Early Blight in Tomatoes

Whenever you are growing your own vegetables, it can be a time consuming and lengthy process. You have to check on the produce for different diseases. For instance, when you are growing tomatoes you have to be careful about blight. This deadly disease can come either in the start of tomato season or towards the end. As we're in the beginning of tomato season, let's look at what is called early tomato blight and what causes it and how to cure it.

Causes- Tomato blight is when there are spots on the leaves of the tomato and the lower leaves turn yellow. The stems will also develop dark sunken cankers at or above the soil line and dark sunken spots will show on the stem of the tomato. There are different possible reasons for blight: nutrient deficient soil, lime deficient soil, and humid, moist weather.

How to cure it- The best course of action to prevent tomato blight is to make sure it doesn't happen to begin with. Certain tips to make sure of this is to plant your tomatoes far enough apart from each other, and don't water them from overheard. Using drip irrigation instead will work better, to prevent the growth of mold and blight.

What if you do have tomato blight however? Sadly, there is little that you can do except for plan for next year. You can try spraying it with a fungicide, but this will only reduce damage, not eliminate the problem. Don't plant any other vegetables from the nightshade family in that area for a year, as they will be prone to contract the blight as well. Some examples of nightshade vegetables are potatoes, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, ground cherries, tomatillos, tamarillos, garden huckleberry, naranjilas, pepinos, and pimentos. As for the tomatoes that have the blight on their leaves, dig them up and put them in a trash bag to destroy them. Don't compost the tomato plants as this will make it much more likely for early blight to show up again next season.

Although tomato blight can happen at the start of a growing season or at the end, it is deadly nonetheless. By following some basic steps like careful planting and proper watering, you can do your best to make sure that blight doesn't happen to your crop. If it does happen, there's always next year to try again. Good luck!

Sources: arthritis.about.com, gardeningknowhow.com, factoidz.com