Worldwide Beekeeping
Sustainable Living => Gardening => Topic started by: risa52654 on June 07, 2015, 10:23:15 pm
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I am looking for a safe fungicide for tomato blight that will not harm my honey bees. Are there any on the market? does anyone have any natural methods that work?
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Hi risa, let me ask my daughter, she's the tomato expert in our family ~
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The best way to control tomato blight, grow blight resistant tomatoes. Look under 2015 garden. I have a list of tomatoes I’m growing right now.
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/natural-remedies-tomato-blight-powdery-mildew-43797.html
http://tomatodiseasehelp.com/fungicide-sprays
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Some other suggestions is never water your plants late in the day, they need to dry off before the sun sets. Also, try to prevent splashing back up onto your plants from the soil. You can do this with an assortment of items from newspapers, to black plastic, mulch, etc. Additionally, try not to plant your plants too close to one another, leave room for air circulation and make sure to pinch off the secondary growths so the plants are not crowded with too much vegetation. One more thing, try to keep the calcium levels up in your soil. If you have had periods where it has rained a lot, the calcium tends to get washed out of the soil. Lastly, do not plant tomatoes in the same spot every year...rotate them.
I have to watch my plants closely, I have a neighbor that keeps planting tomatoes in the same place year after year. I "suggested" to him that this is not a good practice. He complained to me that his yield is diminishing......duh. His plants get nasty looking too.
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Crops need to be rotated, especially garden crops. That has been my biggest problem with a small, raised bed garden. There's not enough space to easily rotate crops. I am planting blight resistant tomatoes that a pal of mine grows from seed. I've never had a problem with blight, but some of my friends do. It sure keeps the tomatoes from bearing.
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Its very easy to rotate your crops. Grow in pots. Use a different pot for each vegetable you plan to grow. Grow your vegetables in clean organic soil. I grow hydroponically.
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Hi risa :) you may have your answer by now, but I said I would ask my daughter, she is a great tomato grower. Anyway, here is her answer, wishing you luck ;)
"So blight is caused by a fungus in the soil. Make sure when you're watering that the water does not touch or splash up on the leaves. The bottom ones close to the soil more importantly. Remove any damaged leaves as they begin to discolor and die. If it gets too too bad where you can't control it anymore then there's a copper spray you can use which will kill or minimize that fungus. Hope that helps"
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Hi risa52654! I think your question has been answered. At least you've been given some things to consider so I'm not going to add to that. Not that I could :D. I just noticed this was your first post and wanted to welcome you to the forum. So, "WELCOME TO THE FORUM!" Also, if you have a few minutes, introduce yourself on the "WELCOME" tab.... title...heading... thing. Tell everyone a little about yourself, if you're comfortable with that, and if you have time. I'm glad to see someone else from Iowa. Ted
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Thanks everyone! Nice to hear from you "Winfield" Ted.
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Hey Risa! Glad to see you made it here.
http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomato-blight-early.html
I have tomato's growing in half barrels, some hanging upside down in buckets, and some growing normally from the ground with cages around them.. the only ones not affected are the ones hanging upside down... so far... However, I am not seeing the BIG tomato's on the upside down plants I am on the others....
Garden lime seems to help a lot. It keeps the insects from going plant to plant and spreading it.. with the rains we have had here this year it seems to be worse.. wet plants, ground splatter etc.. Think I am going to try the copper spray next year...