I’ve had a really evil blight infestation of some sort in my tomato patch. So, I joined tomatoville. There I learned of a recipe from an old timer that involves bleach. Yes. Really. I was >< close to pulling up my entire patch of maters, burning them and calling it quits.
Instead I took a regular pump sprayer (bought one just for this), filled it with exactly one gallon of water. Then added exactly 1 cup (8oz) of clorox bleach. (not splashless, not kroger or other store brand, not scented. Just regular clorox bleach (it’s a formulation issue, some stronger in their bleach component than others)). Sprayed them at/after sunset till they were dripping making sure to thoroughly saturate the new growth.
They have survived. the leaves that were going to die, died. The new growth looks spectacular. The vines are putting out suckers where the old leaves died. I’ve had to redo the spraying 2-3 times a week depending on weather. It’s cheap, doesn’t accumulate in the soil like copper and unlike most ‘organic’ controls for blight actually works. The bleach oxidizes really quickly and is ‘gone’ within an hour or two. Do it after sun goes down so the plants don’t ‘cook’ in the sunlight and after all the bees go home. I usually follow up with a dusting of DE to kill aphids/other critters and then feed them some mater food.
Be sure to stand UPWIND! I wear a mask too just because.
Yes, we mulch. Thoroughly. Once the blight has a hold on your plants though that makes little difference in the deep south.
Now, having said all that, if you have nothing to lose with your potatoes because hey, they’re already going to kick the bucket why not try this?
The guy on tomatoville that uses this method swears it stops most/all foliar diseases/infestations. If, on the other hand, it’s a systemic disease you’re screwed anyways and haven’t really lost anything but a little time.
Again, a day or two later the plants looked like hammered heck as all the infected leaves went ahead and died. BUT, the vines remained green and healthy and the new growth just took off.
The original poster on Tomatoville uses a lower amount of bleach to ‘control’ for and prevent once he’s got his initial outbreak under control, like 6oz in a gallon of water. Too weak and it won’t work. Too strong and you’ll kill the plants.
Thanks for the information however I fear it has spread to all 3 varieties and is moving fast. I had hoped the Purple Haze would not succumb but I found it there. In years past it has consumed the tops in 3 or 4 days but at least the RG and YG have set tubers of a fair size. I will post more photos this evening...
That’s a very interesting post. Thank you.