Late Blight Blues...

I've been feeling pretty damn smug about escaping the wide spread Late Blight that is attacking Tomato beds throughout the Northeast. I was certain that my small suburban garden was well out of reach of any airborne spores that might be flying around, and the fact that I was growing only plants started from my own seed starts. I have been obsessively checking my plants every day, and all of my fruits look nice and healthy, even though they are way late in the ripening department.

To my dismay however, I have been watching a couple plants deteriorate very quickly in the past two weeks. I have been cutting off withering leaves on a daily basis, but the plants have just increasingly withered and yellowed. They also have developed lots of brown spots on the leaves and stems.

This morning I found this tomato sitting on the ground....




Here is the row of plants that have quickly grown sick. Notice how nice the plants behind them look in comparison...



So, while I hated to do it, I yanked out the entire row to try to prevent this blight from spreading. I put the plants into a garbage bag and into the trash. (never put any diseased plants into the compost pile)



The Tomato Season of 2009.... sigh.