Best Defense Against Late Blight
 

Ok, so we have all been hearing about LB and they even had a segment on it during our local news last night in WI. I innoculated my maters before transplant and have sprayed them with Actinovate. I have read about Copper spray here on the forum and am wondering if I should be using that too or WHAT?
Am I unnecessarily alarmed? :o

Thanks
Chris

[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]To add to the question proposed by Farmette; what about using Bordeaux fungicide mixture on tomatoes to control late blight? [/SIZE][/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Thanks,[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3]Scott[/SIZE][/FONT]

I'll add another that I wondered about...Daconil, which I have also seen now as an Ortho product. Actinovate, Bonide Copper Spray, Bordeaux, Daconil...are these similar. As a previous gardener, but new to the array of "stuff" I am left confused and wondering.:roll: Chris

It should work, but wash the toms well! It isn't, of course, used for control, but prevention. It'll kill the germinating spore, but won't touch the disease once it's established in the plant.

Thanks Robert! Got to get out there and see if I can solve the problem before it starts.

I've got blight myself now. I'll still get a potato crop, but it'll wipe out my outdoor toms for the third year in a row. I'm convinced it's overwintering in volunteers, probably on the allotment site. Time to start convincing everyone to be ruthless with them in future!

Farmette, As long as you inoculated your plants with Actinovate and are making periodic foliar applications as well I think you have it pretty much in control. Another product you can use is EXEL (Agri-Fos) which I have been using in addition to Actinovate alternating the applications. So far I have been keeping disease at bay as well.

Ami, I have been spraying them with Actinovate regularly. I included molasses on the last application...I thought that somewhere here I saw something about that helping foliar sprays to stick to the leaves. Hope i did the right thing.

Farmette, molasses will do fine and you can also use molasses as a soil drench as it will feed the soil and the plant. Here's a link I posted in the "Gardening in the Green" forum on molasses. Ami

[url]http://www.gardenscure.com/420/organics/95401-molasses-sweet-organic-goodness.html[/url]

Thanks Ami, I appreciate it!

The question was asked about what's best to use for Late Blight.

Late Blight is a lethal disease and in a week or so the plants are a stinking mass of black tissue.

At various sites where I post online as well as in the local newspaper there have been alerts and more alerts and descriptions of what it looks like, and anyone can see that by going to Google, selecting IMAGES and typing in Late Blight tomato.

Every single alert here in the NE where the major problem is, from Cornell, from Rutgers, from U of CT and more has said that Daconil is the only product available to home owners that is known to be effective, and it isn't 100% effective at that, no product is.

While I myself prefer to grow as organically as I can, and I haven't used Daconil in many years, I'm using it now b'c the choice for me is to have tomatoes or not, if LB comes my way, and I want tomatoes. I happen to have several varieties I'm growing that only the person who gave me seeds and I have and I want to be able to save seeds as well as taste those varieties.

I'm spraying with copper as well, b'c I have some Bacterial Speck, but copper is not recommended as the sole product to use for Late Blight, even though it is deemed organic by most certifying agencies..

If you choose to use Daconil get a product that has 29.6% chlorothalonil in the concentrate. ortho Disease Control is one such product as is Bonide's Fung-Onil. With both of these one can spray up to the day of harvest for tomatoes.

Many places here in the NE are totally out of those two products but shipments of new stuff should be arriving soon.

So that's my take on facing the Late Blight situation here in the NE right now.

I'm thinking of giving up on outdoor toms and building a polytunnel.

Carolyn:
The information here in my area hasn't specified a particular product and that is why it is so helpful that you have clarified that. I think we all need to know this information. I, like most people, would prefer to keep as organic as possible but I feel like you do...if it means giving up my tomatoes or using something like Daconil, I am going to spray with Daconil!
I am seeing it on our shelves as the Ortho product of which you speak and I think we might have the Bonide too.
Thanks again!
Chris

Has anyone tried growing tomatoes under a roof? In the UK, some people are growing outdoor varieties under a sheet of plastic to keep the rain off, and claim that they have a lot less blight. It makes sense, and a neighbour of mine has a polytunnel without walls, which he's been using to grow brassicas. It might be the ideal solution for early varieties.

I've thought of the roof idea more than once. Haven't done it because I'm not sure how practical it would be in this area.

Until this year, Late Blight has been a relatively rare disease here. There have been sporadic outbreaks in isolated areas, but until this year it hasn't been something most gardeners have to deal with and most of them have never seen it or heard of it.

The only reason it's so widespread this year is the combination of hundreds of thousands of infected tomato seedlings being dispersed throughout the northeastern U.S. by large retail outlets, plus uncommonly cool damp summer weather that is just perfect for Late Blight to be carried on the wind from those plants to every farm and garden.

On the other hand, one problem that we do commonly have to deal with even here in the Northeast is high winds and hail during storms. Some years, we can have strong storms roll through here two or three times a week. Trying to keep a roof of plastic sheeting anchored against 60+ mph winds or replacing it after it's been punctured by hailstones can be daunting.

But if Late Blight is going to become an annual problem, a roof of plastic might begin to look more attractive.