![]() If you find evidence of late blight that is already severe, remove and destroy the diseased plants immediately. But remember that this disease spreads rapidly under suitable conditions, and there is no cure. I’ll cover how to determine whether this is a viable option a little later in the article. However, the oomycete keeps evolving and overcoming these traits in various hybrid varieties bred for resistance. In an ideal world, your best option would be to grow tomatoes that are resistant to late blight. USABlight, an online portal created at North Carolina State University, allows registered users to check for reports of infection in their local area, and you can report local disease occurrences or find information to submit samples for testing there as well. Instances of this disease are monitored in local regions, and alerts may be available to growers when favorable conditions are in the forecast. If you identify late blight, notify your county extension agent. Planting areas next to woods or hedgerows.Start your search efforts in wet areas, including: Late blight may infect some parts of gardens while others are spared. You should check more frequently during periods of wet weather. Monitor for Disease and Scout Your GardenĮxperts strongly suggest that you scout your garden at least twice a week to look for symptoms of this disease. Other pathogens may be present, giving the fruit a bitter taste and causing it to continue to rot off the vine. Though unaffected parts of large fruit may still be technically edible, eating them is not recommended.Īny infected portions or severely damaged fruit should be discarded. The first inkling that your tomato plants are infected will be evidenced by small, water-soaked lesions on the leaves.īoth green immature fruit and fruit that has ripened on the vine may be infected. This disease tends to occur later in the season than the similarly named early blight, typically after plants have bloomed, and when weather conditions are favorable. How to Identify Late Blight on Tomato Plants Hot, dry conditions help to halt disease spread. Though infection may occur more slowly, if nights are moderately warm, and conditions are extremely wet during the day but hot, the disease can still develop in temperatures as high as 95☏. ![]() The spores can spread long distances on the wind, particularly in cloudy conditions. Infection spreads rapidly, and plants can succumb quickly, in a matter of days. If spores are present in these conditions, they can infect a plant in about 10 hours. The organism requires humidity above 90 percent to cause infection, and moderate temperatures in the range of 60 to 68☏. Conditions That Favor Late BlightĪgain, there is a reason that this type of pathogen is called a water mold. In cool, wet weather, this disease can cause entire fields of tomatoes to turn brown and wilt as though they have been hit by frost. The spores can spread rapidly to nearby gardens and even into commercial fields. It’s not just your crop that’s at stake, after all. The destructive ability of this pathogen makes it important for gardeners to be able to identify it and take swift action. In fact, the scientific name Phytophthora translates to “plant destroyer.” This type of water mold readily infects and may quickly kill plants. And each individual sporangium can start a new infection on another plant. To give you an idea of the scale that we’re talking about, a single lesion can produce as many as 100,000 to 300,000 sporangia per day. The receptacles that hold the spores (sporangia) can survive for up to an hour in dry, sunny conditions – and much longer in wet ones. These spores can travel for miles in the air, and under ideal conditions, they can infect plants on a broad scale. Wet, humid conditions caused by rainfall, dew, fog, or sprinkler irrigation are conducive to the spread of this pathogen. Once the plants have become infected, the organism can produce millions of spores in the right conditions. This disease can easily be introduced into gardens via infected tomato or potato plants.
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