Gardening TIP:
Tomato blight is a fungal disease characterized by small brown lesions on the plant stems, with sudden leaf die back and hard brown rot on tomatoes.
The fungus thrives in cool temperatures, when the soil is moist and not too warm - remember all that rain we had in June?
In later summer humid conditions, the pathogen spreads quickly through the entire plant.
Even very small brown spots will quickly spread through the entire tomato, so must be harvested and used immediately.
Prevention is the best approach - plant disease resistant varieties, avoid overcrowding, rotate beds yearly, sanitize equipment, pick up all diseased plant matter from the soil, do not compost any affected plant matter.
This week cut back 2 tomato plants suffering from blight, and salvaged 10 kg of green tomatoes.
