Lost all my tomato plants to late blight! (Pics)

[b54red]

Man you got hit hard by LB. I've only experienced it that bad once before and I didn't have but about 25 plants at the time. I had never seen it before and tried all the usual fungicides after it first appeared and the results were just total destruction in slightly more than a week. We have been having so much rain for so long that I have been expecting to see it every time I go out and check my garden after the rain lets up. I'm not even sure I would recognize it early enough because of all the foliage diseases that are present now. I'm going out and spraying with copper this afternoon since my Daconil got washed off last night. I sprayed with bleach four days ago and have been using it weekly at a minimum with some success keeping the diseases to a manageable level; but it is just hard to stay vigilant with such frequent rainfall. I'm still waiting to get three days in a row without rain.

Bill

[Urbanfarmer]

That would be hard to take. Think about hydro or container/drip gardening. It takes soil-borne diseases out of the mix. That doesn't guarantee anything, but except for one transplant last year, we almost never experience plant diseases. Alot less work too.

[bcday]

Originally Posted by Urbanfarmer

Think about hydro or container/drip gardening. It takes soil-borne diseases out of the mix.

Late Blight is NOT a soil-borne disease.

Plants grown using hydro or container/drip are just as susceptible to LB as those grown in-ground.

[DavidP]

In a previous gardening location late blight was very common probably half of the time would wipe out the crop and produced the photos very similar to yours. All happens amazingly quickly.

There are some varieties that claim some tolerance
Ferline is one
http://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?...+Hybrid+Tomato

I tried Ferline and one other I can't remember at the moment and and whilst they did survive longer they still eventually succumbed but its all very weather dependent, they might pull thru better in a year where it wasn't so bad.

I also used to grow a lot in a greenhouse and those plants would never get blight even if outside all plants were dead. So undercover plants can provide some insurance of a crop, at least that was my experience.

[cythaenopsis]

Wow, I'm so sorry to hear of the devastation Tom. I remember seeing your initial post about your new garden and it was clear you made a serious investment in time, resources, and ingenuity to nearly guarantee yourself a great growing season. All foiled by that nasty late blight!

At least you did get to harvest some fruits and so it's not a total loss. It's just astounding though. Here you have this large isolated garden so far from any other farming and yet that blight was able to find your treasure trove. Those spores must be able to travel very long distances.

I remember you saying that you were away for a stretch, but I guess that even if you were around and saw the beginning signs there wouldn't have been too much you could have done, save pulling a few more pounds of veggies. Anyway, this experience certainly does lend strong support for proactive action next year. What do you think you'll do for preventative measures?

[indigosand]

Tom, so sorry. That is just awful.

[newatthiskat]

Wow that is horrible! I bet you felt like crying after all your hard work. I also pressure can my salsa since the veggies throws off the ph. I am not sure about your question on the canning. I have only been canning since 08 or 9. I would think if the tomatoes look good and taste good they should be fine. People all the time make Jams out of not perfect fruit.....

[gardenjefe]

Thats awful. I lost 11/15 in ground toms to fusarium wilt this year. It took maybe 3 days from first sign to death of plant.

[cythaenopsis]

Sorry to revive what must be a sore memory Tom, but I'm just curious as to what measures you'll be taking this year in hopes of averting the chance of blight again this year?

[TomNJ]

Hi Gary,

From what I understand there is no way to prevent late blight. I heard you can delay it somewhat with extensive spraying, but spraying the tops and bottoms of all leaves on 60 plants after every rain is daunting, plus I grow organically. Late blight moves fast - last year I was away for just six days and came back to crispy dead plants.

Late blight is a hit and miss proposition, coming some years and skipping more. Last year everyone I spoke to in Floyd County was wiped out. It was a very cool and wet spring with lots of fog, which is ideal conditions for the spread of late blight. I'll just have to take my chances this year and hope for the best. The seedlings are under lights in the cellar!

TomNJ/VA

[b54red]

Tom I think some fungicides will help prevent Late Blight and also to prevent it spreading to uninfected plants; but when it rains every day it is nearly hopeless. The first time I had Late Blight was in early June and it wiped out every tomato plant in about a week and a half. The second time I saw it was a decade later and I was already experimenting with a bleach spray to kill back fungal diseases. I waited too late to start using it and lost nearly 3/4 of my plants but I did stop the spread with alternating sprays of dilute bleach and Daconil. The third time it hit I spotted it early and sprayed everything in the garden including the mulch under the plants and all other plants in the garden with the dilute bleach spray every other day for a week. I only ended up losing a couple of plants and it didn't spread beyond the first few plants I spotted it on. It was a lot of work and the day after I sprayed the bleach the first time all the foliage on a couple of plants died and a good bit on a dozen more turned brown. After the initial two sprays almost no further foliage died. After the three dilute bleach sprays I applied Daconil every week and had no further problems but a friend of mine lost his whole tomato patch during that time to Late Blight. He now uses the bleach spray more often than I do. It was a lot of trouble especially that first spray when I got every surface well covered; but well worth the trouble as my season continued for another 2 1/2 months with great production. I hope I never see Late Blight again; but if I do I hope I am vigilant enough to spot it early enough because delaying treatment for even a day can be the difference between total loss of my tomato plants to acceptable foliage losses.

Bill

[swardson]

Tom, my crops succumb to either late blight most years here in the Pacific Northwest. So Ive had to look into organic methods for at least delaying it until late September. I usually plant garlic where the tomatoes will go next summer. When the tomatoes are in the ground I spray them with Bordeaux mix which is approved for organic use. I also apply foliar sprays of aerated compost tea to increase competition for the spores with other leaf microfauna. I try to base my practices around scientific research and these three vectors for control have been proven effective at deterring late blight.

[travis]

There are late blight resistant cultivars developed by North Carolina State University and available from Johnny's Selected Seeds and other vendors.

Additionally, the same breeding lines used to produce the late blight resistant hybrids have been used to produce new heirloom x late blight resistant lines. Dr. Randy Gardner is the breeder working on these new lines, and some of them may be available if not now, very soon.

The breeding line used in the project showed strong late blight resistance in fields where susceptible varieties were totally destroyed.