If there ’s one affair we gardeners in the Pacific Northwest fuck about , it ’s how to produce tomato in the most difficult circumstance . It ’s bad enough that our summers are normally very cool but now the coming week are filled with spicy daytime and tender night , the double-dyed training primer coat for previous blight disease .
Phytophthora infestans , the fungus that causes this disease , is the same one responsible for the Irish Potato dearth . Within the last 10 years , late blight disease has made a come back in North America and Europe . Strains have developed that are repellent to fungicide applications and international trade has helped transmit infected plant material across borders .
The disease infect both murphy and tomatoes . winter spud Tuber can harbour the disease that soon spreads as soon as the tubers sprout . Spores , bring on by the fungus can travel in the wind for up to 20 kilometers . This signify that even if you ’ve never had late blight in your garden before , it can be blown in from neighbors who do .
As temperature rise above 15 ° C , the chance of infection increases . The spores themselves require just a lean stratum of moisture on the surface of the plant in social club to taint it . Within 2 days of the initial infection , the legion cell begin to kick the bucket . The telltale signs of the disease – blackening of the stems & leaf and oily - look splotch on the fruit – then start to come along .
Very little can be done to preclude spore from landing on your plant life ; protecting industrial plant against the rain is the well defense . Since the spore of later blight require wet before they can infect tomato and spud plants , a clear plastic cover over the plants is a simple-minded method of forbid this crushing disease . or else , try arise love apple flora in containers up against the mansion so that the eaves protect them .
Some cultural practice that can assist keep contagion :
Once previous blight hit your tomatoes , it really is too late . Infected plant become sources of spore that can spread to other garden and farms . They should really be slay and placed in the garbage , not the compost pile . In potatoes , as soon as signs of the disease appear , contract down the foliage and dispose of it . Wait approximately 2 weeks before you harvest your genus Tuber – enough time to allow any of the spores on the surface of the soil to pass away .
Resources
Late Blight Disease on Home Garden Tomatoeshttp://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/croplive/cropprot/lateblighthg.htm
previous Blight in Potatoeshttp://plantclinic.cornell.edu/vegetable/lateblight/late.htm
Arzeena Hamiris an agronomist and President of Terra Viva Organics .
