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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Blight and Old Wives Tales

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  • From: "Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Blight and Old Wives Tales
  • Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 16:22:09 -0400

Hello,

In regards to tomato blight...

This year I tried something new (old). I had always suffered from tomato blight from soil splashed on leaves. This year I put down a mat of wet leaves under the plants when they were young. The garden walkways I just laid down plastic sheeting runners, the edges of the runners covered with the mat of leaves.

Had zero blight this season, and NO weeding.

I just collected bagged leaves in the autumn from the curbside, stuck my garden hose into the bag and filled them with water, making the leaves wet. Then I let the wet leaves rot in the bags all winter.

When I put in my tomato plants, the wet leaves spread underneath (3" thick) was a perfect mat. Held in heat, kept down weeds, and prevented blight.

Later,
Tom

On Sun, 2 Oct 2005 13:23:10 -0500, Doreen Howard <gardendiva@charter.net> wrote:

Most blights are transferred by water from soil. Rainfall or water from the
hose causes soil laden with blight spores to splash up on the lower leaves
of a tomato plant transferring the spores to a friendly growing environment.
That's why a thick blanket of mulch under tomatoes works well. Your
volunteers may have natural immunity to certain blights. If they are
offspring of a hybrid, they may be versions of an open-pollinated variety
used to create the hybrid. Also, plants that naturalize in soil full of
biological life have mycorrhizae colonized on their roots. Mycorrhizae
produce target-specific pathogens that can kill hostile fungi, giving plants
a natural immunity. The bottom line with tomatoes is to mulch thickly and
build healthy soil full of soil microbes.
Doreen Howard

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Fruth" <jfruth@uslink.net>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 7:57 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Blight and Old Wives Tales


No doubt we've all heard the old wive's tale about tomato plants
becoming blighted because their leaves touched the ground. Well, I've
staked my tomato plants every year and they were blighted every year.
This
year something else happened. A number of volunteer tomato plants sprang
up
where they were planted last year. I did nothing with them. I just let
them crawl across the ground and not one of them is blighted. These are
offspring of plants that were blighted last year and they are growing just
50' from this year's staked (and blighted) plants. So where does blight
come from?
--

Jim Fruth
Brambleberry Farm
Pequot Lakes, MN
www.bberryfarm.com



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