Wolcott Garden Treasures
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Late Blight
2010 Update:
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) comfirmed late blight to be present in a New Haven County backyard on June 17th. With any luck, the blight will not be as explosive as last year, but as always, the spores can be easily spread by rain and wind. Careful gardening will be necessary for the next several seasons to get blight under good control.
Summer of 2009 will go down in the record books, or at least in gardeners' minds, as one of the worst seasons ever! We began the season with extremely rainy and unseasonably cold weather, which caused a whole mess of problems. This put vegetables and annuals in distress from the get-go, making them exceptionally susceptible to fungal infections. On top of that, a large nursery in the south shipped millions of dollars worth of tomato plants to the northeast with a particular disease that dessimated tomato crops throughout New England and as far south and west as West Virginia and Ohio.
Late blight was certainly one of the major problems of the season. This highly infectious fungal disease is spread far and wide, mainly by wind and water. The stormy weather that prevailed in the early summer spread the blight over long distances from infected tomato plants to healthy plants, even those grown from seed. By the time gardeners and farmers had noticed the problem, it was too late to save the majority of the tomato crops.
Late blight differs from early blight in that it affects the vascular system of the plant by infecting the stems and fruit; this fungal infection is fatal. Early blight infects the leaves, but generally will not kill the plant.
So what can you do to combat late blight? Unfortunately, once it hits, not much. Prevention is the primary defense against this nasty fungus. As soon as you notice late blight, it is imperative that you remove the infected plant(s), as well as any plants immediately adjacent. Put these plants in tied or sealed plastic bags and throw them in the trash, never the compost pile. To prevent infection in the first place, a copper-containing fungicide is best and can also be used alternately with a peroxygen-based formula. Copper fungicide is very good at preventing late blight, but it must be applied carefully and diligently. We're happy to show you how to properly apply it for best results.
If you do experience late blight, act QUICKLY to remove the plants as noted above, and be careful to remove ALL the plant material, including the roots. Late blight can only overwinter in soil that contains blighted plant material. If you inadvertently leave affected roots, leaves, fruits or stems in the garden, it's likely your soil will infect any new tomato plants for seasons to come. However, if you've carefully removed all traces of the infected plant(s), you should be able to plant in the same garden again the next season. Keep in mind that copper fungicide will help protect a plant from traveling spores (i.e., from your neighbor's infected plants), but will not help a plant that is infected from the ground (i.e., from your soil containing infected material from last season).
For more information and additional photos, visit Cornell University's website on the topic. Photos on this page courtesy of Cornell University.
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) comfirmed late blight to be present in a New Haven County backyard on June 17th. With any luck, the blight will not be as explosive as last year, but as always, the spores can be easily spread by rain and wind. Careful gardening will be necessary for the next several seasons to get blight under good control.
Summer of 2009 will go down in the record books, or at least in gardeners' minds, as one of the worst seasons ever! We began the season with extremely rainy and unseasonably cold weather, which caused a whole mess of problems. This put vegetables and annuals in distress from the get-go, making them exceptionally susceptible to fungal infections. On top of that, a large nursery in the south shipped millions of dollars worth of tomato plants to the northeast with a particular disease that dessimated tomato crops throughout New England and as far south and west as West Virginia and Ohio.
Late blight was certainly one of the major problems of the season. This highly infectious fungal disease is spread far and wide, mainly by wind and water. The stormy weather that prevailed in the early summer spread the blight over long distances from infected tomato plants to healthy plants, even those grown from seed. By the time gardeners and farmers had noticed the problem, it was too late to save the majority of the tomato crops.
Late blight differs from early blight in that it affects the vascular system of the plant by infecting the stems and fruit; this fungal infection is fatal. Early blight infects the leaves, but generally will not kill the plant.
So what can you do to combat late blight? Unfortunately, once it hits, not much. Prevention is the primary defense against this nasty fungus. As soon as you notice late blight, it is imperative that you remove the infected plant(s), as well as any plants immediately adjacent. Put these plants in tied or sealed plastic bags and throw them in the trash, never the compost pile. To prevent infection in the first place, a copper-containing fungicide is best and can also be used alternately with a peroxygen-based formula. Copper fungicide is very good at preventing late blight, but it must be applied carefully and diligently. We're happy to show you how to properly apply it for best results.
If you do experience late blight, act QUICKLY to remove the plants as noted above, and be careful to remove ALL the plant material, including the roots. Late blight can only overwinter in soil that contains blighted plant material. If you inadvertently leave affected roots, leaves, fruits or stems in the garden, it's likely your soil will infect any new tomato plants for seasons to come. However, if you've carefully removed all traces of the infected plant(s), you should be able to plant in the same garden again the next season. Keep in mind that copper fungicide will help protect a plant from traveling spores (i.e., from your neighbor's infected plants), but will not help a plant that is infected from the ground (i.e., from your soil containing infected material from last season).
For more information and additional photos, visit Cornell University's website on the topic. Photos on this page courtesy of Cornell University.
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