Dealing with Late Blight on Tomatoes and Potatoes
I’m running a little late on doing things… again. It’s not that I flake out or anything like that, well mostly, but that I get busy in doing things like trying to make a little money to live on or something unplanned happens.
The latter has happened to me….
Some of you may have been paying attention and some of you may have not, but about three weeks or so ago there was a report that the Late Blight or Irish Potato Blight had made a reappearance and was causing havoc with Tomatoes. Thats right Tomatoes! Don’t think that the potatoes are safe because tomatoes are the target this year though.
The last two weeks I have fought a loosing battle to save at least some of the tomato plants in my garden. In my 600 square foot space I had close to 200 square feet of it planted to the tomatoes, and they were coming along very nicely. But just as the fruit was starting to ripen I was hit with the blight. It was no gradual thing ether. Within 2 days nearly every plant was infected, despite the preventive measures of fungicide.
I didn’t have the money for massive treatments so when I first noticed the blight I started clipping out plant stems hoping that I could save the already to be ripening tomatoes. But after the 4th or 5th day I finally started to pull up the roots. It became apparent that no amount of clipping or spraying was going to save the plants.I conferred with some local farmers and gardeners and we all came to the same conclusion, all we did was to stretch out the ultimate death of the plants. We got to get them to live for an extra week or so under unendurably pain and suffering.
What I found was clasic signs. The leaves turned yellow with brown spots — clasic of not enough sun and not enough water sign in my garden — but cuppled with purpling spots on the stems. morning due will show white ring of mold/fungus on the purpling areas. As the fungus eats the stem the area become brittle causing it to snap with little or no force. The fruit will start turning black where the fungus is eating it.
You have potatoes in your garden you’ll probably be wanting to do an early harvest of them too, get them before the plants start turning yellow and purple with the blight. You’ll have a lot of salt potato size but there will be some at least.
Now if your a composter like I am, normally the plants and cuttings would go into the compost pile for next years mulch. Not this year! Plants, roots, pealings, shavings, any unuseable portion of the tomatoes, potatoes, and their plants need to be bagged and trashed or incenerated.
And don’t try to save any for seed for next year ether, unless you have the extra funds to have each individual seed tested for the pluage.
Now comes the reall heart ache….
Anywhere there was tomatoes or potatoes and about a 50 foot radious around those plots, can’t be planted back to ether for 3 to 5 years. And you’ll need to have soil testing done the spring that you want to start planting these two crops again. For me and I believe a whole lot of others, thats the the entire garden space available for planting.
The good news is that you don’t have to stop gardening just because you lost the ability to plant tomatoes or potatoes.
Plant the tomatoes in containers or use hydroponics for some. Potatoes maybe a large container? they are a little harder to handle. In the places in the garden were these two were pulled out, plant extra beans and peas. They will help rebuild the soil while you wait.
I just replanted where I took out 60 square feet of russet potatoes to green bush beans. I should have a late crop of them come September. I have not figured out what I’m going to plant in the 150 square feet of area I took the tomatoes out of. Or what to plant in the 160 square foot area where I have eastern potatoes planted.
I will miss these two crops fresh from the garden. *sigh*
I need to go finish digging out my potatoes now.
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