Physorg (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
(PhysOrg.com) -- Across the northeast, home gardeners expecting the usual bumper crop of tomatoes this season were dismayed to find their plants affected by late blight, the same fungus that caused Ireland's potato famine in the 19th century.
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
Here’s part two of that series on late blight I mentioned back on Wednesday. Of course you cannot do justice to the whole story in a teeny blog post, and the author does link to one of the books about the Great Famine. There are many, many more.
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog (Free subscription) | 11/18/2009
We generally adopt the view that diversity is a good thing. But there are cases where it definitely is not. One such is being discussed over at Small Things Considered, “the microbe blog”. In part one, Elio Schaechter answers Five Questions about Oomycetes. Number one: What makes oomycetes important to people? Answer, potato blight, and [...]
Garden Rant (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
One of the wisest things I've ever heard about gardening came from C.R. Lawn, the founder of the wonderful , who told me, "In the long run, your work is rewarded if you pay attention to details. In the short run, you never know."Even professional growers are stymied in certain years, like this last one when late blight wiped out tomatoes and potatoes up and down the Hudson.Of course,...
Kicking and Screaming (Free subscription) | 11/04/2009
... pulled it from. 2 hours in a warm spot gets much better results. And for those of us stricken with late blight this year there is hope. There are currently 3 tomato varieties listed as resistant, one of which "legend" is open pollinated. Buy now, there may be a run on these seeds come spring.
Veg Plotting (Free subscription) | 11/03/2009
... content. He's also produced varieties with shorter cooking times and longer keeping qualities. Blight resistance of course is a bit of a holy grail at the moment, particularly with the emergence of a new vigorous strain of late blight - Blue-13 - which has already seen some of the traditionally resistant varieties such as Cara, succumb in this country. Tom is an independent...
Skippy's Vegetable Garden (Free subscription) | 10/30/2009
... to hear potatoes described as "exciting". The Irish potato famine of 1740, caused by Late Blight spreading rapidly in Irish fields planted almost exclusively with a single variety, lasted 3 years. I hope our Late Blight episode in New England is more short-lived. And hopefully it won't spread outside of New England. I didn't know that the most popular variety...
Hindu (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
... (1 millilitre/litre) along with sticker should be sprayed, the ICAR has advised. To control late blight and buck eye rot in tomato, phytophthora rot in onion and bacterial wilt/phytophthora fruit rot in brinjal, spray of Equation-pro (1 ml/l) or Acrobat (2 g/l) has been advised. For purple blotch disease of onion, Dithane M-45 or Kavach (2 g/l) should be sprayed. Anthracnose in chilli...
Skippy's Vegetable Garden (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
... beds. But at least its not all of my beds. Another thing I wanted to figure out is moving all Late Blight susceptible crops (all solanacea) out of my community plot and into my home garden for next year. This seems to work out fine. All tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and peppers will fit fine at home. I looked up companion planting information and added a few flowers and herbs that...
The Daily Gazette stories (Free subscription) | 10/18/2009
In a year marred by heavy rains, hail storms and late blight, many commercial farmers are checking insurance policies on their crops.
Living the Frugal Life (Free subscription) | 10/17/2009
74 pounds of potatoes. That was our one-day harvest on Wednesday. I had hoped to wait for our first frost to harvest the potatoes that remained in the ground. A frost would have given us just a bit more confidence that the blight wouldn't settle on the tubers after harvest and then rot them in storage. But the weather has not been cooperative. We've been hit with downright wintry temperatures...
Henbogle (Free subscription) | 10/15/2009
We had a cold night last night, it dipped below 30°F. The frost left gorgeous patterns on my car this morning. I’m trying to extend the season as long as I can with the hoop house and floating row cover. Finally, I will succumb, fold my floating row covers, and hope that the bitter cold kills every single last late blight spore in my garden, so that I can start fresh next year. I’m already...
