Here is my growing list:

Grape tomatoes (from seed)
Black Krim
Caspian Pink
Old German

I have no idea if any are resistant to disease.

Dedicated use from day 1 of planting of a fungicide - Daconil the most frequently recommended and sold as Ortho Multi-Purpose Fungicide - is the only preventative that I know of. Of course good planting techniques such as fall garden clean up, wider spaced plantings to improve air circulation, avoiding over-head watering and soil splashing, mulching, keeping plants well-fed and unstressed, etc. can't hurt. ;)

Early blight spores (caused by fungus Alternaria solani) are carried over in soil but are also airborne so prevention with the steady use of an anti-fungal spray seems to be the only real solution from all I have read and experienced.

Good luck.

Dave

ssimon

I can only agree with Dave. That's what I'd recommend, too. Spray your plants with a fungicide to the DRENCH stage with Daconil at least every week, if not more often. I use Ortho's Garden Disease Control. Get the underside of the leaves and the stems, too. Spray the soil around your plants in case it's there, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ortho Garden Disease Control

And be sure it's Early Blight (A.solani) and not Late Blight( P.infestans) b/c both can appear early or late in the season.

However I'm not aware of any endemic Late Blight in OK. And you'd know if you have Late Blight b'c the plants would be a stinking mass of black tissue within a week or two of your seeing the first symptoms.

Agreeing thirdly here that Daconil is THE best antifungal for the two most common foliage diseases Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot.

So if you're convinced it's one of them and not Bacterial Speck or Bacterial Spot, which aren't prevented by Daconil, then go for it.

The Ortho product is most common but it's also marketed under other brands. What you want to look for is about 29% active ingredient, which is chlorothalinol, before dilution.

Anney, spraying the soil isn't going to help b'c Daconil works by covering up the specific attachment sites on the leaf surface that serve as receptors for the fungi. Sorry. Sigh.

Carolyn

Carolyn,

Okay, how it works now understood!

I bought one of those 1 1/2 gallon sprayers and I fully intend on proactively treating my tomatoes this year for funguses through the season. At the end of last August, everybody's untreated tomatoes in this area (including mine -- don't like to be out in that midsummer heat) were brown and ugly from blight. The drought didn't help our woes either. I can just make myself get out in the morning when it's cool and spray them and drink my coffee ten minutes later than I usually would.

How about corn gluten or was it meal applied to the soil. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for the information, everybody! I'll let you know how it all turns out.

Steve

Because you live in the midwest where it is generally drier and windier - you can get by without putting chemicals on.

The key is to create conditions that prevent or drastically reduce the infection from taking off. These are simple cultural things that do work (I use them in Western Mo).

• Space the plants far enough apart so they get good air flow and or dry out quickly in the morning (take advanatge of morning sun)

• stake/cage and prune the lower suckers on the plant to reduce any foliage from touching the ground

• mulch around the plants to prevent splashing of infected soil from rain drops

• avoid overhead watering. use a soaker hose and put the soaker hose under the mulch layer

Early blight and septoria HAVE to have moisture in order to infect. Anything else you can think of to keep the foliage dry will help.

Once we get into our central US summer time pattern of dry hot, if you do the things above, you might get some blight but it will stop.

Been in this spot almost 10 years now. I have never sprayed daconil here. This worked well when I lived in Raleigh but dews, more frequent rain and trees (less wind) made it harder. Oklahoma certainly has plenty of wind! The only time I get early blight (or septoria) is when I leave the ground exposed or wet the foliage (usually it means the mulch has pulled back from the soaker hose and water is getting on the foliage.

Avoiding excess nitrogen or too little will reduce severity of disease too.

As always the the first word out of peoples mouths when you mention fungicide is "Daconil". Do yourself a favor and check out the link below on Actinovate. You may be pleasantly surprised. Not only works as a soil borne fungicide but a foliar as well. And yes I used it last year and while most hobby growers were getting hammered with disease due to a very wet July and August here in Germany my plants were almost disease free and I didn't loose one. Not bad for an organic fungicide.

Here is a link that might be useful: Actinovate

Mule, thanks for the suggestions. I need to make use of these, especially using a soaker hose. With the amount of rain we get, more mulching is probably necessary.

Herr Miesenbacher, the Actinovate sounds like a viable option, and more environmentally-friendly. Do you know if it is commercially available at places like Lowe's or Home Depot, or even Wal-Mart?

Alot of online sites carry it. The link below is where I order mine from. I can't help you as far as local retail outlet availability.

Here is a link that might be useful: Actinovate

i have carried tomatoes to fall production even tho they had
early blight...
homemade compost tea (i like cotton burr compost tea and think it is very good)...
use only water that has set 24 hours...
three double handfuls of compost in five gal bucket...
you can add a double handful of alfalfa pellets but not necessary...
add eight ounces of hydrogen peroxide, three percent to mix...
let sit 24 hours, stirring three or four times...
use as foliar spray, drench plants and soil too...
good for most all plants and cheap too...let me know how this works out for you...

correction...
early blight...
i forgot to tell you to water down the compost to tea color and also i put tablespoonful of molasses in mix...sorry
grandma molasses from wal mart will do fine...
email me butchfomby@yahoo.com

I sprayed a whole bottle of Daconil on my garden yesterday. At $7+ per bottle this is just too costly for me for weekly use. Any natural alternatives that work nearly as well? I tried 3% peroxide once and it did slow down the virus but also caused a slight leaf burn on the tomatoes.