Blight is back with vengeance. It is not very disappoint this time around however because all the tomatoes are done now. My next garden project will be a major clean up of all blight infected plants and I will be disposing of the material with the city's compost pick up. That way they will still be composted and won't be infecting my garden again next year, at least that is my hope. I think I will also put out any mildewed, cucumber, squash and melon foliage with the blighted stuff.My plan was to do the clean up this evening but it is such an insipid drizzly day I think I will wait for sunnier times. Looks like the weekend will be sunny and cool so it will be much more pleasant to do the task then. To all the folks affected with blight this year, lets hope for a better season next year.
I am sorry, Dan.
ReplyDeleteI pulled, bagged, and disposed all my tomato plants earlier in the season when they were hit with late blight. I actually had one plant grow from one of the stumps. It looked healthy and I thought it would escape blight and I would be able to have a least one tomato. But it was not to be as the telltale blotches quickly appeared on the leaves when the weather turned damp.
Late Blight is such an awful disease. Thankfully it won’t survive through the winter.
2009 will be remembered as the B year, no doubt about it !
ReplyDeleteI didn't risk composting the B stuff either, but I did compost a few mildewed pumpkin vines. Bad move you think ?
GrafixMuse - Blight really has been a pain this year, good thing there always is next year.
ReplyDeleteMiss M - My thought always has been even if you put healthy cubits in the compost they will mildew so I don't think it would cause any problems. I am just being extra careful this year and I am lacking composter rooms as well.
It's sad to see just how many were affected by blight this year on your side of the world. I'll chime in with the hopefulness (is that even a word???) for next year's tomato crop. Question is are you planning which tomatoes to grow already?!?!?! hehe
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, Dan. Hopefully it won't hit again next year. Speaking of, can you even compost blighted items?
ReplyDeletePrue - I started looking for new tomato varieties in July.... addicted!
ReplyDeleteRibbit - I am no compost expert but I think blight will be killed off with the heat produced by the city's compost. On the other hand a small home composter would never get hot enough to kill off the blight.
I feel your pain. Been there and done that (unfortunately).
ReplyDeleteI hope your weekend is full of sunshine to make the garden clean up chores more pleasant. I intend to hang out in the garden quite a bit this weekend doing some clean up tasks too.
Wgat a sad sight - blighted tomatoes. Better luck next year Dan.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree... I had some problems with blight this year myself. Just a bad year for tomatoes! Hopefully next year will be better :-)
ReplyDeleteLost all my tomato plants to blight. I've given up growing potatoes because the crop gets runied every year. i HATE blight :-(
ReplyDeleteYour blight photos look all too familiar to me. I agree that it doesn't seem so sad at the end of the season.
ReplyDeleteNice rain close-ups. Luckily, the weather in Boston has improved since Friday; hope it's the same up there.
You can find information about composting plant material that is infected with late blight in this Penn State Master Gardener blog: http://blogs.mcall.com/master_gardeners/2009/10/can-i-compost-tomato-plants-killed-by-late-blight.html
ReplyDeleteI'm a pretty new reader to your blog and I'm enjoying reading about your garden. Sorry about your blight problems this year. My tomatoes hung in there really well until early September.
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