July 27, 2013

So sorry to hear that your plants are in such a bad way so early, Bill. Late blight had my tomato section completely dead before the end of July one year, so I kind of know how you feel but that year I didn't have as many plants as you do. It's good to focus on the other goodies that you will be able to harvest from the garden, but if they're still alive I'd give b54's suggestions a try in hopes that they'll rebound in time. Best of luck-

kath

July 27, 2013	#1
tnpeppers Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Zone 6 Posts: 365	Blight disaster/New England Heat, humidity and tropical downpours have finally taken their toll here in New England...on my way to losing over 100 beautiful tomato plants to...something. Blotches on the stems started at the bottom and headed upward...out onto the stems, and onto the leaves. Leaves all crunchy like the ones that fall off the trees every October...copper and bleach not effective at all. Shame of it was I was really looking forward to sampling some of the tomatoes I received in the swap with heather and 'Tormato' last year...Tarasenko 6, Dances With Smurfs, Bosque Blue Bumblebee, Helsing ★★★★★★★★ Blues, and so forth. Losing others that I had ordered; the Pink and Purple Bumblebee along with the Captain Lucky from Fred Hemple, other treats from Brad at Wild Boar, Steve at Heritage, Remy over in New York...thank G-d I have seeds left over so I can try again next year. 6 months of hard work shot to...well, you know where. Time to relocate...after I'm done weeping, of course. Then there will be the anger 'throw in the towel' phase that others have mentioned. On the other hand; we'll have beans, sweet potatoes, beets, corn, and carrots. Peppers seem to be okay, as well. I'm going to spend the rest of the day clipping dead branches...rant over. They were beautiful plants. Simply beautiful.

July 27, 2013	#2
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Don't give up too soon. If the diseases are that advanced it may be late for the bleach to do enough to kill all the disease and leave you enough healthy growth to still produce well; but usually the plants recover if there is any healthy growth on them. All of the plants I have been setting out since early June for my fall tomatoes have suffered major foliage diseases and have lost a lot of leaves but they are just now starting to produce a few tomatoes even though they are starting higher up on the plants than usual. My older plants which if they were stretched out would be 12 to 15 ft long now don't have any leaves on the lower 5 or 6 ft of the plant but the tops are healthy and producing. I have had to spray at least once a week for the past couple of months with the bleach spray and have applied fungicides when the rain stops but they get washed off usually within 24 hours. Despite all the problems I have only lost a couple of plants to foliage diseases. I did lose some to fusarium and some got broken in the high winds we have had accompanying some of the storms. We just had 2 days without rain and I used that time to plant about a dozen more for the fall. You have to be an optimist or mule stubborn to grow tomatoes down here. Bill

July 27, 2013	#4
kath Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: zone 6b, PA Posts: 5,664	So sorry to hear that your plants are in such a bad way so early, Bill. Late blight had my tomato section completely dead before the end of July one year, so I kind of know how you feel but that year I didn't have as many plants as you do. It's good to focus on the other goodies that you will be able to harvest from the garden, but if they're still alive I'd give b54's suggestions a try in hopes that they'll rebound in time. Best of luck- kath