![]() Although the plants have bounced back and he’s seeing some blossoms, he’s resigned to a disappointing harvest. He blamed the heavy June rains, which turned his foliage yellow. Usually by early September, he’s harvesting tomatoes by the bucketful, he said. West Akron gardener Bill Marting has managed to harvest only a handful of cherry tomatoes from his dozen or so plants, and there are few clusters of tiny tomatoes waiting to mature. Adding to the problem were heavy rains, which sometimes wounded plants and gave bacteria a way in. So when the usual disease-causing organisms started moving in, the tomato plants were still young and vulnerable, Draper explained. This year and last, cool temperatures early in the season delayed planting and slowed early growth. That’s tough news for gardeners, many of whom have already been frustrated by tomato tribulations the past couple of summers. Unfortunately most fungicides available for home use aren’t effective at protecting tomato plants against late blight, because the culprit isn’t a fungus, Draper said. When he returned a week later, “from one end of the field to the other, it was gone. That’s partly because conditions have been right for the disease to spread, but Draper believes it’s also because the fungus-like organism that causes the disease, called an oomycete, has developed more aggressive strains.ĭraper visited a commercial grower’s tomato field in Geauga County last week and found a section in the middle with infected plants. The disease used to be easier to control, he said, but in recent years it has run rampant. Tomato late blight spreads in cool, wet conditions, exactly what we see this time of year when nighttime temperatures drop into the 60s and heavy dew forms, he said. … We will lose most of our tomatoes to this disease,” he predicted. “When it comes in this early, this is not a good thing. It has been identified in Geauga County and could spread fast and far, said Erik Draper, an assistant professor with the Ohio State University Extension and its director of commercial horticulture for Geauga. It’s late blight of tomato, an especially destructive disease that spreads with abandon and can wipe out a whole field of tomato plants in a matter of days. And just as the fruit that managed to survive is reaching its luscious peak, another tomato killer is poised to strike. It’s been a tough couple of years for tomatoes.Ĭountless Northeast Ohio gardeners have struggled with sickly tomato plants the last two summers, the unfortunate fallout of a perfect storm of weather conditions. ![]()
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