Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Late Blight on Tomatoes

Looks like there will be no tomatoes this summer! Late Blight has wiped out my crop. It has been devastating. I'm not quite sure how it came into my garden - I started my plants from seed from one of the most reputable North American suppliers and nurtured them in sterile medium. AN INFECTED TOMATO

My garden is almost a mile away from the nearest other garden, yet I have a devastating infection and have pulled most of my plants. This is all very disappointing because garden fresh tomatoes are one of the most amazing benefits of home gardening. Their flavor just cannot be reproduced commercially. This problem is occurring throughout the Northeast because of the cold, wet weather. I tend toward organic gardening, so a complete preventive regime of fungicide from the time the plants are young is really out of the question for me. The only comfort I can take is that many other vegetables are doing very well this season - especially the green leafy types. Some pictures of infected plants are below.A DEAD PLANT AT THE END OF JULY WHEN IT SHOULD BE IN FULL STRIDE!

INFECTED TOMATOES AS THEY LOOK ON THE VINE

These tomato plants are the same ones that I protected from the frost back in early June. Now they are lost.

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