Late blight affecting the NorthEast
 

In Newsday our local paper and even on the Ralph Snodsmith show as well as other media there are scary stories about this new fungus which is killing tomato plants. Snodsmith interviewd a plant disease specialist from Cornel University who said that if the spores hit a tomato plant it can kill it in three days.

Has anyone on this board been hit yet with this? Is there anyone out there who is accessible doing research on ways of preventing it?

Elliot
Long Island, New York

What's happened to make it 'new'? Have you not had blight in the region before, or is it a case of a new strain reaching the area? It's got worse in the UK the last few years since a new strain arrived.

They say its the same strain that killed the entire potato crop in Ireland in the 1800's. I heard an expert from Cornel Univerisiy agricultural school on radio who said that once it hits a plant, it can kill it within three days. Part of the problem may be that we have had a cold and rainy late Spring and a cold July. I cannot remember in my lifetime cool weather like we are having this July. It feels more like May than July

If so that's the strain we traditionally had. We only had the one, and it propagated vegetatively. We now have a second strain, it reproduces sexually, and the problem has got worse.

I can't vouch for the three days, but three years ago I had a bed of Charlotte flowering merrily, for the second time. It's the only time I've seen this. They looked really healthy, then we had a few wet days and they rotted almost overnight.

They claim that if the blight hits, it can kill a plant in three days

I lost my entire tomato crop to late blight in 2007, every plant died within 4 days. The progress of the disease was vey evident over each 12 hour period. It was ferocious, the fruit were reduced to balls of black with white fluff by day seven.

It broke my heart.