We have 30 roma tomatoe plants and better than half of them have contracted a fast acting blight ( 2 to 3 days after the first brown leaves, the plants dead). My wife is dusting and using root treatments to no avail. If anyone in north AL or sothern TN has seen this blight this year, we would appreciate any info you can share. I even asked our county office and they could only tell me that Auburn University was investigating it. For now all we can do is replace our whole crop.

Thanks, Jay Blair

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 14, 2000

Answers

Jay, have you learned anything more about this blight? It probably wouldn't do well this far north, but it could show up here either on seeds or started plants. Whatever it is, this is something nasty. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), July 17, 2000.

Gerbil, The only thing I have learned since the original posting is that the Betterboys and Beefsteak we have survive better. I have only seen minimal sign on them. The old timer next door said it could have been a "typical" tomatoe blight worsened by the hot temps we have been experiencing this season. I did decide to take his advice and play it safe, destroying the entire affected plot and planting a new plot on the other side of our property. I was within 6 weeks of replanting anyway. If I hear more from the county agent, I'll post it.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 18, 2000.

I had 9 out of 16 Roma's go to this too!! Mr. Stripey, Yellow Pear, Early Girl, Golden Jubilee, and Lemon Boy are all thriving though. And the Roma's that survived are doing wonderfully too.

Did you buy your Roma's or start from seed? I bought my Roma's as my seed tray got dumped. Bought 8 from Wal-Mart and 8 from the co-op. Wal-Mart ones are the ones that survived.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 18, 2000.

Eric, I finally got to speak to our county agent and after our conversation, I also realized the affected plants were from co-op sets. The old timer that I spoke to suggested as you said, to start romas from seed locally. Our co-op gets sets from various southern states, so it is difficult to pin down a source.l

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 19, 2000.

Eric, Since my last posting, I have come to the same conclusion, all of our affected plants were sets purchased from the local co-op, the ones from seed raised paks from our local trade day are doing O.K. I think our co-op gets them out of Georgia or Texas.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 19, 2000.

I sold my farm last year, so I have been raising a small garden, enriching the soil with horse manure and using 12,12,12 nitrogenous commercial fertilizer. The plants look great until just a few days ago I have some brown leaves. I really think the soil is now too acetic and I have applied some lime to counter this condition. Don't know if it will work or not, but will share my experience. Some of the plants are Rutgers and some of the Aroma variety. I bought the plants from a local nursery. Actually, I had fresh tomatoes by the first of June and this is at least a month earlier than is normal for this region. We had warmer weather and more rain than usual. Actually, perhaps, the extra moisture may have been a contributing factor in the formation of the blight, what do you think?

-- Dr. C. W. Wilson (2thdoc@surfone.com), July 01, 2001.

I live in Brooklyn and have a small back yard garden. I planted from seed started with Johnny's Select Seeds: Gold Nugget; Ruby Cluster; Sun Gold; Matt's Wild Cherry. All started out GREAT - now, more than half have brown leaves almost up to the top - plants still keep growing and producing flowers. Funny thing is, my neighbor planted beefstakes from nursery pots, and his are doing the same thing. AND, my thistles have the same problem!!! All other plants are doing fine. Any ideas? thanks!

-- Lynn (lwirtz@earthlink.net), August 07, 2001.

i have tomatoes that come alive and eat my family and friends, i live in south carolina and i think the pig manure has turned because this isn't right, they look fine but then they develope spines and if you walk by then they will whip you and it bleeds like crazy. this is no joke, stay away from SC pig manure.

-- gerald ripple winston (the_man@yahho.com), February 08, 2002.

I have tomatoes that come alive and eat my family and friends, i live in south carolina and i think the pig manure has turned because this isn't right, they look fine but then they develope spines and if you walk by then they will whip you and it bleeds like crazy. this is no joke, stay away from SC pig manure.

-- gerald ripple winston (the_man@yahoo.com), February 08, 2002.