something that retards late blight in infected plants?

[tjg911]

tomatoville is an excellent place for this type of test.

as we all know late blight is death to tomato plants and once contracted there is no cure. you can try to prevent LB with daconil but my garden has always been organic and i won't use it, many here use organic methods as well.

in 2009 when LB devastated a large chunk of the east, my tomatoes came down with it. IMO there was no doubt based upon pictures and descriptions that i had it. i pulled the 1st plant immediately but within a day or 2 it was starting to appear on all the plants and over time (a week ?) they all got it. i had 12 i think that year. i sprayed my plants with fish milk and some died but most lived a few to several weeks. i 1st sighted LB on 7/9 or 7/11 and my last plant died on labor day. that's almost 2 full months and LB is supposed to kill plants with a few days. many plants lived 5-7 weeks and produced tomatoes.

i offer this up for the community to try because we have such a large and geographically diverse population. there is no scientific testing of fish milk because there is no money in it for the chemical companies. milk has antifungal properties so this is why it works on curcurbits. fish milk is promoted by a local radio gardening show in hartford on wtic 1080 am on saturday from 12-2 pm on a show called "gardening with len and lisa". they are organic and lisa suggested this to me for problems with curcurbits and it works great. she suggested it the year of LB and i was surprised by the results.

so here's the recipe. if you use this on LB please report back your results in this thread. i'd like to see if this works for others as it did for me. i never saw LB before and hopefully never will again so i don't want to be wondering what if.

fish milk is easy to make, use this as a foliar spray:

o 2 cups of milk i prefer whole milk but low fat is ok
o 1 teaspoon dish detergent NOT ANTIBACTERIAL as it'll kill beneficial bacteria on the plant
o fish emulsion or fish and seaweed emulsion concentrate use the amount specified for 2 quarts of water. i use neptune's harvest and i use 1/2 tablespoon
o 2 quarts of water

spray plants every 5 days when it rains or every 3 weeks when it is dry. spray in the morning on a sunny day as the sun activates the protective properties. do not store this, mix it fresh each time. if i have any left over i spray cukes and squashes. tomatoes also seem to like fish milk, the calcium no doubts is beneficial. there is very little research about this. i don't drink milk so i buy a gallon and let it sit in the basement fridge. it can go beyond the expire date so long as it is not turning to yogurt! if you drink milk, then you'll have a fresh supply all the time.


tom