Tomato plants got the blight.

[Jughead]

Crop completely ruined. should I ripe them all down?

 

[Rookie1]

My FIL told me when a garden plant gets the blight rip it out bag it and throw it away. That way it leaves your yard and wont affect next years crop. I think its been a off year for gardens.

 

[S Mc]

If you have complete failure, there is no sense in keeping diseased material around. So yes, go ahead and rip them out.

I was trying to find information about whether composting would effectively kill off the pathogen which causes late blight (assuming that is what you experienced) but didn't come up with anything definitive. Disposing of the debris would be safest. But I still would think a serious, accelerated composting (super hot) would kill the pathogen. (However, that is just my viewpoint and I would do a bit more research.) You also don't want it to transfer to related crops such as potatoes and peppers. Can you burn there?

Many problems with tomatos are soil born, hence the recommendations to rotate crops. If you are not in a problem area with the soil though, tomatos actually like to be grown in the same place year after year. When rotating to control disease issues remember families...I would not plant tomatos where potatos were the previous year and vice versa, etc. So remember this problem come next planting season.

Sylvia

 

[brisawyer]

Is it the blight or blossom end rot? A lot of people call the end rot blight. Add lime if its end rot.

 

[woodbooga]

Tomato plants all across he country were sold already infect with late blight. A google search should find more information. It's a very bad problem this year. This is what happens when giant companies dominate a market.

Interesting point, your last sentence. By all accounts, we should have had blight (fingers crossed) but do not. It's been exceptionally rainy (combined, there were maybe 6-8 days in June and July when no rain fell) and our garden doesn't get as much sun as is ideal. (I'm hesitant to knock down the largest yard tree just for the garden's sake).

But we bought our plants from a local grower. Even if her prices weren't competitive with Wally World, we'd have still probably bought from her since we know her - and know she sells a good plant.

 

[S Mc]

But we bought our plants from a local grower. Even if her prices weren't competitive with Wally World, we'd have still probably bought from her since we know her - and know she sells a good plant.

Excellent. The old saying "you get what you pay for" comes to mind there.

I get my plants from either local nurseries which start their own, or the "barter" method of exchange starts with friends....again, started from seed locally. Reduces the potential of contamination from afar.

Sylvia

 

[Basica Guru]

Here is a link to MSU's info on late blight

http://ipmnews.msu.edu/vegetable/ve...arden-center-in-Tompkins-County-New-York.aspx

We grow our own plants to sell and plant. Mostly heirloom stuff, but lots of the usual stuff too. I wish we could charge what Wally world does. They were at 3.50 4 cell and we sold for 1.50. Our plants were all at least 10 inches and we still had trouble selling everything we had.

Roger

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I was trying to find information about whether composting would effectively kill off the pathogen which causes late blight (assuming that is what you experienced) but didn't come up with anything definitive. Disposing of the debris would be safest. But I still would think a serious, accelerated composting (super hot) would kill the pathogen. (However, that is just my viewpoint and I would do a bit more research.)

No! Late blight plants get pulled, bagged, and tossed in the trash. Composting does NOT kill the pathogen. This according to several universities around here.


Also, from the link above:

If symptoms are found on any plants in the home garden, it would be prudent to destroy the plants immediately. Place the entire plant in a plastic bag and dispose of them into the garbage.

We lost ours too.


Anyway, we researched it because we had planted about two dozen tomotoes this year, and some peppers. Lost all but a few peppers.

 

[S Mc]

That was the information I saw also: bag the diseased plant and throw it in the garbage. But then what happens to it? It goes into the land fill and then what? Buried, burned...composted?

The pathogen, Phytophthora infestans, usually doesn't survive in soil or dead plant debris. Whereas the recommendation to bag and dispose of plants from the home landscape are common, this is impractical for commercial growers and the recommendation there is to cut the plant off at the base and let them wither in the sun. (According to an article in the Janesville Gazette, August 16, 2009.)

I have not taken the time to research the various University links to see if they state precisely why they do not recommend composting, but my gut feeling is that they know that most people's compost piles are in effect simply refuse piles where all kitchen scraps and garden debris gets tossed. With no system to heat up the pile and turn it adequately, these piles many times have volunteer plants growing in them the next season. For that to happen, they have to have not been heated up...or the seeds would not have survived. This type of composting will not kill any pathogens.

By questioning this information, I am not trying to be argumentative or to suggest that this might not be the only option for some homeowners. This may be the best/only option for those without the ability to handle debris themselves or without the necessary information on how to handle it.

