[Market-farming] BlightWatch and Smith Periods
Pat Meadows
pat at meadows.pair.com
Sat Jul 19 10:59:48 EDT 2008
There's a service in the UK called 'Blightwatch'. It's principally aimed at
potato growers. (I assume the same factors would apply to tomatoes,
however, since they contract the same blights that as potatoes.)
http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/
The service keeps track of areas that experience 'Smith periods', which are
precursors to the blight, so that the potato growers know when to spray and
when they don't need to spray.
It's sponsored by some major chemical companies, not a surprise. But
tracking the 'Smith Periods' might be a useful tool, nevertheless.
The 'Smith periods' and their 'near misses' are explained below:
http://www.blightwatch.co.uk/content/bw-Smith.asp
This could be done by individual growers on their own farms. (I don't know
how well it actually works.)
You'd need a hygrometer, and a min-max thermometer.
(I know nothing more about this; just what you see on the website.)
Pat
--
Northern Pennsylvania
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