Oh, condolences! It's especially sad when it happens this early.

I lost mine to Late Blight two of the last four years I've grown tomatoes, so believe me, I understand.

did you give up or did you try and spray. when blight was running rampant in 2009 on the east coast my garden was hit bad but I still managed to harvest tomatoes from each affected plant which was a nice surprise/

I've sprayed Daconil & Sevin from the very start, as well as mulching like crazy & using soaker hoses to water, but it's all been in vain..... Now I've learned that Sevin actually kills the insects that feed on spider mites, so I've created still yet another problem......... The few tomatoes I'm harvesting aren't fit to eat. Factor in the heat wave we're experiencing in the midwest, and this is turning into a disaster! :(

In 09 I removed affected leaves, then after a couple of rounds of that, removed the affected plants. I tried to spray with Daconil (as I remember, I sprayed the affected plants and those adjacent) but that had no real effect (and was too expensive for no results).

I harvested and ate fruit that shows no symptoms. I did not save seed from those fruit (not sure what the official recommendation is).

These varieties seemed more resistant: Baby Beefsteak (got that from WinterSown; not sure if anyone sells it); Black Cherry; Matt's Wild Cherry; Red Fig; Red Pear (the cherry, not the paste).

The "Grape" I bought from Heirloom Acres in 07 resisted Late Blight; the leaves seemed immune, but eventually the fruit developed symptoms.

Yes, these are all small-fruit types. I don't know if that observation means anything.

Yeah, I have to agree, spraying Daconil as a preventative doesn't seem to help & it's cost prohibitive. I'm on the fence about trying to spray for the spider mites. Their gestation cycle is every eight days, so I'd have to spray every four days & I'm not sure it's worth it.........

I'm hoping that my experience will help you guys next summer. I'm a little wary of most fungicides. So I followed the suggestion of amideutch and added a mix of Actinovate, Mycogrow, and Biotamax to 1 gallon of water and dipped each pot before I planted the tomato. So far, I haven't seen any tomato diseases in the garden (very hot and very humid all summer). I had a bad start this spring with severe damping off disease that nearly killed all my seedlings. It was a race to see whether the beneficial mycorrizae would show up in the mail box before everything keeled over. More than half the plants had croaked but I mixed up a spray bottle and drenched the survivors. The solution stopped the damping off disease in its tracks and the little guys started to rally the next day. It took about 2 weeks before they really started growing again, but there was enough growth right away to pique my interest. I was hoping for a cure but didn't expect it to work that well.

These are beneficial Mycorrhizal fungi that are OMRI listed (certified organic). Actinovate is sold by most seed companies and gardening suppliers but prices really vary so price shop the heck out of this one. Last spring, Fedco and Johnny's seemed to have the best price plus shipping. If you google Mycogrow and Biotamax, you'll find their on-line source. I think Mycogrow is sold under different names.

Oh yeah, one more thing. It got hot so fast (again) this spring that I was too sorry to add mulch. Normally I spread a layer of newspaper for weed control and then add a layer of straw over that.

So the tomatoes are getting splashed with mud every time I water or it rains. And next year, I'm going to drop the Mycogrow and Biotomax and try Reforestation Technologies' Mycos product. I'll keep using Actinovate as I think it's extremely effective.

Do you rotate your crops?

No one that I know sells Baby Beefsteak, I've got but a few wee seeds, it will go into the 2012 tray of tomatoes I want to sow next year.

T

Trudi, it looks like Baby Beefsteak started out as a commercial variety:
http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=346100&storeId=10052&langId=-1
http://zuppardos.gourmetfoodmall.com/StaticPage.php?pageid=191
http://www.origino.ca/origino-organics/organic-tomatoes.aspx
http://www.oppyproduce.com/quality_profile_kg.cfm

Wow. This is my third year trying to have something resembling a garden. At the end of April/beginning of May, everything I planted from heirloom seeds died, I think from a late frost, and I literally sat there and cried. It occurred to me that there are people who grow things for a living, this is supposed to be fun, and to suck it up. So I went and bought me a garden full of new plants. Twice, because it happened again :) So sorry that happened to you. Looking up tomato blight now, as I am clueless, but now on the lookout. Good luck next year :)