First, I will be planting in some of the same beds due to size limitations. Do I have to do anything to that ground to "sterilize" or remove any spores that might be lurking?

Late blight doesn't over-winter in the soil, only in live tissue. It is an airborne fungus.

Do I need to add anything to the soil before planting? Compost, amendments, etc.

That is always a good idea each season regardless of the previous season's results.

Finally, is there any sprays or chemicals that should be incorporated in a plan of action to prevent the blight from striking?

Fungicides from the day of planting and sprayed on a regular basis per the instructions on the label.

The previous discussion linked below is filled with relevant info and a search of the forum using 'late blight' will pull up many more if you want to browse through them.

But the crucial question is was your problem truly late blight? Or perhaps something else that might require a different approach this year? Other much more common diseases are often mis-labeled "late blight" despite their less terminal symptoms and require different treatment. LB so quickly and so totally destroys plants that it is vital to know for sure what you are dealing with.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: After late blight - what to do next year discussion

please don't add bleach to the planting hole. All you'll end up doing is killing benfical bacteria and maybe harming the roots of the plant.

I use Daconil every 10 days or so starting soon after setting out plants.

I have found that disease resistant varieties are much easier to raise than disease prone varieties. I like Neves Azorean Red, Red Mortgage Lifter, Big Zac among a few others.

Incorporate POWDERED lime in the soil, and put a ring of it around each plant to soak in slowly over the summer. This has solved blossom end rot prblem for me.

I also put a few dried "pieces" of cow manure on top the soil around each plant, to provide manure tea throughout the summer growing period.

Mulch with grass clippings or straw. Water with weak Miracle Grow / Epsom Salt solution.

I use good loose soil with amendments. Use bags of Organic Peat and Humus if you have lousy soil.
Tilling straw into the soil will help keep it loose.

The Late Blight fungus will not survive in your area with the exception of if it exists in potato tubers that excape freezing. So it seems better to not plant tomatoes near where you had potatoes and immediately kill any volunteer potato plants since the fungus, once airborne will spread rapidly.

As far as identifying late blight- because it devistates so rapidly all parts of the plant, including green fruit, you can hardly confuse it with other diseases.

You can use so-called preventative fungicides as suggested but they provide little gaurantee that it won't still infect your plants. Combination preventative and curative sprays after signs of the disease are the better solution- they sure worked for me last year.

By the way, this disease can't be controled by organic methods or "Old Time" remedies. It's just too aggressive. But chances are that you will not see it again for a few years regardless of what you do.

Finally, is there any sprays or chemicals that should be incorporated in a plan of action to prevent the blight from striking?The local ag extention agent told me that the p Infestans spores can indeed survive freezing if they have an organic host (not necessarily a living organic entity). LB wiped out not a few gardens' tom plants in 2009 season here. However, 2 gardens close to me had NO signs of LB. The reason for this was that (in both cases) the tom plants were sprayed early and regularly with Daconil. Daconil is effective against LB and many other fungal infections. Other fungicides I presume have good efficacy as well.

Reg

What I want to know (and not to borrow trouble) is why Late Blight didn't spread southward, since it can be an air-borne disease? Was control and its destruction THAT good in the northeast?

I think we're lucky in this area of the South, since we've had plenty of freezing weather in case there were a few stray spores that wandered in.

It did spread some into the mtn areas of the south later in the season.

The reason you didnt see as much in the south is because the conditions for it werent favorable. Late blight favors cool moist. If it gets too hot or dry late blight won't be a problem.

Reg, Your County Agent is technically correct- The key term here being spores. But fortunately only one sex of the fungus has been causing all of the havoc in the northeast and we can be thankful of that. However we still have the asexually formed "fungal seeds", the so called sporangia that are carried by wind currents and storm fronts.

For those in wanting a resistant variety NC has released Mountain Magic variety but try to find it.

Apparently Mountain Magic was not available last year and probably isn't this year either. One poster here suggests that "Dr. Gardener is incorporating some flavor genes into the lines", so maybe that's the hold-up this year.

A very minor suggestion I received from a fabulous gardener friend: tolerate ZERO volunteers. Any volunteers should be ripped out ASAP.