North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Erdman, Jim" <ErdmanJ@uwstout.edu>]

I seem to recall reading recently that blights are also spread through the 
air--wish I could find the reference.  
 
How do you treat your seed that you collect?  Do you let it mold and get 
nasty in the tomato pulp before cleaning and drying it?  That is supposed to 
help deal with some seed borne diseases, don't have the references handy.
 
Jim Erdman, in Menomonie, WI

________________________________

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Jim Fruth
Sent: Tue 10/4/2005 7:00 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Blight and Old Wives Tales



   Looks like I didn't provide enough information when I started this
subject.  My volunteers are Brandywine and Roma, both of which produce
offspring identical to the parents.  My blighted plants that I started from
(my own) seed are the same, Brandywine and Roma.  I ALWAYS get blight and I
ALWAYS mulch heavily except when I tried plastic mulch with only a tiny hole
for the tomato plant to grow through.  Consequently, the below hypothesis,
offered by one reader, needs to be altered into some other mechanism because
my plants NEVER get splashed from soil to the leaves.


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.

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