I did this for my tomatoes: The roof serves both to: 1. Avoid overwatering or unplanned watering from heavy / long rains, and 2. Protect from strong sun, the recently planted seedlings / companion plants You could make a SIMPLE covered structure to avoid overwatering from rain. Also be sure to hoe often the soil. I use: â Fiskars Garden Hoe â Union Tools V-Blade Garden Hoe â Nejiri Gama Hoe â CobraHead Weeder and Cultivator As of spraying I would recommend: â Garden Safe Insecticidal Soap Insect Killer â Safer 3-in-1 Garden SprayGoogle I also like Safer Garden Dust. All three products are OMRI listed.

Organic gardening methods and products run the gamut between the absolutely useless to the amazingly effective. No one opinion here, or other places is enough information. Only research will give you sound advice on what works and what is a waste of time and money. Many products proffered on the "organic gardener" are sold to the uninformed as miracle products that do nothing except part you from your money, and some can do more harm than good. Here is a piece that I wrote for my blog on how I determine whether or not to try something. Howling at the moon while wearing a tutu and other miracle cures. Before I go on, know that I am fully in favor of natural ways to control diseases and insects or to keep plants healthy and I always like to find ways to substitute such methods for conventional chemicals. That said it also annoys me to see the amount of snake oil sold to the uninformed. So how do I determine if a new miracle product is worth a try? First through my experience and education I look for a reasonable explanation of why it might work. Second I look for independent scientific studies and if I can find more than one or two I look for a consensus. Third I look to other trusted people who have tried the method or product. And fourth because I am in business I look at cost benefit analysis to other methods. This may not be important to someone else, and indeed in my own yard is not a big factor. Lets take three scenarios and see how this works for me. 1. A few people have told me that applying Wilt Pruf periodically before rain will help control Black Spot on roses. My experience and education tell me that there is a reason why this could work. Black Spot is a water transmitted disease, thus if a waxy coating is on the leaf when the spore hits it the hyphae might not be able to grow through it. I checked for scientific studies and can find none for or against this claim. I talked to some people I trust and found that they do believe it is a benefit. Wilt Pruf is expensive, but for reasons not relevant to this writing it was worth a try. I have tried it and believe it does what I have been told. When I tell others of this claim I tell them that I believe it works but that my experience is not by any means scientific. By the way applying any product not for the use intended is against the law so apply Wilt Pruf to deter wilting, as I did, and if it happens to control Black spot then all is good. 2. I hear that Corn gluten is a good pre-emergence weed killer. My experience and education tell me that there is no good reason this will work, but also I know nothing of the theory so have no solid reason why it will not. I checked for research and can find one study from the University of Iowa that claims it works. (Hmm interesting, what do they grow in Iowa?) The majority of studies give no credence to this research. The consensus is that though it has some limited control on some weeds it is a poor pre-emergence weed killer. I checked with people who have actually tried it and I gathered from what I heard that the only way this product might work is if they left the unopened bag on the ground, no weeds would grow underneath it. Corn gluten is expensive and I like my wallet full more than I dislike weeds. I have no intention of trying this product unless I hear compelling scientific evidence that I am wrong. 3. I read on the Internet that howling at the moon while wearing a tutu will stop Borers infesting my Pumpkins. Through my education and experience I see no reasonable reason why this would work and can think of many reasons why it won't. I checked for scientific studies and surprisingly enough could find none. I asked people I trusted and they are now inquiring about having me committed. I don't think that tutus are very expensive so cost is not a factor. Once again there is no reason to try this method except that it might annoy my neighbor who is a perpetual pain in the but. So in conclusion do your research before spending your hard earned cash on the newest miracle product. I may have posted this already, but a search did not find it so forgive me if you have seen it already.

Plant in containers using sterile soil, don't plant in native soil. Put lime in the soil when you plant them for prevention of blossom end rot. I've been spraying with the 3 in one organic safe spray and only use Sevin if I suspect worm activity. I do that BEFORE I see a problem, not after. I don't use anything stronger. If lower leaves start to yellow I pull them off and dispose of them. This usually works, occasionally the safe spray isn't enough to prevent the diseases, probably because you have to retreat constantly and I forget. I would like to find out if there is something longer lasting but not harmful as far as eating the harvest.

Dave, I can see spraying for tomato foliage diseases on a preventative basis, but not so much for bugs and insects unless you know they're waiting to zoom in abnd do every year. Most folks I know spray with the Ortho product b'c it's excellent at preventing tomato fungal foliage diseases, which are usually worse than the bacterial ones, for which there aren't very good products anyway. You say you think you had blight, but blight is just a general term and doesn't relate to any one specific disease. When talking about "blight" are you talking about the foliage infections that are so common for everyone or something more serious as in a systemic disease ? Try Pyrethrin to try and control the cuke beetles but the best prevention is to use floating row covers and then take them off when blossoms appear so that pollination can occur. Even if the cuke beetles transmit disease at that time you'll still have time to get fruits before plant death starts b/c it takes a good month from time of transmission until symptoms appear. Carolyn