I am afraid I can't give you an answer, because I don't know. But I am curious if you have to prune your plants much at the spacing you say you use. I've used 3 square feet in the past and felt like it was still too little space for some tomatoes. Now I use 4 square feet for each tomato unless I know a particular variety will be smaller than that. These plants become monsters by the end of the season... all from a tiny, flat seed.

You'll find a great many discussions about EB over on the Growing Tomatoes forum here (see the Related Forums link top of the page) and one of the consistent recommendations that come out of those discussions is the regular weekly (and again after rains) use of fungicides from the day of plant out. Once the spores take hold all you can do is slow it down, not cure it. Of course not all fungicides are created equal and Daconil seems to work best in the many studies done.

Personally I would encourage you to increase the plant spacing to a minimum of 3'. I know it seems like a waste of space but it is better than losing so many plants. No comfort I know but EB is THE one disease all growers have to deal with annually world wide and it has come to be a "learn to live with it" situation for many of us.

The weather the past few years has conspired against many of us, been ideal for fungus growth, and all we can do is work around it as much as possible. I'm trying a 2 week delay in plant out this year for about 1/2 my 150+ plants just to see if it helps by avoiding as much of the spring thunderstorms, hail, and generalized "wet" I normally have to deal with.

Check out the Tomato forum for more discussions if interested.

Dave

thanks for posting this in the general gardening forum and not the specific crop (tomato) forum because if all the crops were separately categorized just like the tomato then there is no point visiting this general gardening forum anymore so that people could learn a thing or two about tomato without visiting the tomato forum.

I've beat early blight, which is endemic here, for many years by the following method. I start my tomatoes and set them out, prune and stake them. Eventually they succumb. BUT, when I set out these first crop tomatoes, I take some suckers from my favorite plants, root them and set them out in another part of the garden--for me near the compost pile--and just let them go. They sprawl, I prune a little so I can walk through the area, and they begin the bear, untouched by EB, when the others are long gone. Alternatively to rooting suckers, you can direct seed a couple of weeks before you'd set out your first tomatoes. I have no idea why this works, why the late plants don't get EB, but they don't.

Now late blight, which appeared in my garden for the first time two years ago and returned last year, is an entirely different problem and a true disaster. It kills everything--both early and late plantings.

Forgive me if you knew this already, but I have heard many, many times that black plastic mulch over rows (and planting into small holes in the plastic) is the best starting point to break the cycle of fungal diseases by inhibiting the splashing of spores from the soil onto the lower leaves when a heavy rain event hits your area.

I try a couple of the new disease-resistant varieties every year, and Plum Regal is worth trying if you have a use for paste tomatoes. In my garden, much loved by EB, it has set the standard for resistance.

<thanks for posting this in the general gardening forum and not the specific crop (tomato) forum because if all the crops were separately categorized just like the tomato then there is no point visiting this general gardening forum...without visiting the tomato forum.>

Not sure what the problem is about visiting the Tomato forum as it is the best source of information about them as well as contact with the many experts that hang there. Same is true for Container Gardening, Harvest, Peppers, Organic Gardening and all the other specialty forums.

For years this forum was buried under so many tomato questions that nothing else got discussed here. Plus what few discussions there were about anything else got bumped so fast folks couldn't find them. People complained about having to dig through all the tomato discussions to find out about anything else. :) That's why the Tomato forum was originally created and when it was done this forum finally began to thrive.

Some crops have such different needs and problems (and popularity) that they easily deserve their own forum and it is easy to get from one to another.

Dave

"not sure what the problem is about visiting the Tomato forum".

I'll try to be diplomatic (and not banned).

The Tom Forum is the only place where I would never dare to ask anything. Although there are very nice people over there, and although Digdirt/Dave gives the best advices, I would not like to get some other people's advices, and I'm pretty sure I'd get them.

I love GW and all the forums here. For Toms if I need to ask I go elsewhere.

And I'm sorry about that because listening to DigDirt, although I garden organically, will give great results.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to post here! Didn't mean to create a stir, but I understand Dave's logic on posting in the correct forum.... Based my decision on traffic volume, I suppose... Desperate people do desperate things..... LOL

Back to the EB issue...... I know it's a wide spread issue, but I keep telling myself there's something I could be doing to prevent EB, but alas, short of plant spacing, I don't know what it would be..... Spraying fungicide has been a high priority for me the last couple years, but sadly, the results are always the same....... Reluctant to admit I plant 40+ hybrid plants each season just to have ample tomatoes for myself & perhaps a few for friends & family..... My wife keep telling me that one of these years I'm going to be EB free & I'll be stopping strangers on the street to give away tomatoes...... I'd welcome that day with open arms! :)

For the most part the disease is airborne but I do believe anytime we are dealing with "spores" we should assume the that the soil can also harbor the villain, so to speak. I'm going to suggest planting your tomatoes in the raised beds with quality soil, lots of OM and well aerated. I would run a drip or soaker type hose along the side of the plants when you plant them along with a slow release granular fertilizer. Put down several inches of mulch to cover the soil. Then.... cover the bed with a tall 3-4 ft row cover (the taller the better). I use the tallest row hoops I can buy or make my own. Cover them with a greenhouse plastic (buy it online). As the tomato plants grow keep the bottom 12-14 inches of the stem pruned free of side shoots/leaves. ONLY water through the drip hose. The whole premise is to keep the tomato leaves DRY. In this way we are removing the conditions that give the disease a way in. And ... I would space them at least 3ft apart as others have suggested. When it gets too warm or you have some condensaton inside these "miniature greenhouses" open the ends on the tunnels or roll back some of the plastic ... But only during the hot part of the day and never when its raining and always cover them at night. When they get too tall for the row cover you will have to remove it but hopefully we'll be past the season for early blight and your tomatoes will be strong and robust enough to fight it off if necessary. Good Luck!

<I know it's a wide spread issue, but I keep telling myself there's something I could be doing to prevent EB>

Cut yourself some slack. :) We'd all like to think we should be able to prevent it - the commercial industry spends millions annually trying to eradicate it, unsuccessfully.

But what I keep coming back to in my musings is that while we can't prevent the spores existence, they are no threat to the plants except as the air conditions allow - excess moisture, cool air temps, and lack of dry air circulation - aka early spring weather.

We always want to plant as early as possible. Coincidentally that is the time of the worst air conditions. IF we can avoid some of those conditions by just delaying our planting a bit it should help. That is what I am going to try this year.

Or if planting cannot be delayed for some reason, then as gardenshine mentioned above, covering the plants in some fashion to prevent spore attachment could help.

Good garden wishes to you.

Dave

Thanks Dave! Yeah, my wife has to sometimes remind me that gardening is supposed to be relaxing........ LOL Planting later is certainly another thing I'll try this season, I've yet to start my seeds for that reason.... Avoiding ideal EB conditions as much as possible might help.. .. Worth a try...

OBTW Dave......... You still da man! ;)

I got so annoyed with the disease and pathetic tomato plants that I stopped growing them for a couple of years! I just started growing them again last year. I had a bumper crop. I really don't like using any chemicals on the garden. I do use either red or black plastic (as suggested above.) I do also prune the bottom stems so none of them are touching the ground.