![]() ![]() The spores only overwinter in living plants, so remove any volunteers and solanum weeds. If you must use sprinklers, water in the morning or early evening, so the leaves can dry out before nightfall. It is important that leaves don’t stay wet for long periods, so ideally you should use drip irrigation. To minimize the effects of this disease, make sure the plants have good drainage and air circulation (staking and pruning can help with tomatoes). Newer varieties specifically bred for resistance include Ferline’ F1 hybrid and 'Fantasio’ F1 hybrid. Resistant tomato varieties include: Stupice, Legend, Juliet and Matt's Wild Cherry. Resistant potato varieties include Defender, Cara, Sante, Cosmos, Romano and Jacqueline Lee. The following varieties are considered blight resistant, though strains of the disease vary in their virulence and even resistant varieties may not be immune. If growing conditions are always favorable to this disease then its best to use resistant varieties. This disease affects yield, but doesn’t affect storability (don’t replant these of course). The only thing you can do in these circumstances is dig the tubers 2 weeks after the tops die down and use them. In Western Washington whole beds of Tomatoes and Potatoes died almost overnight. In cool wet weather you should watch for signs of infection and remove any affected plants immediately, but it’s an indication that the plants aren’t happy with the growing conditions. Brown sunken patches appear on the tubers and may spread into the flesh causing it to rot (or provide entry for other rot causing organisms). It first manifests itself as gray-brown necrotic patches on the margins of lower leaves, but these quickly enlarge and kill the whole leaves (sometimes overnight). This fungus prefers high humidity, wet weather and mild temperatures (50 to 80 degrees F). They can also be carried on the wind and in the right conditions they can travel long distances rapidly (as happened during the Potato Famine). ![]() The spores are most often carried by soil splashed on to leaves by rain or overhead irrigation. It is called Late Blight because it prefers warmer weather than Early Blight and usually occurs later in the year (it doesn’t usually bother early crops). Though best known as a potato disease, it also affects tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. She suggests making pesto on the spot with the healthy leaves when you see the first signs of blight.This fungus disease is notorious because it caused the Potato Famine that killed one and a half million Irish people and causing another million to emigrate. McGrath says that if you see the blight, you could get rid of the leaves, but if you remove one, you'll probably knock around the spores and they could get on other parts of the plant. "The wind will pick those up and blow them off and the disease just keeps multiplying like crazy." And there are incredible production of them on the underside of the leaves," she says. "You'll see a grayish, almost purplish dusty growth on the underside, sometimes turning to almost black - and that is all of the pathogen spores. But to really know the state of the plant, you have to flip the leaves over and look on the undersides. The sign of the blight, McGrath says, is the top of the leaf will start yellowing. McGrath says basil blight was reported in Uganda in 1933 and wasn't reported again until 2001 in Switzerland. "If you have it in your garden, you can affect other gardeners and farmers because the pathogen can jump onto their crops and plants," she says. Margaret McGrath, associate professor of plant pathology at Cornell University And it's new so people don't know about it.ĭr. ![]() It wipes the leaves right out - and that's what you want to use. ![]()
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