Summer Garden Bounty
Tomato Blight is a spore that infects tomato plants without warning. It is blown by the winds from the southern United States and can travel up to 30 miles per day. Last year 2009 was a very bad year for northeast tomato growers. Most tomatoe plants purchased from the stores and nursery’s were infected and even if you planted your own seeds they became infected from the traveling spores.
Commonly known as late blight this spore was the same as the one that infected the potatoes during the Irish Potato Famine.
The best protection from the tomato blight is prevention. Here are three simple rules to follow that will help.
- Do not rush to plant your tomatoes early in the season. Wait until the nights are consistently above 50 degrees Faranheit.
- Plant your tomatoes in a raised bed instead of flat ground allowing for better soil drainage.
- Use compost as a soil base and nutrient for your tomatoes.
The last of these rules is probably the most important. The fall leaves from your trees possess all the nutrients that your tomatoes need to be healthy and ward off diseases like tomato blight. My wife and I followed these rules in 2009 and had a great tomato crop in 2009. We always compost our fruit and vegetable scraps with our fall leaves and grass clips. It makes a nutrient rich soil that our plants love.
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