Why I Stopped Posting For A While

[crmauch]

To be honest, there were other factors

• A new job involving a 3 hour round trip commute
• Searching for a different job w/ less commute (and that I liked better)
• Which I thankfully found by September
• Getting situated in the new job and getting past 'probation'

But this was a major factor:

FIREBLIGHT LATE BLIGHT

These were taken about 1 week after a major rainstorm that took the fireblight late blight on a major rampage (just as production was coming into full swing:

Tom-Plnt-FireBlight_1.jpg
Tom-Plnt-FireBlight_2.jpg
Tom-Plnt-FireBlight_3.jpg

As compared to just before the flare-up (In retrospect I can see the fireblight late blight on the leaves, but it might have been manageable at this point):
Tom-Plnt-Unknown.jpg

But I'm back now and looking forward to 2015!!!

[Dutch]

It's good to see you posting again Chris. I had been following your tomato crosses and had wondered what happens. Hoping you have better luck this year.
Dutch

[saltmarsh]

Sorry for the loss crmauch.

Wish I had known. It would have been an excellent test for Horsetail tea. Claud

Was the before picture taken before the heavy rain or after?

[BigVanVader]

Pics like that give me nightmares.
Sending you good luck wishes in the coming year.

[Fusion_power]

You call it fireblight, but do you actually know what it was? I think I can guess, but I'm curious what you actually saw.

[ChrisK]

To my knowledge actual fireblight caused by Erwinia amylovora is limited to members of the Rosaceae. I fight it every year on my apples.

At any rate, not a fun sight.

[walt456]

Man that looks heartbreaking. Here's to a much better year.

[bower]

Sorry to see that!
Better luck this year, Chris.

[zero244]

You really got hit hard. I have not heard the term Fireblight before.
Too bad you had some nice looking tomatoes not too far from harvest.

[peppero]

Hang in there chris.

Jon

[crmauch]

The before was before the heavy rain. If I had noticed it enough before the rain I would have tried the bleach spray talked about on this forum. I did not know about a horsetail tea.

Originally Posted by saltmarsh

Sorry for the loss crmauch.

Wish I had known. It would have been an excellent test for Horsetail tea. Claud

Was the before picture taken before the heavy rain or after?

[crmauch]

You are absolutely correct -- it was LATE BLIGHT. I meant to write Late Blight, but Fire Blight popped out (maybe my apple trees are trying to telepathically communicate with me )

I have corrected it in my original post.

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

You call it fireblight, but do you actually know what it was? I think I can guess, but I'm curious what you actually saw.

[Alan&Jayne]

Your pictures brought back painful memories of this past summer. Never having experienced this before, I was caught totally off guard. I bought Copper Fungicide, but was too late. I`m interested in learning about what else is used, like the horsetail tea just mentioned.

[dustdevil]

I feel your pain. It appears you were only weeks away from one gigantic harvest of ripe fruit. Now that all the chaos has simmered down, I hope you have a healthy bumper crop this year!

[saltmarsh]

Originally Posted by crmauch

The before was before the heavy rain. If I had noticed it enough before the rain I would have tried the bleach spray talked about on this forum. I did not know about a horsetail tea.

Horsetail tea isn't for most people. It isn't convenient. You can't go to the store and buy it. You have to find a local source for Horsetails and not just any horsetails. Only Equisetum arvense the common or field horsetail can be used as all other species are toxic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_arvense

After you find the correct horsetail, you have to chop them up and make a tea; then strain the tea, bottle it and store it until needed.

Once you have the tea, you have to dilute it depending on how you will use it.

I'm not a doctor and don't play one on TV. What follows is strictly from my own personal experience with horsetail tea.

A friend had a severe problem with nail fungus. She wears false nails and replaced them each week. When she removed the false nails, she started soaking her hands in a solution of 1 part horsetail tea to 5 parts water for 30 minutes then applied the new nails. After 6 months of this the nail fungus was gone. This was over 2 years ago and it hasn't come back.

Another friend had to have a double mastectomy due to breast cancer. After radiation and chemo she developed psoriasis on both her legs. After trying everything the doctors prescribed with no improvement she had decided it was going to be long pants for life. She wrapped her legs in cloth soaked in a solution of 1 part horsetail tea and 5 parts water each night for 6 weeks and started wearing shorts again.

In the garden I use molasses as a sticker for the tea so it doesn't wash off as easily.

As a preventative spray use 2 1/4 cups of horsetail tea to 1 gallon of water.

For an active infection use 4 1/2 cups of horsetail tea to 1 gallon of water.

It's easy to spray transplants completely especially the under side of leaves to the point of runoff. It's a Royal PITA to spray mature plants in the same fashion.

New growth is unprotected so you have to respray every 2 weeks to protect new growth. Leaves continue to grow so the entire plant has to be sprayed to be effective.

If you remove leaves from a plant or have an open wound use a spray bottle filled with the 4 1/2 cups to 1 gallon solution to spray the damaged area to the point of runoff.

When you've done all of this and it's time to spray once again but it starts raining and rains every day for 2 weeks straight and then drizzles for 3 days and you just can't catch a break you need to ask yourself if you're still having fun.

Just smile and switch to the active infection rate for the next spraying and hope for the best. Claud