Rob's Rants

My tomato seedlings are about 8 inches tall now. For the last 6 days they have moved from my basement to a small cold frame I have outside to harden off, or adjust to the temperature and sunlight swings outdoors. Usually this helps grow healthier plants. But I’m afraid that I may have done more harm than good this year.

I wrote about the devastating effects of Late Blight on the tomato crop in New England last year. (And this was a problem all over the Northeast … check out this post on The Big Blog of Gardening.) I vowed that this year would be different. I started seeds bought from a reputable supplier (Johnny’s Selected Seeds) in fresh potting soil in my basement. I kept them on heated mats and under lights in a dry environment for weeks. Then moved the plants outside to my cold frame.

And this morning, I noticed that some of the leaves on my plants were showing small gray patches. Almost like powdery mildew. More distressing were one or two leaves with brown spots … spots that look to me like Late Blight.

Here’s an example:

I guess it makes perfect sense. Inside the cold frame at night, lots of condensation forms. So many mornings I  have opened the top to find the leaves of the plants soaked. And these are the perfect conditions for Late Blight — cool nights in the 50s, daytime temperatures in the 60s, and wet leaves.

When I first put the plants out last weekend I sprayed them with a combination of Plant Guardian Biofungicide and Shield-all II fungicide (both from Gardens Alive). I pulled out and threw five of the worst looking plants into the trash. And I plucked all the visibly infected leaves off the remaining plants. I just hope I’ve caught it in time.

But something tells me that my tomato crop is doomed this year. I mean, if there are already enough spores floating around to infect my plants, then many gardeners are going to be in trouble this year.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, last summer’s weather was absolutely awful for gardeners in New England. After a slow growing season from unseasonably cool and cloudy weather, a Late Blight epidemic simply swamped most of the tomato and potato crop.

I was happy to see that my favorite seed supplier, Johnny’s Selected Seeds posted an article on their blog specifically dealing with this subject.

Among their recommendations is one I wish more people would heed:

Grow or purchase tomato seedlings that are healthy — do not purchase or plant any seedlings that have disease symptoms.

I can not stress this enough. There is speculation that the Late Blight epidemic was fostered by contaminated tomato seedlings distributed through stores like WalMart, Home Depot and Lowes. As a New York Times article on the subject said:

Professor Fry, who is genetically tracking the blight, said the outbreak spread in part from the hundreds of thousands of tomato plants bought by home gardeners at Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, Home Depot and Kmart stores starting in April. The wholesale gardening company Bonnie Plants, based in Alabama, had supplied most of the seedlings and recalled all remaining plants starting on June 26.

Ultimately, the tomatoes I so carefully grew from seedlings in my basement, from seeds of varieties I specially selected, were wiped out by people who just bought some diseased crap from whatever store they happened to be shopping in. Please — if you’re too lazy to start your own vegetables from seed, at least buy your plants from some reputable local nursery (Mahoney’s Garden Centers in Massachusetts always have a great variety of vegetables that they grow themselves in varieties selected to specifically to grow well in Massachusetts).

After last year, I tried to pick up any fruit that was laying around and I burned it. Then I burned the vines that had dried over winter. I will be planting a variety of plum tomato called Juliet which has always been fairly disease resistant in the past, along with an heirloom variety called Brandywine. And I have my copper-based fungicide ready to go, because I’m sure my neighbors weren’t as careful to burn all their exposed plants like I was so I know there is a reservoir of Late Blight waiting to pounce. We can only hope that it’s a dry, sunny summer.

Additionally, I have used a drip irrigation system for the last 5 years to prevent leaving my plants with wet leaves more than the natural rain does. So as long as we have a regular rainfall schedule this summer, I should be in good shape.

Good luck to all gardeners out there.