But to just say bag it and throw it away, puts the burden elsewhere without really explaining what has been done or needs to be done for final resolution.
A single tomato plant is awkward at best to shove in a plastic bag, let alone disposing of several plants. Holes poked through the bag, sitting around waiting for pickup day, put in a landfill where it may or may not be disposed of promptly. Presumably then the debris is so far away from a suitable host that the disease triangle is unable to complete itself? This is assuming no other living tissue suitable for this pathogen is going to be available at the landfill site.

Food for thought.

Sylvia

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I have not taken the time to research the various University links to see if they state precisely why they do not recommend composting, but my gut feeling is that they know that most people's compost piles are in effect simply refuse piles

Could be. However, I listened to an hour long radio program on this a couple of weeks ago, with two guys from the University of Maryland talking about almost nothing else. They said that even a good hot compost pile will not kill the late blight pathogen.


For me, it's not worth the risk to my garden next year. Our plants went to the landfill.

 

[Basica Guru]

I think the suggestion for bagging the plants relates to home gardens. Commercial growers will use the appropriate chemicals to treat the plants. I have worked farm markets for years and every week I have someone asking about something happening to their plants or a new bug. So their suggestion keeps it easy for home growers.

I grow organic, so if there is not an organic solution I use the Sherman through Atlanta method. Along with crop rotation it controls things well. I have about 2500 tomatoe plants and another 700 pepper, so I am keeping an eye on things.

Roger

 

[Wood Scrounge]

[BOriginally Posted by TreeCo
Tomato plants all across he country were sold already infect with late blight. A google search should find more information. It's a very bad problem this year. This is what happens when giant companies dominate a market.
[/B]



I start most of our tomato plants from seed we save and buy better boy plants from local supplies as a standard to compare other non hybrid cultivars against.

To me it's really sad to see how dependent our whole nation has become on seeds and plants from only a few sources. Small seed companies and the locally adapted seeds they sell have been falling by the wayside for a few decades now. IMO, this is a national security issue!

Vegetable cultivar preservation is way too important an issue to leave in the hands of giant corporations whose's only concern is if they can squeeze another 1/2 cent on the dollar out of their sales. The 'terminator gene' is an excellent example of increasing income......at the expense of national security.

If the #### ever does hit the fan these giant companies will not be able to supply seed.........and the smaller, locally grown and adapted seed suppliers will be only a distant memory having being driven from the market place.

Support locally grown seed, crops and markets!

very interesting I have been buying seeds and plants from Gurneys for years, I will need to rethink that. Thanks for that thought.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Bag or burn for this year so they don't continue throwing spores and spreading the infection to other farms / gardens.

My understanding is the blight doesn't survive freezing. That's most important to remember for folks with potatoes -- make sure your beds are completely dug up so there's no tubers left that can survive the winter unfrozen.

Late Blight is endemic to the northern hemisphere. It's just most years aren't this wet, and we don't have contaminated nursery stock being distributed all over the place to form the "perfect storm." Pre 1840 varieties of potatoes are still almost impossible to grow outside of the laboratories because they're so susceptible to the normal levels of blight floating around.

 

[tomtrees58]

yep it bad here on L I to tom trees

 

[lt1nut]

We'll have to see how the wife's 2500 ft2 garden does. She has about 100 tomato plants, mostly from seed she saved from previous years with the rest being locally started plants. So far so good, wet wasn't a problem up here by any stretch of the imagination!

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

very interesting I have been buying seeds and plants from Gurneys for years, I will need to rethink that. Thanks for that thought.

Yeah, there's one company now that owns a half dozen plant catalog operations. I forget which ones, but it's worth looking into. They are NOT a high quality operation!

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I think the suggestion for bagging the plants relates to home gardens. r

No doubt. The commercial guys have other methods, usually involving lots of chemicals.


For us home growers, just get that infected stuff out of there, and don't count on freezing for sterilization.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I've lost all my tomato plants (homegrown by a guy, about 6" tall when i bought them). They looked great, nearly 4' where I had them tied up on a fence then started going brown from the base up. Any idea what this would be? 10yrs of having good tomatoes till now.

 

[Wood Scrounge]

I have 5 different kinds of tomato plants and the only ones that show no sign of sickness are the Roma's. I am yanking everything and bagging them up, anything I should do to the soil?

 

[Wood Scrounge]

Yeah, there's one company now that owns a half dozen plant catalog operations. I forget which ones, but it's worth looking into. They are NOT a high quality operation!

it's a shame too, about 5 years ago there was no one better to get stuff from, now it's of poor quality.