getting ready for a major thunder storm in the next hour... 
Posted on 07/11/2009 8:34:39 AM PDT by george76
Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms...
"Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States," said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University's extension center in Riverhead, New York.
She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States.
"Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe's are some of the stores the plants have been seen in,"...
The disease, known officially as Phytophthora infestans, causes large mold-ringed olive-green or brown spots on plant leaves, blackened stems, and can quickly wipe out weeks of tender care in a home garden.
McGrath said in her 21 years of research, she has only seen five outbreaks in the United States. The destructive disease can spread rapidly in cooler, moist weather, infecting an entire field within days.
"What's unique about it this year is we have never seen plants affected in garden centers being sold to home gardeners," .
This year's cool, wet weather created perfect conditions for the disease. "Hopefully, it will turn sunny," McGrath said. "If we get into our real summer hot dry weather, this disease is going to slow way down."
FUNGICIDES WILL CONTROL BLIGHT
many gardeners will not recognize it, putting commercial farms and especially organic growers at risk.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I don’t grow any taters but here in southern Michigan its been cold and dry. Got some rain this morning but not enough.
getting ready for a major thunder storm in the next hour...
Garden ping..
All of the lib potato growers
They are a swarming
Ready to hang Al Gore
Over the scam of global warming!
Got some pretty heavy rain here in Buffalo the past half hour. Just stopping now and the sun is trying to peek out. Saves me from watering the garden :)
Makes ya want to put on your tin foil hat and say, “Hmm.”
yup... that's whats on the way in.
Well, add another famine meme to the zeitgeist. Been going on since at least the rice panic of last year. Cool, damp summer in the upper grain belt, too.
Somebody trying to tell us something, or skewed reporting?
“Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe’s are some of the stores the plants have been seen in,”...
Which is why I grow my own tomatoes from heirloom seed. :) For those things I don’t grow from seed, I buy from local nurseries and greenhouses.
It’s been a while, but I seem to remember my great-aunt spraying her tomato plants with a tiny bit of dishwashing detergent dissolved into water to avoid getting late season fungi ... am I misremembering?
Gardening PING
Thank you Arrowhead1852 for the heads up.
Please let Red_Devil 232 or Gabz know if you want on or off the gardening list!!! This a relatively low volume list with a weekly ping and pings to articles of general interest to home gardeners.
I’m not too concerned about climate change caused famine. I look to the little ice age for answers.
It took a while due to their lack of knowledge but when their crops stopped growing they eventually started planting crops that would.
I started my tomatoes from seed, but I was just out checking my plants, and some of them (it’s a tightly packed tomato patch) on the inside rows have blackened leaves and stems. I picked them off. Maybe they are just not getting enough sunlight?
I’m on the garden thread list of posters, but for some reason I never get pinged to it. Ask RedDevil to check his ping list for me, will you? Thanks.
BTW..I’ve already dug my potatoes and they were not infected.
I should pick up some fungicide just to be ready. I have three varieties of potatos in the garden: Yukon Gold, Pontiac Red and Kennebec. Would hate to have them wiped out!
Grow using heirloom seed whenever you can, and while you still can...
I have to get with Red, he took over for me and while I have tried to keep my list up to date, I think he has the better list, mroe complete list. But I have now added you to my list and will ask him to make sure you’re on his!!!
Glad your taters are doing fine. I’ve been keeping an eye on some of my tomatoes, because they are the Bonnie brand and I bought them in WalMart.
“I have three varieties of potatos in the garden: Yukon Gold, Pontiac Red and Kennebec.”
Just Kennebec this year. :) We usually also plant Pontiac Red, but cut down the garden due to time constraints this summer.
I just finished weeding and hilling the potato patch yesterday and it’s looking good. Of course I have the advantage of an isolated garden plot. (The nearest neighbor that “kinda, sorta” gardens is “downwind” of me. :)
Next year’s garden will be even more isolated. :)
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