Amy, Assuming it is early blight, which is one of the problems that shows up at this time of year (May-June timeframe), there is an entire range of products available. I'll run through them, starting with the MOST TOXIC and ending with LEAST TOXIC. You can then choose what you are most comfortable with using. 1. Over-the-Counter General Use Products Containing Chlorothalonil (2,4,5,6-tetrachloroisophthalonitrile): DACONIL (actually discontinued by mfg. but still available if stores haven't depleted their stock) 29% chlorothalonil GARDEN DISEASE CONTROL by Ortho -- the replacement for Daconil I think, generally available wherever gardening supplies are sold. Costs roughly $15.00 a pint. BRAVO--available in several formulations, containing from about 30% to about 80% chlorothalonil--more of a commercially-oriented product for ag users and forest service. If you buy Bravo be sure to the 30% one. That is the concentration the government rates as safe for use in vegetable gardens. FUNG-ONIL by Bonide--essentially the same as Ortho Garden Disease Control All of these are generally considered safe for use in the chemical world, but they break down into compounds that are toxic to fish and mammals. They are very effective though, and to be honest, they are more effective than anything we organic gardeners use. That doesn't mean I would use it. If used, protect eyes and skin as it may irritate them. Generally the MOST EFFECTIVE product available for treating blights. All these products use chlorothalonil from the same manufacturer so they are all pretty much the same, although one might be 27% active ingredient and another one might be 29%. They may have different inert ingredients. 2. COPPER-FUNGICIDES Copper products are the "big gun" in the organic world and some organic people use them. However, they are technically considered an Inorganic Fungicide and are used as a broad-spectrum foliar fungicide. They are somewhat effective but are not as effective as chlorothanlonil. I don't like using them as copper can also be toxic to fish and can cause a whole host of symptons/irritations to the person putting the copper products in their garden. KOCIDE: Its active chemical ingredient is cupric hydroxide. If you decide to use a copper product, please google and do some research on it first. I honestly think it would be safer to use a Daconil-type product than a copper-type. The next three are probably equally safe (non-toxic) for use, but I put Seranade first because it might be more effective than the other two. 3. SERANADE--Organic Control For Disease, Insects and Weeds This is the HOT new product of the year in the organic world. It is NOT a chemical but instead contains a patented strain of Bacillus subtilis (a bacteria) which is an ecologically safe control used by organic growers (OMRI-listed) to control a broad range of diseases, including anthracnose, downey mildew, early blight, late blight, leaf spot disease, powdery mildew, and much, much more. I bought this at a Wal-Mart 2 weeks ago as soon as I read about its availability. It is in a red spray bottle with a yellow label and a yellow sprayhead. It has been approved by the EPA and USDA for use on food crops. Some people on the tomato forum who have already used it on blight have been impressed, so I am very hopeful this product will give us a safe, organic product to use on blights. 4. An old organic solution is to spray your plants with a solution of baking soda. There are lots of formulas floating around. Here's one: 1 T. baking soda 1 T. dormant oil (I have used the Superfine summerweight dormant oils for this purpose in the past) 1/2 t. insecticidal soap or dish soap (to serve as a surfactant) 1 gallon of water Mix together. Spray with a hand-sprayer or pump-up sprayer. Be sure to spray undersides of leaves too. This is probably somewhat effective, but I haven't been thrilled with its performance in the past. 5. Garrett Juice--This is an organic solution from Howard Garrett, the Dirt Doctor, from the Dallas area. (www.dirtdoctor.com) I like Garrett Juice and use it for a lot of things. It is not so much as fungicide as a multi-purpose spray used to improve plant health. For reasons I cannot explain, though, it seems to help. You can buy Garrett Juice in Texas at nurseries, feed stores, and even at some Lowe's and Home Depots, but I don't know if it is available in Oklahoma. I like buying the concentrate and mixing it up more than making it myself completely from scratch, simply because it is less time-consuming. Start with 1 Gallon of Compost Tea -- If you buy a commercial compost tea concentrate, dilute it according to label directions. If using homemade compost tea, use 1 cup to 1 gallon of water. To 1 gallon of compost tea, add the following: 1 ounce of blackstrap molasses 1 ounce of liquid seaweed concentrate or 1 teaspoon of powdered seaweed 1 ounce of apple cider vinegar That is the general formula for Garrett Juice. To use it as a fungicide, add 1/4 cup garlic tea and 1 tablespoon of baking soda. Apply to plants with a sprayer, making sure to spray undersides of leaves. Amy, are you absolutely sure it is early blight? Do you have the dark concentric circles showing up in addition to the yellowing of the leaves? If it seems like Early Blight, it probably is, but I hate to see you spraying for blight if you have something else. To add to all the confusion of is it/isn't it Early Blight, here is a list of other problems for which yellowing leaves are a symptom: too much water too little water zinc deficiency iron deficiency potassium deficiency calcium deficiency root-knot nematodes (only in sandy soil) tobacco mosaic virus aphids tomatoes grown too close to the roots of a black walnut tree, or the use of a home-made mulch containing shredded black walnut tree leaves or wood If the leaves are yellowing AND wilting it could be verticillium wilt or fusarian wilt, although I really have not seen them much at all in my many years of growing tomatoes. I have battled early blight for years and years and years. I actually have had far less of it the last 3 or 4 years since taking pre-emptive measures to try to eliminate it before it can get onto my plants. Still, I think it is virtually impossible to grow tomatoes without eventually having to deal with early blight. If you haven't had early blight before, ask yourself what is different this year. It is soilborne so it could be it just took it a while to find your plants. If you have questions, let me know. Good luck with the blight. Dawn

