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Potato famine disease striking home gardens in U.S.[because of COOL temps and wet weather]
reuters ^ | 7/10/09

Posted on 07/13/2009 8:06:53 AM PDT by Bulwinkle

CHICAGO (Reuters) - 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, U.S. plant scientists said on Friday.

"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.....

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."

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: agriculture; gardening; globalcooling; globalwarming; potatofamine; weather
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...unCool cool.
1 posted on 07/13/2009 8:06:53 AM PDT by Bulwinkle
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To: Bulwinkle

My tomato plants are doing just fine here in southeast PA. I don’t grow potatoes.


2 posted on 07/13/2009 8:09:26 AM PDT by theknuckler_33
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To: Bulwinkle

Has this catastrophe been included in any of the Global Warming scenarios? Blight from cooling?

Gee, I don’t remember that being mentioned.


3 posted on 07/13/2009 8:09:49 AM PDT by Ole Okie (American)
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To: Bulwinkle

Oklahomans will be glad to send some of our 100 degree days north and east.


4 posted on 07/13/2009 8:10:24 AM PDT by PhiKapMom (Mary Fallin - OK Gov/Coburn/Rubio - Senate 2010 !)
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To: Bulwinkle

How are the sunspots doing? Any show up yet?


5 posted on 07/13/2009 8:11:45 AM PDT by Ole Okie (American)
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To: theknuckler_33
My tomato plants are doing just fine here in southeast PA. I don’t grow potatoes.

Both tomatoes and potatoes are in the nightshade family. Hope your plants stay healthy.

6 posted on 07/13/2009 8:12:48 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: PhiKapMom
Oklahomans will be glad to send some of our 100 degree days north and east.

We'll send you a jar of mildewey PA basement air in return.

7 posted on 07/13/2009 8:13:36 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: Bulwinkle

Since Maine’s Aroostook county supplies most of the potatoes for the East coast, this blight is a big deal. Expect the price to go up this fall.


8 posted on 07/13/2009 8:17:02 AM PDT by ArtyFO (I love to smoke cigars when I adjust artillery fire at the moonbat loonery.)
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To: dirtboy

Careful! I think you need a permit from the EPA and the USPS in order to be able to ship PA basement air! :)


9 posted on 07/13/2009 8:17:36 AM PDT by the_Watchman
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To: Bulwinkle

Because of the cool temperatures, my tomato plants are about a month behind in development. Same thing happened last year.


10 posted on 07/13/2009 8:18:27 AM PDT by Sig Sauer P220 (Forget going Galt. Its time to go Braveheart.)
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To: Ole Okie

They’ll link it in their demented minds.


11 posted on 07/13/2009 8:24:02 AM PDT by b4its2late (Ignorance allows liberalism to prosper.)
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To: Bulwinkle

This story ahs a photo of what it looks like on a tomato plant :::

Symptoms of late blight appear as large (at least nickel-sized) olive-green to brown spots on leaves with slightly fuzzy white fungal growth on the underside when conditions have been humid or wet. Sometimes the lesion border is yellow or has a water-soaked appearance. Leaf lesions begin as tiny, irregularly shaped brown spots. Brown to blackish lesions also develop on upper stems. Firm, brown spots develop on tomato fruit.

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20090712/FEATURES07/907120301/1016/FEATURES07


12 posted on 07/13/2009 8:24:56 AM PDT by Bulwinkle (Alec, a.k.a Daffy Duck)
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To: Ole Okie
Has this catastrophe been included in any of the Global Warming scenarios?

Didn't you get the memo? It's not Global Warming any more, it's Climate Change. So any variation in temperature is now due to human intervention. Because we all know that the global temperature was a balmy 70 degrees F every day until the internal combustion engine was invented.

13 posted on 07/13/2009 8:27:14 AM PDT by jalisco555 ("My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy" - Ronald Reagan)
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To: Ole Okie

Ole Okie: “How are the sunspots doing? Any show up yet?”???

A nice one showed up[#1024]...but faded.

See this article: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/12/ken-tapping-still-no-sign-of-the-next-cycle/


14 posted on 07/13/2009 8:34:33 AM PDT by Bulwinkle (Alec, a.k.a Daffy Duck)
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To: Bulwinkle

My early planted tomato plants have something that looks like this..I’m talking CA here. They were purchased from nursery about 1ft tall. Now that it seems to have warmed up here..maybe it will be contained.


15 posted on 07/13/2009 8:37:11 AM PDT by Oldexpat
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To: Bulwinkle

Most of my tomato plants have gone dormant due to the high temps.


16 posted on 07/13/2009 8:40:39 AM PDT by Sarajevo (You jealous because the voices only talk to me.)
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To: All
My zucchini,yellow squash,onions and pumpkins are doing great here in SW Pennsylvania. The eggplant and bell peppers are looking rather small for this time of year. My tomatoes ( I brought some beefsteak tomato plants back from South Jersey this past spring) Started out great but the leaves are turning yellow and dieing on the bottom of the plant. Lots of green toms and flowers though.
17 posted on 07/13/2009 8:44:55 AM PDT by 4yearlurker (The ground at Arlington is moving & shaking.)
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To: Bulwinkle

Looks like we will have 5 days of sun here in CT, so hopefully it doesn’t show up in my garden (been checking each evening after work).

Are all nightshade plants affected? I have bell and chile peppers as well.


18 posted on 07/13/2009 8:45:09 AM PDT by Betis70 (Keep working serf, Zero's in charge)
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To: Sig Sauer P220

I’m glad to hear about your tomatoes being a month behind. Makes me feel better because my tomatoes are also very small and at least a month behind. Maybe there is hope for my tomatoes yet.


19 posted on 07/13/2009 8:45:26 AM PDT by american_ranger (Never ever use DirecTV)
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To: Sarajevo

Really? I’ve always thought tomatoes loved the heat. My plants do the best when it’s high 90s and humid. Just have to water the crap out of them in the evenings.


20 posted on 07/13/2009 8:59:30 AM PDT by theknuckler_33
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