Tomatoes are appreciating our hot weather but not appreciating the blights that are ever present as a result of our weather. If your plants are showing signs of blight…..yellow blotches on the lower leaves……getting progressively worse, blight is usually the cause. Remove those infected leaves immediately and dispose of them, but not in the compost pile. That will help in preventing the spread of the disease. Spraying with products like Daconil, Mancozeb, or Zineb will protect the remaining foliage from becoming infected. These products are not legal if you are really into organic gardening, but they are effective and safe to use. Just be sure to wash the fruit after you harvest it. Generally, one application will stop the problem if you catch it early, but catching it early is huge in the control process. For my organic friends, your best weapon is spraying with a 10 percent solution of milk and water. I tried a new organic recipe this spring for my tomatoes and they haven’t shown a trace of blight. That recipe consisted of 1 cup of compost, ½ cup plus ¼ cup of powdered nonfat milk, and ½ cup of Epsom salts. Mix the compost, ½ cup the powdered milk, and the Epsom salts together; sprinkle a handful of the mix into each planting hole. Then sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of powdered milk on top of the soil after planting. Repeat every couple of weeks during the growing season. Don’t ask me how this works because I don’t know!
Posted on: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:02:27 +0000
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