Early Blight on Tomatoes

 Early Blight.......the scourge of the backyard gardener.  This is one of the most common issues around here of early plant death. 'Early Blight' has specific characteristics, but like 'Late Blight,' is also used as an umbrella term to describe many tomato diseases.

 Most garden diseases are spread the following ways:

• by human hands (touching diseased plants and then healthy ones)
• wind (spores traveling by air)
• water (rain dripping off infected plants and running across the ground to another)
• insects (carry disease in their mouth parts from one plant to another)

How can we stop this madness? Let me list the ways:

• start with disease resistant plants
• don't plant to early, stressed plants are more susceptible
• give your tomato plants at least a 3x3 square foot area: space =good air circulation
• good air flow, don't plant against a building or solid fence
• when watering, apply the water at the base of the plant, keep leaves dry
• avoid overhead sprinklers
• use a fungicide - only effective as a preventative
• wash hands after touching infected plants parts
• rotating crops when possible
• when plants are 25% consumed, pull up and get in the trash, not the compost heap or it will be right back next year. Pull up sooner if it is isolated to one plant and you have lots, why wait?
• never till in plant debris, pull up at the end of the season

Blight on the fruits. Gross. Don't eat these guys or compost, get them in the dumpster. As simple as tomatoes seem to be, they can be one of the most challening due to the many foliar diseases they frequently get. Face it, have your plants ever looked gorgeous or lush in late Aug.?  By then they are usually succumbing to something....look closer and you will see it! More garden questions from my readers would be nice!