Thanks for the heads up, soonergrandmom. Now I have to go back to the big box store where I bought the tomato plants that are possibly affected and buy the fungicide to try to prevent the blight. My father asked for tomatoes too late for me to start from seed so I bought plants. As if I wasn't already nervous about growing something for which I have no experience. If you hadn't posted this I would have been sure I messed something up in growing them. Now if anything goes wrong I'll just blame it on "late tomato blight"...LOL. Thanks again.

I've been successfully taking oregano oil by North American Spice Company for any type of bacterial, viral, or fungal infection since 2005. I first heard about it on a show called Know the Cause. Then my friend started talking about it getting rid of a wart on her foot that shed been fighting forever. I had a rock hard bumP on my toe and figured it would be a corn (sorry, I know this is probably gross) it had been there for about a year and I kept forgetting to ask my dr. and I bought a generic brand of oregano oil, and Rubbed a drop on. By the the end of the day it was almost gone. It didn't vanish completely in 2 days with that brand, so I bought the more well known brand, and used it for a day and it was gone. I had was hit with a bad case of strep throat shOrtly after on a weekend (I can diagnose myself, I've had tonsil ides, and strep throat enough to tell the difference) and rather than go to the ER I had my husband stop at the local health food store and get me a bottle of oregano oil. All our tiny store had was the pill form of North Americsn Spice Company brand. I already had the bought a book written by Dr Cass Ingram called the cure is in the cupboard so that helped me to know how much oregano oil I should take bi think I took a pill every hour for the first day. Within a day 24 hours I felt completely fine and I will tell you with synthetic anitibotics it takes me 3-5 days. It is effective on colds also that normally have to run their coarse. We can be completely over a cold in 1/2 the time as anybody stricken with a cold at the same time. My husband, kids and I have been using it successfully since then, and rarely go the Dr anymore. 3 of my friends use it, and 1 of those friends is a doctor. My sister, who is married to a pharmacist, uses it. Many of you have probably heard of it, or already use it, but for anyone who hasn't I wanted to explain the benefits thoroughly. Sorry so long. I probably should have said it is a powerful natural antibiotic and the first time I saw it on Know The Cause, the were touting that it had been successful in killing the bird flu in laboratory testing. I believe them. Dr. Ingram and Doug kaufmann (Know The Cause) Often appear at the "Health Food Center" on Penn in Okc, to answer questions about it and other natural health products. I would follow up by saying that anytime I take a hefty dose of oil of oregano, I always take some type of probiotic from the health food store. You can now sometimes find probiotics in a pharmacy as more people are becoming aware of the importance and the body's general need for probiotics. My brother in law who graduated from pharmacy school about 3 years ago mentioned to me that I should follow up with a probiotic after using any type of antibiotic, to help your body good bacteria replenish itself from being wiped out by the antibiotic. So I was surprised that they are promoting the use of probiotics now, because I had never had a dr. or pharmacists mention such a thing to me before. I think western medicine is slowly catching on. I just hope the pharmaceutical companies really don't gain control over all of the natural health medicines we now have the right to use.

billmack : I concur w/ your post wholeheartedly except for the statement that it is not the growers fault. Any businessman in America has the duty to treat employees fairly. Some people for different reasons cannot protect themselves. The facts are irrefutable, Illegal aliens are criminals, and thier employers are criminals. Not only for employing them, which is illegal, but also for the human rights violations. The Congress is made up of a majority of criminals. We somehow have missed the fact of the stresses put on the tomato plants by all parties. The poor plants shiver in fright as they are roughed up by the poor pickers, looking over thier shoulders, hurriedly stuffing baskets full to reach thier qouta. Greatest travesty of all.......................potential Tomatoe Violence.......... i believe we might need to send a few counselors to those fields to calm down the plants... this seems to be an escalating problem.

People in England are really into gardening. Someone I work with is in our London branch. She just has a tiny apartment, Two of the windows have flower boxes in which she grows radishes and lettuce. At one time she and some friends had a little plot outside the city. She just marvels at pictures of my yard and how many vegetables and berries I grow. And it's only 1/4 acre! This past Saturday one of the local shows featured a local guy and his book that came out recently. It's called Straw Bale Gardening and the author is Joel Karsten. People from Alaska, Dubai, Saudi Arabia - everywhere have shown interest in it. It lengthens the growing season and is perfect for places like Dubai that don't have good soil. Joel grew up on a farm and moved to the cities and bought a house with really bad soil. That is what led him to come up with this idea. That and sometimes the growing season in Minnesota can be considerably shorter than others. Basically you treat a bale of straw with nitrogen for two weeks to condition it. Then you dig holes in the top and side and put in plants. The bale starts to decompose feeding the plants. In addition the bale is 35 degrees warmer than the temp outside because of the composting affect. You can start your plants earlier and tent on chilly nights. I ordered the book. I might try 1 or 2 bales this year seeing as our season is late getting started. I think I will plant tomatoes and compare the plants to my ones in pots on my deck. Tricia - seeing that your soil was damaged by Sandy this might be something you want to try. As soon as I pick up the book I'd be happy to share the info with you if you are interested. Two words ......... heirloom tomatoes!