July 1st, 2009 A Discouraging Day-Wilt and Late Blight Announcement
It’s so discouraging to walk up to the garden and see a plant that was incredibly healthy last night now looks like this (the one on the left). It appears our old nemesis, pith necrosis, is back. Last year, we lost ten plants to pith necrosis (out of sixty). We already have four plants exhibiting this disease. The cool rainy weather for the last six weeks is probably a contributing factor.
When I got back to the house, I had an email from Rutgers University in my inbox: “Gardener Alert: Irish potato famine disease affecting tomato in NJ and NE states”.
The text of the email reads:
Attention Home Gardeners:
Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, is a serious plant disease that affects tomato and potato around the world. It can be responsible for major garden and crop loss. This disease has been identified in tomatoes being sold in home garden centers in New Jersey and other northeastern states. If you or your friends, family or neighbors purchased tomato plants from “big box” stores, your plants may be infected with this disease. Please read our gardener alert (first item under What’s New) on the Jersey Tomato page: http://www.njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/JerseyTomato.html
Webinar announcement: On Thursday, July 2 from 7:30 to 9:30 PM, vegetable specialists from Rutgers University and Cornell University will be holding a webinar on Late blight and other important diseases of tomato will for interested homeowners, master gardeners and extension personnel in the Northeast. All are invited to log-on by clicking on the following link at 7:30 on Thursday evening. https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=783&password=M.0F6AA3BB4AF839F512A8243F881332.
The scary part is that even though we raised all our tomato babies from seed, our garden could be infected by a neighbor’s plants. The spores can travel up to 10 miles on the wind.
Apparently, a supplier in Alabama (or Georgia – news sources disagree) shipped diseased plants to Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, KMart and Sears stores throughout the Northeast. The disease has been confirmed in NJ, NY, PA, Ohio and Virginia. So far…
