Devine Gardens vermicompost tips to prevent late blight

Devine Gardens vermicompost tips to prevent late blight

Late Blight has been found in Erie, Oneida and Madison Counties. I've attached some links to websites with really good information about late blight.

If your tomatoes looked like mine a week ago they were really in rough shape from all of the rain. To help them defend themselves from late blight I thinned them out and cut off a few of their leaves so that they would have good air flow. I also scuffed up the soil around them, added some finely crushed eggshells for calcium and a couple of handfuls of vermicompost. Then I hoed up some of the top soil that had washed away and put it on top of the vermicompost around the tomato plants. A week of dry weather and everything in the garden looks so much better.

Late bight can travel up to 30 miles so even if you're not near other gardens your plants are still susceptible. Below are a few links with very good information and pictures about late blight and other diseases. Remember, keep your tomato plants off the ground and make sure they have adequate air movement by proper spacing, pinching off suckers and thinning leaves. Also, don't overfeed with nitrogen which causes too much foilage.

http://www.usablight.org/map
 

http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/diagnose.htm

http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm

http://onvegetables.com/2010/07/13/late-blight-look-alikes/

http://lateblight.nysipm.cornell.edu/2013/06/28/late-blight-approaching-the-northeast/

http://www.extension.org/pages/18361/organic-management-of-late-blight-of-potato-and-tomato-phytophthora-infestans
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