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Battling Tomato Blight
I went to go pick a ripe tomato last summer and to my surprise my fingers sunk into the bottom or a rotten tomato.
If you’ve listened to last week's podcast episode, you heard that I battled blight in my garden last year. I honestly thought that I was going to lose all of my tomatoes and I was feeling extremely discouraged. I took to the internet to find any and all information that would help eradicate blight from my garden. Here are my top tips on what helped me have a successful tomato harvest last year!
What is blight?
Blight is a plant disease caused by fungal spores that travel by air and thrive in moist, warm environments. Tomato blight causes your plants leaves to turn yellowish brown and have spots and even dark rotting spots on your tomatoes!
While you cannot eradicate blight, here are some tips that helped my garden be successful!
Keep tomato plants dry: blight thrives in a moist environment. Bottom watering your garden is a good habit to get into, but it’s easier said than done.
Spacing: making sure your plants are properly spaced is important.
Remove diseased plants: removing heavily diseased plants is a great idea. While doing this bring a garbage bag, clean scissors and some gloves. You will want to pull the plant and dispose of it right into the garbage bag. If you use any garden scissors or gloves you will need to wash them before advancing to your next garden task.
Pruning: remove low hanging branches and leaves away from the soil.
Rotate: rotating your tomatoes to another area of the garden next year is not only good practice but you’ll be one step away from last year's blight infestation!
The concoction: I made a concoction of baking soda, Castile soap and water, I then sprayed the tops and bottoms of leaves, the stem and the ground around my tomato plants once a day for several days! The castile soap helps the baking soda stick to the leaves while the baking soda creates an alkaline environment that blight cannot thrive or survive in.
Is it safe to eat
the tomatoes?
Yes, I picked my tomatoes when they were still green and let them ripen on a windowsill. You do not want to use the really bad tomatoes but if you feel safe eating them the good news is that blight does not affect humans!
I hope that you never have to battle blight but if you do, my hope is that these tips will help you have a successful harvest!
Happy gardening, friends!