Monk,
Man those are some ugly maters.
I'm not familiar with Neem oil. I did hear an organic farmer on NPR talking about using some kind of copper application. Is that the same thing? This guy also said if you have a diseased plant that you have to pull it up. And don't put it in the compost because the spores will live through to next season.
Not pretty.
Exactly....The ones we bought from Home Depot two years ago in Vermont were contaminated. We had to move the garden. The contamination stays in place, even through those brutal winters.
TJ. put Neem oil in the google search window and you can learn all about it. You can't do anything but burn or dispose of the plants and fruit in some other way that gets them away from your garden. The fungus can live over the winter in any live tomato or potato tissue and a compost pile is the perfect place for it to over winter.
It is bad stuff MandT. If you visit Ireland you can see the wasted fields where potatoes once grew..the outlines of the rows are still quite visible. Millions of people dies of starvation as a result. We will probably only see higher prices for tomatoes as a result of this infestation if we are lucky.
the satan factor in mine were blue jays - as i was watching them grow (cherry tom's - the best!), green, to orange, to red.....i went out to pick some and every damn time, there was a bird beak puncture. WHY there were blue jays here at this time of year - probably al gore knows the reason, but not me.
Thanks, Monk
I googled neem oil and found enough info to make me dizzy. Also found a couple of sources. Sounds like something that should be on hand year round.
If you're interested, google "fixed copper" for an alternative treatment.
Apparently, talking to the plants and playing classical music isn't going to be enough this year. Good luck to all gardeners.
I have them all year and they are pests. I try and distract them with other things like sunflower seeds and suet but they still get the occasional tomato.
I have had a lot of critter trouble this year in the garden. This has been the worse year I can remember.
I am devastated. I just diagnosed that my plants have late blight. I live in Alaska & I bought some of my tomato plants from Home Depot, Wal-Mart but I also grew some from seeds. I have my plants in a greenhouse & my zuchinni plant is infected & my cucumber plants. I removed the infected leaves & I am wondering if I can save my plants...any help would be appreciated. I have my plants planted in 5 gal buckets.
AM. Bad news...I am truly sorry. If you have plants that are not showing any signs of infection with the fungus then you can try applications of Neem oil. If you are not concerned with "organic" then there are several commercial fungicides that work. After a plant is infected there is not much you can do except isolate it from everything and dispose of it by burning or something. Don't compost it as it will carry over until the next season if there is any live tissue left in the compost. If the infection is widespread in the greenhouse I would really consider removing everything and saturating the place with an organic fungicide like Neem oil or with a commercial fungicide containing chlorothalonil.
This fungus normally only affects members of the nightshade family like tomatoes and potatoes. If you are having fungus problems on your cucurbits (cukes and zukes) then it is mostly likely another fungus like powdery mildew. The treatments are the same though regardless of the fungus.
For further help you might contact your extension service or some of the gardening blogs try the U. of Maryland at http://www.growit.umd.edu
Good luck. Just so you won't feel alone I am seeing powdery mildew on my squash and cucumbers as well. It is very common down here in the south and especially troublesome for us organic gardeners since we can't use the high powered fungicides.
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