Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

I have dealt with this very blight twice in our community gardens as I do
the disease and pest control. Monitoring is the best thing you can do if
you insist on growing tomatoes and potatoes near each other. During years
like this, pick one or the other. If you find the blight on the tomato
leaves, cut the leaves off and
bag them and throw away. Never compost tomato plants. They carry too
many diseases. If you see blight on the stems of tomato plants, get some red
colored nail polish and give that blight lesion several coats of the red
nail polish, it will seal the spores. I have done it many times and
watched the plant live and produce beautifully. This of course is not practical
if you are growing huge amounts of plants. I also spray my tomato plants
with wettable sulfur, 2 tablespoons to a gallon of water, only spray in the
cool of the day and drench the plant, every two weeks without fail. You
need a tank sprayer to do this. A hand held sprayer does not work as you
have to agitate the sulfur solution frequently. This will prevent russet
mite damage and mildew---both killers here in California.
I wish I could attach pictures but they never come through, it seems.
Follow precautions on the package for the sulfur. Protect eyes, nose, skin.
Have never had a problem spraying with it.

The russet mite is indigenous to the South West USA so I imagine you have
them in Texas. They are microscopic, multiply into millions when the
weather turns hot. They start at the bottom of the tomato plant and work their
way up the plant. By the time you know you have them, it is too late.
They can take a plant very quickly. So, prevention is the first line of
defense.

I hope this helps. I got the info from a plant pathologist at UC
Riverside many years ago. It is important to keep all bad leaves picked off of all
vegetable crops so that they do not continue to infect other healthy
plants.


Go to Google and click on image and then type in late blight on tomatoes
and look at what it looks like on the leaves and the stems of tomatoes. The
spores can blow 30 miles.

Potato Blight reared its ugly head in 1992 after not being seen for years.
it was the cause of the Irish Potato Famine in the early 1900's.
PathaJ

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