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Growing Tomatoes

Need Help and Have ?'s About Controlling Late Blight

14 years ago

Last year I was one of the unfortunate people whose garden got hit severely by Late Blight. This is my dilemma; I really donÂt have an area in my garden that I can plant my tomatoes that was not affected by the Late Blight last year.

I think I remember reading that you could sprinkle corn meal on top of the soil a few weeks before planting to help control diseases. Any truth to this? Would this help to prevent the Late Blight being so severe this year?

I can make sure the soil has plenty of compost added to it, and/or water them with compost tea. The only other thing I know to do is; to start spraying the plants as soon as I plant them out as a preventative measure.

Any advice and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

David H.

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Comments (4)

anney
14 years ago
We've had many discussions about Late Blight. All your questions are answered in the posts below.

Here is a link that might be useful: GW Discussions about Late Blight
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bigdaddyj
14 years ago
Corn gluten meal is reported to be a natural "weed and feed" product. It is the protein portion of cornmeal. I use it and I swear it keeps the weeds down well. I just got a little barnyard grass in my beds from the seeds that probably already sprouted in my straw bales I use for mulch but they were easy to pull out. 5 minutes of weeding all season. As to it's disease fighting, I can't say for sure. I had some spots and specs last year and some EB late in the season but then many folks fared far worse last year than I did as I manged to stay away from any Late Blight. Mine were probably air related rather than soil related diseases. I will continue to use it.

http://www.dirtdoctor.com/view_question.php?id=18
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Thank you! I am feeling better now. Dave, I started them from seed back in February. They are not in the ground yet. They were getting big, so I repotted them in 3 gallon pots and they moved into a hoop house waiting for some better weather. (Before, when they lived in the house, I used to take them out every morning and bring them in the house every night so they could get sunshine). Now with rain pretty much every day and not a ray of sun for a week the temps in the hoop house slowly but surely almost leveled with the outside temps. We've been having colder weather for 2 weeks and mist or rain every day for a week. The plants in the hoop house have wet leaves from condensation pretty much 24 hours. So I got a little worried. I'll post a picture when I have a bit more time (after I feed the little one) for a better diagnosis. Thank you for your help!
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You surely can plant and grow tomatoes successfully next year. Take a few precautions, though. Make sure you clear off any garden debris from this year. Next season, rotate your crops -- make sure you plant tomatoes in a different area than this year. You can also solarize the soil over the winter. To make and set up a solarizing tarp, first till the selected garden area. Dig a low trench around its circumference. Soak the area thoroughly with a sprinkler. Cover the area with a sheet of clear plastic 1-4 mm thick, allowing plastic edges to extend into perimeter trench. Back fill the trench to secure plastic. Leave the plastic in place for 6-8 weeks, making sure to remove debris and excess water that pools on top so that the sun's rays can penetrate the tarp. The sun heats to soil to destroy bacteria and other organisms. Here are a couple of helpful links about preventing and controlling early and late blight: http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomato-blight-early.html http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomato-blight-late.html Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Dirt:: growing tomatoes and using them
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davidwv
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks Anney and bigdaddy.

I reuse the black plastic film that I mulch my garden with, but I will be soaking it in a strong bleach solution. I plan on trying to get new stakes, but if I can't, then I will spray them with a strong bleach solution too.

Otherwise, I will use the ground corn, it can't hurt. And have a VERY aggressive spray regimen this year. Although I don't like using un-organic products I just might resort to Daconil. And use it alternately with copper soap.

Thanks again for the link and advice,

David
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korney19
14 years ago
David, save your money on the cornmeal, it only really ats as a mild fertilizer.

Late Blight needs A live host to survive over the winter. That would be tomato plants or fruits or potatoes if you've grown them. If you cleaned up the plants & fruits, you should be ok.

Early Blight on the other hand is a different disease and can survive in the soil. Some feel it's best not to till but to just turn over the soil. EB is much more common and not as devastating as LB, which is much more rare in our parts of the country.

Either way, if you are not 100% organic, a regular spraying schedule to PREVENT diseases is much, much better than trying to get rid of any diseases AFTER they are already present on your plants.

Hope this helps.
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