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

[kath]

I love this idea, Tom, and wish I knew about it in 2009 because I did nothing but pick off the affected leaves and fruits and cut off any affected stems that wouldn't completely kill the plant. I had been checking the plants every day because of all the reports and spotted the first affected leaf on 7/22, but all my plants had to be pulled by 7/29 because I didn't want to lose the potatoes, too. Even my peppers were affected. It's astounding that your plants lived that long!

I'll definitely try it if my plants get LB this year but with all the varieties I'm trialing, I made the painful decision to spray with Fung-onil this year so I won't have to repeat the trial. My question is whether you used this as a preventive or only after you took out the first plant that showed signs of the disease?

kath

[coastal bend]

What if you have heavy dew in the morning. That is the problem down hear it is near 100% humidity most mornings. Makes it hard to spray in the morning.

[brengolio]

Originally Posted by coastal bend

What if you have heavy dew in the morning. That is the problem down hear it is near 100% humidity most mornings. Makes it hard to spray in the morning.

same thing here............ I wondered if I was wasting my time spraying in the mornings.......

[janezee]

The more rain I get in warm weather, the faster my tomatoes go down to blight.

I'd have to ask if you had lots of rain or none in that year. I've had one year that my plants died in under 48 hours, because it was raining that whole time, in coolish (to you) weather. Maybe 60's dt, 50's nt.

Last year, the blight came in August, and did not rain once, though I had heavy fog at times (I live near the ocean) and my plants produced, although slowly, for several weeks more. I knew from prior experience what could happen, and I kept thinking that if I kept them dry, they'd be all right. They were.

With absolutely no treatment at all.

As soon as the rains started in September, all hell let loose, and down they went if they weren't covered.

I'm not saying that the fish milk wouldn't help keep your plants healthy, just that there are other factors to take into consideration. I wouldn't count on it, myself, as my only precaution.

It actually means that I will try it on a couple of plants for my late blight trials, though. Thanks for the recipe. I used something similar on my squash, for powdery mildew, though I don't think it really worked.

j

[tjg911]

“My question is whether you used this as a preventive or only after you took out the first plant that showed signs of the disease?”
Only after seeing signs of and confirming it was LB, by then most of the plants were infected. I think as a preventive it may have some usefulness but i'm asking that once you know you have LB you know you are done and at that point you have nothing to lose by trying the fish milk. that's what I did and it worked for me. Your plants won't look like they never had LB, they will suffer but they may not die immediately. If you get 4-7 weeks of life from them you saved some or most of your season.


“What if you have heavy dew in the morning. That is the problem down hear it is near 100% humidity most mornings. Makes it hard to spray in the morning. ”
i'd spray each day but omit the fertilizer or you'll over fertilize the plants in a week! It's the antifungal properties of the milk that you want to combat the fungal spores.


“I'd have to ask if you had lots of rain or none in that year. I've had one year that my plants died in under 48 hours, because it was raining that whole time, in coolish (to you) weather.”
iirc it was raining a lot and cool, perfect conditions for LB but LB was spread all over by infected plants being shipped here, the weather was the worst possible given LB's introduction. I was very concerned a week ago as it was very cool and showery for a week or longer. Fortunately it dried out and warmed up tho the upper 90's with high humidity we had for 3 straight days that was ended by vicious thunderstorms, hail and wind yesterday afternoon was not fun. No damage here.


“I wouldn't count on it, myself, as my only precaution. ”
I am not recommending it as a precaution but rather if you get LB you have nothing to lose so try fish milk.


again if you confirm LB and use fish milk please report back in this thread about your results whether positive or negative. i'm curious whether this will work for you. this community is large enough to provide a wide diversity of climates and whether it is helpful or not. all i can say is that for me it helped.


tom

[kath]

Thanks again, Tom- I'm on board but I hope no one has cause to use it.

kath

[lakelady]

Interesting. I'm going to try it too on some plants, and see what happens. Hopefully LB will not make it here, but one never knows and I have a lot at risk with the huge amount of plants I've got now. Thanks for the recipe!

[Save$]

What about uing big A frames covered with plastic to keep the rain out? I lost all my plants to LB that were outside. I had some in the solar space, They were not affected. Luck or effect?

[Tania]

Originally Posted by Save$

What about uing big A frames covered with plastic to keep the rain out? I lost all my plants to LB that were outside. I had some in the solar space, They were not affected. Luck or effect?

Keeping plants dry under plastic cover helps a lot. This is the only way I can keep my tomato plants safe when late blight hits our area (and it hits every year). I believe it is a better protection than spray, but you have to make sure there is a good ventilation under plastic, otherwise it'll create perfect conditions for blight development (warm and humid).