What To Put On Garden After Tomatoe Blight

Black Gold

How Do I Rid My Garden Soil of Tomato Blight?

January 18, 2019 4:27 pm

By: Jessie Keith

"How do I get rid of blight (early and late) spores in my tomato garden soil?" Question from Thomas of Maineville, Ohio

Answer: Tomato early blight and late blight are terrible soil-borne diseases that all tomato growers fear. Thankfully, you can manage them once they get into your soil. I'll provide an overview of each disease and its management.

Tomato Early Blight

Early blight (Alternaria tomatophila and Alternaria solani) can appear early in the life cycle of the tomato by causing seedling damping off (rot). At later stages it can cause stem cankers, leaf blight, and black fruit rot. You know your tomatoes have early blight when you start to see leaves with circular lesions, reaching up to 0.5 inches in diameter, with dark concentric circles inside.

Tomato Late Blight

Tomatoes with oily patches and plants with stem lesions and browning leaves – it's not what a tomato grower wants to see because these are the telltale signs and symptoms of late blight (Phytophthora infestans). Most commonly known for causing the Irish Potato Famine, late blight is spread by a pathogen that survives and overwinters on infected plant material. Though it kills tomatoes more slowly than potatoes, it is equally lethal and destroys tomato fruits. If the plants are subjected to drought stress, the disease takes them more quickly.

Managing Tomato Blight

There are several methods for controlling and avoiding both blight diseases. If you have had blighted tomatoes in the past, rotate crops on a three-year cycle to help keep soil disease-free. This means rotating where you plant your tomatoes and allowing three years to pass before planting them in the same spot. The absence of live plants should rid the soil of the disease in this time. Also, scout for infected plants and immediately take them far away from the garden and compost bin. Bag and toss them instead. Finally, keep a lookout for and remove weedy tomato relatives that can harbor blight. These include nightshade and ground cherry.

To prevent further tomato blight from entering your garden, plant only healthy plants that you have grown from seed or purchased from a reliable grower. (Nothing is worse than being sold diseased plants!) Also, plant only blight-resistant varieties (check out this list from Cornell University).

In the garden, avoid moist soil by planting tomatoes in well-drained, aerated, raised beds amended with Black Gold Garden Soil and keep plants strong and vigorous by feeding them with a tomato & vegetable fertilizer. It also helps to encourage air-flow by spacing plants well and keeping them pruned (click below for a tomato pruning tutorial). Finally, drip irrigation helps keep plants drier to reduce disease spread. At the end of the season, clean all plant material from your garden for good measure.

Be diligent and you can beat late blight.

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

About Jessie Keith

Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they're all-sustaining. ("They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.") She's a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.

Content Disclaimer:

This site may contain content (including images and articles) as well as advice, opinions and statements presented by third parties. Sun Gro does not review these materials for accuracy or reliability and does not endorse the advice, opinions, or statements that may be contained in them. Sun Gro also does not review the materials to determine if they infringe the copyright or other rights of others. These materials are available only for informational purposes and are presented "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. Reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement or other information is at your own risk. In no event shall Sun Gro Horticulture Distribution, Inc. or any of its affiliates be liable to you for any inaccuracy, error, omission, fact, infringement and the like, resulting from your use of these materials, regardless of cause, or for any damages resulting there from.