If it ain't one thing with tomatoes, it's another.

I returned home from vacation to find - not the early blight that we all feared would return with renewed vengence this season -- but blossom-end rot.

The bottoms of my tomatoes - just where the blossom disappears -- are brown and mushy.

Unlike blight, this is not caused by spores and it isn't caused by pests. It is, instead, a problem with the plant's growing conditions.

Blossom-end rot, which also effects watermelons and peppers, is generally caused by a calcium deficiency in the soil.

Continue reading "Blossom-end rot" »

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It looks like salad caprese is in trouble this summer in Maryland.

Not only is late blight showing up in some parts of the state on tomatoes, the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service is reporting a mildew problem with basil.

This is a relatively new disease for East Coast states. Leaf yellowing is the most noticeable symptom. Infected leaves will then blacken and die. The disease can enter your garden on seeds or transplants. It spreads quickly and widely via fungal spores carried by air currents.

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Continue reading "Tomato blight: an update" »

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Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial starting line for summer and, of course, planting tomatoes.

But tomato blight, which devastated home gardens and community gardeners last year on the East Coast, has been spotted again this season in a greenhouse in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and the alarm has been sounded.

It is difficult to save a tomato plant once it has been infected with the blight - even if you spot it early and remove the infected leaves. And one infected plant is all it takes to ruin your whole crop of tomatoes (and potatoes), so here is some advice, courtesy of the University of Maryland's Home and Garden Information Center and Cornell University's horticulture department.

Continue reading "Tomato blight prevention tips" »

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Late blight, the fungus that devastated tomato crops on the East Coast last summer, has been found on tomato plants in Maryland in a St. Mary's County greenhouse.

The University of Maryland's Extension service has sent representatives to gather plant material and determine whether this is the strain of blight that hit Maryland last year, or a more virulent strain that can winter-over. They will also check to see if the blight has spread beyond the greenhouse where the tomato plants were grown from seed.

Jon Traunfeld, head of the Home and Garden Information Center for the Maryland Extension service, said the late blight that hit Maryland last year can only survive on plant material and cannot endure our winter cold. So if gardeners and farmers did a good job of cleaning up their gardens last fall, they should be able to start the season disease-free. Our cold snowy winter, helped, too, he said.

However, if there were potatoes left in the ground over winter, the blight, which infects both tomatoes and potatoes, can survive on them.

Organic gardeners were especially hard hit last year because there is no effective organic fungicide to combat late blight. "Spray copper just doesn't do it," Traunfeld said.

Commercial farms, which used non-organic fungicides, did not suffer as much damage.

Continue reading "Late blight found in Maryland" »

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Photo courtesy of AVRDC/The World Vegetable Center

Does the impact of tomato late blight depend on where you live?

I am starting to think so.

I hope the Tomato Gods do not read this and strike me down, but I have to say my tomatoes are doing OK.

They are two Brandywines in large pots on my deck. Brandwines are heirloom and therefore particularly vulnerable to disease and insects, but mine are doing fine!

And you have to understand, I am famous in my neighborhood for NOT growing tomatoes. Mine are always overcome with early blight. They shrivel and die before I get more than two or three piece of fruit.

I am usually the laughingstock of neighborhood, but not this year. And my neighbor Ron has perhaps a dozen plants, some of them heirloom, and they are healthy as can be, too.

Mark Bittman of the New York Times is complaining about the scarcity of good tomatoes in his blog. And Dan Barber, a chef in Tarrytown, N.Y., wrote Sunday in the Times suggesting that late blight had swept through the Northeast like Swine Flu through an elementary school. He called it an "agriculture disaster."

Even Martha Stewart's reports that the crop on her Connecticut farm has been infected.

The University of Maryland's Department of Agriculture dutifully issued a warning about the appearance of late blight, which happens periodically.

But you couldn't tell it by my farmer's market in Annapolis, where tomatoes - perhaps a little late because of the cool early summer - are in  abundance.

What's the deal? Any theories? Any Maryland blight stories out there?

Posted by Susan Reimer at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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 Photo courtesy of Purdue University

The state flower has me in a state.

My rudbeckia "Goldstrum," otherwise known as the Black-eyed Susan, is overcome with black spots on all its leaves. They spread and grow, attacking the stem and turning the entire plant into a crispy dark mess.

This is the third year in a row for this fungus, known as septoria leaf spot, and it is spreading despite my best efforts. I have been removing the infected plants and treating the ground with a liquid copper herbicide. And I sprayed the new plants regularly as soon as they emerged. But apparently I was not attentive enough.

My answer: rip out the Black-eyed Susans and replace them with another variety next year.

I am growing less and less patient with finicky plants. If you are vulnerable to mildews, rusts, wilts or fungus, you are out of there.

I don't mind working in the garden, but I am not running a sick bay.

Posted by Susan Reimer at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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First the rain.

Now the diseases.

It was a cool, wet spring here in the Mid-Atlantic. And, for the most part, the plants have loved it.

But so have the bugs and the diseases. I am going to try to tackle a few of them in the days ahead.

First up, blossom-end rot. The scourge of tomato-lovers.

Take a look at the underside of your little green tomatoes. Is there a dark spot that is getting bigger each day, until it consumes half of the tomato?

That's blossom-end rot, and it is the result of too much rain and a sudden growth spurt. Or both.

My tomatoes are in containers on the deck. I am pretty sure the heavy rains not only caused the tomatoes to grow very fast, but it also essentially washed the calcium out of the soil.

It isn't contagious. It doesn't move from plant to plant. It has to do with the soil conditions under each plant. It is likely to stop appearing later in the growing season.

But it is unsightly and wasteful.

One answer is a foliar spray designed to return calcium to the plant. Spray the leaves or the fruit every week or so, but not more often. It won't hurt you if consumed.

The other answer is to take eggshells, crush them and sprinkle them around the plant. I got that advice from James at Bowens Farm Market in Annapolis. That, too, will increase the calcium in the plant.

Me? I'm doing both.

Photo courtesy of Purdue University

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Categories: Garden diseases