(Irish) Potato Famine Fungus Found in Plattsburgh (NY)

WCAX ^ | 6/30/09

[Straight Vermonter]

The plant fungus that caused the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s has shown up in Plattsburgh, and experts say residents need to act quickly.

It's called "late blight" and it affects eggplants, potatoes and tomatoes. The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade, but it moves quickly and can kill an infected plant in as short as a week and a half. The signs that your plants have late blight are brownish lesions on the leaves which make them look wet. Late blight was discovered in the region at unnamed major box stores on Friday. It came to the area because a vegetable wholesaler apparently sold the stores infected tomato plants.

Officials say if you've bought any tomato, eggplant or potato plants that were not grown locally you should throw them out. However, do not compost or burn the infected plant because the spores will travel up to four miles.

[Straight Vermonter]

Watch your gardens folks.

[thefactor]

i've been to Plattsburgh.

finding fungus up there doesn't surprise me in the least.

[DManA]

Kudos to WCAX for not making the obligatory link to global warming.

The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade,

[Straight Vermonter]

No kidding!

[DManA]

So, what’s the cure?

[who knows what evil?]

Get this out to the ‘Garden List’ ASAP!

[RC2]

My question exactly. If you can’t burn them, what do you do with them? I’ve always heard that you should always get seed potato’s that are clean and germ free.

[Red_Devil 232]

Ping to Weekly Gardening List.

[Calpernia]

Please ping all your agri and garden lists.

[who knows what evil?]

Thanks...it will be great to get feedback from Diana and Garden Girl...

[Colonel Kangaroo]

The fungus hasn't made it this far north in about a decade,

About the time we had our last Democratic president and green vice president. Seems to me that a case could be made for associating Democrats with potato fungus.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Interestingly, my ancestors ended up in Plattsburgh in 1845 after fleeing the Potato Famine in Ireland.

[The Great RJ]

Certainly due to global warming and is George Bush’s fault. Now if Lord Obama would just lay hands on the infected plants to heal them and give massive subsidies to potato, egg plant and tomato farmers, production would be stimulated and this crisis solved. (sarcasm)

[HollyB]

Kind of ironic, for sure.

[dfwgator]

Damn English!

[Cinnamon Girl]

[sneakers]

I started my tomatoes and eggplants from seeds!

[hiredhand]

Did you see this?...probably want to follow it!

[reformedliberal]

Most blights are caused by long periods of wet, cool weather as the fruits are ripening. I had a blight of some sort on my beefsteak tomatoes (late bearers) last summer, due to precisely those conditions. I am not sure, but I think, for tomatoes, anyway, it is more likely on indeterminates.

There are products on the market that contain bacillius subtilis, are rated organic and are supposed to cure the blight. Look on Gardeners.com, which has identifying photos, explanations and a lot of information on use.

The best cure is hot, sunny weather.

[investigateworld]

Ping