Tomato Blight in the Southeast Mountains
There’s been a lot of news lately about late blight hitting tomato crops in the north east. Sadly, the same has happened here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, where temperatures are a little cooler than most of the Southeast.
We planted our tomatoes late so we never managed to get a single edible fruit before late blight hit our tomato plants. Several beautiful large green tomatoes were forming and we were so looking forward to watching them to turn red.
At first, I noticed the leaves on certain branches were wilting and turning brown. I diligently cut them off and assumed the rest of the plant was fine. But then a new group of leaves did the same, and it continued that way just about every day. When the tomatoes started forming brown rotten-looking spots on them and literally molded while still on the vine, I figured something was seriously wrong.
It didn’t take much research to discover that my tomatoes fell prey to late blight. I tried to save the plants but I had to finally pull them out this morning. So few branches were even left and there was no way they were going to recover. I’ll try again for fresh tomatoes next year.
Posted by Diana | Category: Gardening
Oh… that’s so sad and frustrating. We’ve had such weird weather here that I imagine gardeners were frustrated in the extreme. But you’re learning all your lessons this year. Next year I think you’ll have magnificent crops.