Can blight be passed on through seed.

[agee12]

If your gardening season is long enough, you may want to consider succession planting.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by agee12

If your gardening season is long enough, you may want to consider succession planting.

That works OK for those who can grow two crops each season, such as you in Georgia. I know some who do that and they sow seeds around mid Dec, set out small plants in late Jan, so that's their early crop. And then they resow seeds again in late summer and get plants out soon after that and then are telling everyone about the delicious ripe tomatoes they had for Thanksgiving dinner.

BUT,those of us in colder climes,being home growers, can't do that.

And yes there are some home growers who have small to large greenhouses,so they can do that.

But the first decent tomatoes where I am in upstate NY next to VT, are sent here not from FL or S CA,but from Canada, where there are many large companies that grow tomatoes in greenhouses,they have to give them a Cold temp shock first, and then let them ripen up a bit before shipping them down here, or ones shipped over here from Israel or up from Mexico.

Carolyn

[agee12]

^ Understood, that's why I qualified the suggestion. The OP is in zone 8, said the problem was early blight and as someone else noted, blight thrives in humid conditions. I would think those most susceptible to early blight have the silver lining of a longer growing season, but again I qualified the comment in case the OP is an exception.

One question I have is what is an expected / acceptable loss rate? The OP was already doing the recommended techniques but he's been growing heirlooms in an area that he says has been very wet for the past three years. Is losing 1/3 of a crop of heirloom tomatoes under the stated conditions out of whack?

[zipcode]

I have not noticed leaf fungal diseases to pass through seeds.
If the problem is so big, there is only one solution really, a greenhouse, which with careful watering in the humid times, good ventilation and good spacing, should make for a mostly disease free season. If you build it from cheap uv resistant greenhouse foil, should not be that expensive, but you'll probably want to set up some irrigation if you have many plants.

[clkeiper]

Do you clean and sanitize your stakes or cages? Disease can be carried over on your hardware. Trowels, hoes, rakes, shovels... Etc. Sanitize these items too. Use a pressure sprayer and hose everything off first get any dirty clods off and then spray them til they drip.