Late blight in NJ

[JiminNJ]

Late blight has been found on a 2 acre organic tomato field in Mercer County. This is the first report of Late blight in New Jersey this growing season.

[kath]

Yikes- that's way too early and way too close for comfort! Thanks for the heads up.

It was also found in Salem Co. on July 2 and Rutger's Cooperative Extension says all tomato and potato growers in NJ should consider it a significant threat.

[JiminNJ]

It was found in Mercer first June 26th, 4 more cases found in Salem

[Got Worms?]

I've been spraying as much as I can, rain permitting. But between the Thrips, TSWV, Septoria, and the setback I've had with some frost damage at the beginning of the season; I'm thinking Mother Nature must be POed at me. Late Blight, with the kind of weather we're getting right now, would be twisting the knife.

[Tania]

I am so sorry to hear that... I know how heartbreaking this may be, as in my area we get late blight in early/mid July for the most of the years.

Plastic cover and removal of affected foliage asap helps us to manage it here, but it is a very tough one to manage.

So far we have no signs of LB here, but we had a very nice and dry weather in the last few weeks, so the conditions are not favorable for late blight.

[Lee]

Found in the county I'm located in NC!

Check out this link for the latest reporting. http://www.usablight.org/

Lee

[Mashman]

Late Blight was reported in MA this am.....Ughhh.

[livinonfaith]

Darn it! I'm pretty sure that is what is on my plants.

Three out of thirty are already dead and some of the remaining ones are getting worse every day. I had to pull five really green tomatoes off of a dead plant the other day.

There are still several that look really good, with only a few yellow leaves. If I started spraying tomorrow, would it do any good?

[livinonfaith]

Figures that this in the first year I finally have a decent set on several of my tomatoes. (Decent for me, anyway. Still puny for all of the power growers around here.)

Anybody have a dozen ways to use green tomatoes?

[bcday]

Originally Posted by livinonfaith

Darn it! I'm pretty sure that is what is on my plants.

Three out of thirty are already dead and some of the remaining ones are getting worse every day. I had to pull five really green tomatoes off of a dead plant the other day.

There are still several that look really good, with only a few yellow leaves. If I started spraying tomorrow, would it do any good?

Yellow leaves? LB doesn't turn tomato leaves yellow. They stay green with black blotches until the leaf dies, like the pictures here:

http://usablight.org/

and

http://www.longislandhort.cornell.ed...s/diagnose.htm

Are you sure your plants don't have Fusarium? That turns leaves yellow.

[cythaenopsis]

Originally Posted by JiminNJ

It was found in Mercer first June 26th, 4 more cases found in Salem

Oh no. I hope they're able to contain it. Blight is such a nasty manifestation. I recently read an article about it by the Long Island Horticultural extension of Cornell University. This paragraph was particularly disturbing:

Originally Posted by Cornell Univ

There were several important developments in 2011. A large, five-year, national project with government funding was started to investigate late blight, monitor pathogen genotypes, and improve management by developing resistant varieties and a monitoring program. Project web site is http://usablight.org/. Through this project it was documented that there were several genotypes present in the northeast including ones not detected here previously. One of these (US-23) was responsible for a severe outbreak of late blight that occurred on Long Island in 2011. It had greater impact than the outbreak that occurred there in 2009. It likely started in a garden environment, possibly a single garden. Phytophthora infestans was shown to be able to be transmitted to seedlings growing from tomato fruit recently rotted by late blight.

[efisakov]

Hate to repeat my self, we all purchase soil. I know I did not compost anything but fish, egg shells, pit moss and coffee. The only way for the pathogens to get to my garden would be by soil I purchased. The "better quality I buy" the more sick my plants get. What is composted to make garden soil we buy?

[bcday]

Originally Posted by efisakov

...The only way for the pathogens to get to my garden would be by soil I purchased....

If you mean Late Blight, it can NOT get to your garden by soil that you purchased. It cannot live in the soil by itself, nor can the spores that it grows from live in the soil on their own. It can only survive on living plant material, not dead plants or inanimate objects like plant stakes and wire cages. It could come into your garden via your compost if you toss an infected potato into your compost. But once the host plant dies, the LB that infected it dies too. LB is not spread through the soil, it is spread through the air by spores carried on the wind from an infected plant that might be miles away. Regardless of how perfect your soil is, if a spore from an infected plant floats into your garden on the breeze and lands on an unprotected tomato leaf under the right temperature and moisture conditions, your plant will become infected.

Protection for your plants consists of preventative spraying. I use a spray that contains chlorothalonil. There is no spray available for home gardeners that will kill the pathogen once it has infected the plant.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by bcday

Protection for your plants consists of preventative spraying. I use a spray that contains chlorothalonil. There is no spray available for home gardeners that will kill the pathogen once it has infected the plant.

I've had good luck using the bleach spray on infected plants and if done early and often enough it will prevent the spores from spreading to nearby plants. You have to spray the undersides of the leaves and all the surrounding plants and keep a fungicide on to help prevent the spread also. Once LB invades a plant there isn't anything that will save that plant so the only hope is to stop the spread.

Bill

[bcday]

Well yes I did also think of bleach as one of the preventatives although I haven't used it myself.

The main issue I wanted to address in my post was the idea that Late Blight is "in the soil". It isn't. Late Blight can not attack a plant from the soil in the same way that Fusarium or Verticillium.could, and it can't be transported into a garden in purchased soil.