How far from you Bill and if within spore dispersal distance with the prevailing winds what's your defensive strategy?

Was this case confirmed by your Coop Ext or similar?

Carolyn

Carolyn, sorry, I left out the fact that it's in my backyard, LOL! Yeah, right there on some Purple Haze F2 and F4 vines. And looks like it might be moving onto the leaves of nearby vines. This weekend should tell the tale for sure.

My Purdue Extension horticulturalist wants me to cut some samples, bag them and bring them to his office to send to Purdue's lab for official confirmation or possible reply that I have not interpreted the symptoms correctly. But it looks like every picture I can find of Late Blight on both the leaves and the stems.

Strategy? Well, my vines are so far advanced and have filled their cages which are all 6 - 7 feet tall (it's kind of like a forest out)with foliage so dense that about the only thing I can do is rip most of it out and wait to see if a few of the as yet unaffected vines actually have some resistance. Like I'm hoping the Mountain Magic and West Virginia 63 live up to their billing!

This is one reason that I used to grow on 8-foot stakes driven in the ground, and prune extensively ... to avoid such dense vines that when a severe fungal infection strikes, you can get in there with some serious battle plan. No way can you do it with mature vines filling 6 - 7 foot cages and toppling over and hanging down the outside of the wire. Also a good argument for compact indeterminate and short bush hybrids.

Hoping for the best anyway Bill. And please let us know if Mt Magic does indeed resist. Some great science is sometimes gained from tragedy...

Aye carumba, you sure didn't say it was in YOUR backyard. Sigh.

I've initially misidentified Grey Mold for LB a couple of times so maybe that's what it might be, fingers crossed.

Did you see the petioles bending down? That's at least one major difference from Grey Mold.

Did the Purdue person indicate if LB had been Ided anywheres near you?

I think Mt Magic has a better chance of making it through than does WV 63 just based on the genes Randy put into it.

I know he's interested in feedback about both Mt Magic F1 and Plum Regal F1 and next week I'll be putting up a feedback thread elsewhere about that. In his e-mail response to me last night he was glad to see I was going to do that, and of course it would also cover Smarty F1 but that one doesn't have the LB genes bred in.

Now don't get upset ASAP but have you given ANY thought whatsoever of removing ALL affected stuff and considering Daconil? Or are you going to wait until it has been confirmed before you might do that and I mean at LEAST the thinking part.

I sure would hate to see you lose everything you have out there which of course I'm sure includes many of the selections from crosses you've been working with.

Please let us ( me) know how this plays out.

Carolyn

Okay, yes, DarJones suggested Grey Mold, and as you say, I should take a closer look because besides what I think looks like Late Blight, there is another disease out there that I've never seen before that is causing a different pattern of leaf discoloration and decay. What a season!

I'm not opposed to using Daconil, but would have to do some very drastic pruning both atop and inside the cages to pare back the foliage sufficiently to get a good application. Not sure it would be worth all the effort in most cases since the flowering portions of the vines are now so far up and out.

Truth is, I've got a sufficient supply of seeds already harvested and the loss now will be just tomatoes for eating, drying or freezing; so, no big deal really. Just the mess will all have to be cleaned up during hot weather rather than when I usually wait to do it when it cools off in the Fall.

Yes, I have a huge supply of Plum Regal F1 seeds and a small supply of Mountain Magic F1 seeds remaining. I will also be looking for other varieties that have resistance bred in for Late Blight, Grey Mold (if possible) and other diseases for next year.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna take this as an opportunity to observe what kind of tolerance exists in whatever I got growing out there in the patch this go around. And the Purdue guy said he cannot go on my ID of Late Blight without samples for the lab, so it will be next week before we know for sure if it really is officially Late Blight.

Truth is, I've got a sufficient supply of seeds already harvested and the loss now will be just tomatoes for eating, drying or freezing; so, no big deal really. Just the mess will all have to be cleaned up during hot weather rather than when I usually wait to do it when it cools off in the Fall.

****

Now there's the good new says Carolyn who has had ONE ripe Sungold F1 to date, only a few of the plants have tiny tomatoes, most have just blossoms and some have NO blossoms as of Wed AM when Freda looked at them for me, and first killing frost here can be as early as the first week in September but most commonly mid to late September.

I have a few, didn't count them , Mt Magic F1's left, just FYI, and there are four more Randy varieties with the same LB genes bred in that might be available in a few years. I'm trialing four of them but had him send all the seeds to Craig, b'c he raised all my plants for me this year so I don't know how many seeds he sent but I don't think that many. Randy knows Craig and Craig has gotten Randy interested in the Dwarfs. I'm sure Keith is probably growing the same four as is Mark who has developed a wonderful cooperative effort with Randy so I thank you for mentioning Mark when that Septoria thing came up. The two of them have many friends in common after I hooked them up, so to speak.

Carolyn, who forgot she has two NOT Rostova's, aka SRH's just sent to her that are lovely red hearts, definitiely not Rostova, and will cut them up to taste today. it looks like a variety, obviously unknown, that might need to be adopted under orphan status. ( smile)

I may have LB here on 1 or 2 of 54 plants. The Cornell Extension Service for my county is a little slow answering phones and only works from 9am to noon! Maybe I should try corresponding and sending pics to/thru Meg McGrath? They are calling for lows in the mid 50's tonight too...72 now and was supposed to rain but didn't.

I got a return e-mail earlier from someone at Cornell in Ithaca when I tried posting to their LB page. He asked if I've seen the "Imposters" page. I will post this link in the LB Weekly Updates thread too...

Here is a link that might be useful: Late Blight IMPOSTERS PAGE

Someone else sent me an e-mail from Cornell & said to do this:

"please remove suspected infected leaves and stems and seal them in garbage bags. Do this after the dew has dried off when foliage is dry, mid-day. Take some of the infected tissue (not completely dead) and put it into a plastic container with a damp paper towel to see if there is any sporulation on or around the edges of lesions that is characteristic of late blight. Plenty of photos to compare with on: http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm.

Here's hoping it's not Late Blight!"

Bill, did you see the new post that Mark Korney just posted about the "imposters" for Late Blight, the link to Cornell, and Gray Mold is the number one imposter.

His thread is called Weekly Update for LB or something like that and right now is next to your thread at GW.

Carolyn

Wow! Great link, Mark. I'll have to get a magnifying glass and take a real close look for the little hairy grey spores.

We're going to Carbondale for the day tomorrow. Probably won't get back to this before Sunday evening.

Thanks for the link, great info and other encouragments.

Bill