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Growing Tomatoes

Please tell me it's too early for late blight

16 years ago

Hi - this is my first time posting on this site, but I've been lurking for a while and you guys sure know your stuff...

I live in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver ( the nearest big American city is Seattle ) and we have guaranteed late blight every summer when the rains come. Our usual weather pattern is a dry spell from at latest the middle of July until around the end of August; we might get a shower during that time period but nothing that lasts. We put early varieties out with no protection and later varieties under cover so that we still have tomatoes after the reliable late August deluge.

Anyway, we now have several days of actual rain predicted, up to the 21st. I know late blight gets into the plant if the leaves are wet for too long, but my question is whether it's too early for late blight to be lurking around waiting to pounce. The knowledgeable neighbours think we're probably ok for another week or two, but I'd sure appreciate the benefits of everybody else's experience.

Thanks, Chris

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Comments (4)

drtomato
16 years ago
OK- "it's to early for early blight"

Use cornmeal and dicanol
drtomato
16 years ago
I'll try this again-

OK- "it's to early for LATE blight"
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wvtomatoman
16 years ago
"Please tell me it's too early for late blight"

Sorry, no can do. Although it is called late blight it can occur any time from spring to fall if weather conditions are favorable. :-( Late blight prefers cool wet conditions. It is a fungal pathogen.

BTW, an interesting historical fact is that late blight was the cause of the Irish potato famine (it affects several members of the Solanaceae family - potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, etc.)

Good luck.

Randy
carolyn137
16 years ago
Agree with Randy.

Late Blight ( P. infestans) can appear early or late and Early Blight ( A solani) can appear early or late.

As Randy said, it all depends on when the pathogens are around and in areas endemic for either one there's plenty of spores of the two that we're talking about to initiate infection when the conditions are right.

Carolyn

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