I need opinions,please

[carolyn137]

I read many but not all of the threads about disease questions here since there are others who can also do that, yes,sometimes I do answer questions but here's what I wonder about.

Growing up on a farm, we call it a truck farm here in the east,we had many many acres of tomatoes,and my brother who is 3 years younger than I am worked hard in those fields.

But back then, and I'm talking the early 40's, there were no significant diseases of our tomatoes at all.All that we had were Colorado Potato Beetles,and dad would give us a can of kerosene to pick them off,which was a problem since if you know CPB's they act dead and fall to the ground.We got a penny for each one in the can. And be sure to look under the leaves and crush those orange egg clusters.

Dad had a backpack sprayer straps that went over his shoulders with stuff in it, and well I remember him spraying the summer and winter squash,but not the tomatoes.Maybe he did spray the tomatoes,b/c remembering and fact are two different issues.

We had many peach orchards that were there when my grandfather bought the farm,and three of them had been planted by the Shakers when they owned the land. and pear tree and plum trees also and I know he sprayed them each Spring.

Yes we also had BER, I didn't know that what it was called back then. Dad just said to pick off the ones with black bottoms and to toss them between the rows.

The above was in the 40's when I was a kid to the time I graduated from HS.

But when I moved back East from Denver where I was teaching and doing research,and that was in 1982 everything was different as to diseses.I met the local Cornell Coop agent,a wonderful lady who had been suggested I do so by my farmer friend charlie. She wanted to use my then large field to train others as she had been trained by Dr.Tom Zitter at Cornell, known world wide for his expertise of tomato diseases in how to diagnose diseases.She had two interns she was training,and I trailed after them as she pointed out the various bacterial and fungal diseases and how to diagnose them,and I followed with a notebook and made notes every time they came which was once a week for the whole season.

And that's where and how I learned about tomato diseases.When I was at the original Garden web I contacted the coop ext headquarters in many different states and asked them to rank from worst to least the diseases that were prevalent in their areas,and that turned out to be a very good idea since those in the south have many soilborne and other diseases that we in the north seldom see unless plants are ordered by nurseries and individuals to be shipped up from the south and are already infected/.


Back to now and asking what has happened between the late 30's through the 40's to 1982 and forward..

Why are there so many diseases now,so many pests and critters that can destroy theplants.When I read what some here are using now it confounds me.

But the larger question for me is why was it there were so few diseases and pests back then and now so many.

Any opinions are very welcome.

Carolyn, and yes,I have some ideas but I'd rather hear from others first.