For the non-organic folks Daconil has always been the go to protectant for fungal diseases. Ami ***** And for some of us who DO grow organically as well when faced with exceptional conditions such as losing all of our plants to Late Blight. I don't want to turn this thread into a dicussion about Daconil, far from it, b'c I know what happens when something like it is raised as a topic here. Having researched it a lot all I can say is that there are many many links online about it and if the link is to a site that is mainly organic it will be condemned and at other sites not. But for anyone interested in a non-biased review I suggest you go to EXTOXNET, via Google, and take a look. EXTOXNET is a consortium of Universities that have pooled their resources and have info about all manner of herbicides, pesticides, miticides, anti-fungals and on and on. You can also look at the MSDS sheet for chlorothalonil. As I said above, I don't discount all products that are synthetic nor all products that are organic, my main concern being toxicity as I posted above. But I'm not the only one who WILL use relativiely low toxic products, be they organic or not, when faced with loss of ALL of my tomato plants and I grow in an area in Upstate NY where last year there was a very serious problem with Late Blight such that many commercial farmers were wiped out completely as well as many home growers. I respect the right of anyone to use whatever products they might wish to use and in return I would hope that others would respect my right and the rights of others to use a product that we wouldn't normally use in the absence of this special situation with Late Blight. And if someone wants to use Daconil every season to prevent fungal foliage diseases I also respect the right of that person to do so. As long as someone has fully researched a product and knows the possible consequences, either plus or negative, be that an organic or non-organic product, it's my opinion that that person should not be chastised for his or her choice. I also am someone who does not like to bring politics into such discussions when companies such as Monsanto, Syngentea, Dow and others are mentioned. I am fully aware of those companies and what they do and I'm also someone who is in general against GMO's but recognizes that there's lots of hunger in the world and for folks in some countries use of GMO crops may be the difference between nourishment and hunger. Right now I'm dealing with a situation where quite a few folks refuse to buy seeds for Early Girl F1 b/c they say it's a Monsanto product. Some of you may know that Monsanto bought out Seminis Seeds several years ago and one of the compenies of Seminis, Petoseed, is said to be the culprit b'c they developed it and also produce the F1 seed. The fact is that it was bred in France, Petoseed acquired it and for the first three years exclusive rights to sell seed went to Burpee. In recognition of that I was recently able to acquire quite a few seeds of PSR-37 which is an OP version of Early Girl F1 and have been making a free seed offer for it, I pay postage, at another message site, but I have few seeds left right now b'c there's been a large demand for those seeds. it's so easy to comdemn others for the choices they make, but I prefer to not condemn, but rather to respect the rights of others to make their own choices. Thank You. Carolyn

I've used Serenade and found it effective. I have not tried Daconil as the Serenade worked well enough for me (except last year against LATE blight). I do agree that you probably have to spray more often but you should be using a spreader-sticker to reduce that requirement. I sometimes alternate with copper soap and my crop is normally fine. By the way, you can get Serenade much less expensively if you buy it in a larger quantity from the manufacturer's rep. I don't remember who that is and am not repeating the research just for this post. If there is a lot of interest, I'll see what I can find out. Last year, I bought a 7 lb. bag for $70, free shipping. That's so much that I gave away a few pounds here on the forum. Compare that with Gardens Alive, where they get about $50 a pound. Also, Serenade can be stored and will last, according to the rep, for years. I sealed it in clean peanut butter jars and put it in a dark cabinet. I use about two teaspoonsful of powder in a gallon of water. The bag come with instructions for a large area (per acre) but smaller areas can be figured from that. You really don't need much.

New reports the week of 6/22-29: Reported on 6/24: Late blight has been confirmed in tomatoes on an organic farm in Harrison County, OH. Harrison County is in east/central Ohio, one county west of the Pennsylvania border. Previous reports (most recent first): On 6/19 late blight was reported on tomato in a community garden in north central Suffolk county, NY. The gardeners were taking out all their tomato and potato plants. On 6/17 late blight was confirmed on tomato from a home garden in New Haven county, CT. The plants had been grown from seed by the gardener. Outside our reporting area, a 6/21 find on potato in Michigan. The week of 6/8-15 there were two additional late blight reports in Pennsylvania. Both were on tomato transplants in home gardens. One find was in Somerset Co. (south central PA), on a plant purchased at a local greenhouse. The other was from Beaver Co. (near the Ohio border), unknown source. Late blight was found in a greenhouse in northwestern Pennsylvania in mid-May. It was being monitored and treated to prevent spread.