First of all, gardeners, some housekeeping notes! Mark your calendars for these events, beginning with our first regular meeting on Wednesday, September 16 at 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street; our Fall Plant and Bulb Sale from 9:30 a.m. till 5 p.m. at the Parkland Mall on Friday, September 25; and the SHA Provincial Convention and AGM, an exciting event bringing members from hort societies throughout the province together, this year held in Yorkton on October 23 and 24 and hosted by our group. Just log on to www.yorktonhort.ca for all the details and plan to join us!
We’ve had a good year in the garden, haven’t we? No excessive rain (I’m comparing this year to 2010, 2013 and 2014), lots of heat, and a great spring. We needed a year like this! Now it’s time to begin thinking about yard clean-up, and something that I have heard several people mention is that their tomatoes have blight. What to do?
I did some homework and this is what I learned about blight. Blight is a problem that comes with spores carried by the wind. If conditions are right and the spores blow in and the leaves of the plant are wet, chances are good that blight will begin. The Vesey’s site (www.veseys.com) says there are a few things we can do to prevent blight. Vesey’s tells us: “Anything that you can do to prevent the leaves from being wet will help, for instance: - Plant in an area where the plants will get good air circulation, - Water in the morning so the leaves have a chance to dry off during the day - Prune the plants to keep them from becoming too bushy - Grow them in a sheltered location (like against the house) where they get less dew and rain on them - Keep the plants up off the ground.”
The site also suggests that if we see a weather forecast of damp, windy weather coming our way, we can be proactive by using a fungicide (they suggest Bordo mix). They say this is especially important in July and August when there is a lot of growth on our tomato plants.
Giving our gardens a thorough clean-up also helps. Infected leaves and plants must go in the garbage, never in the compost pile. Another helpful hint is to move our plants around in the garden, not plant them in the same location year after year. Vesey’s has this to say: “Crop rotation is another means to help reduce disease in tomato plantings. Each year plant tomatoes in a new location away from areas where tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes or peppers have grown in the past. These vegetables all have similar disease problems. A minimum rotation of three years is considered essential to help reduce populations of soil-borne fungi.”
And if we plan carefully, we can even give our tomatoes a better, healthier place to call home. Vesey’s suggests that we be sure to plant our tomatoes in areas with full sunshine and lots of air circulation. In the spring when the plants are small, it is easy to under-estimate how large they will get as summer progresses. So we must be sure to allow lots of room for sun and air. And of course, making sure the plants are upright, whether with stakes or tomato cages will give them a better chance of avoiding blight.
I’d suggest checking out the Vesey site; it has all kinds of useful information, and maybe you can add your name to get a catalogue for next spring! It’s so exciting to get a seed catalogue on a blustery winter day! It gives us hope that spring will come again!
Have a great week, enjoy the fleeting days in our gardens, and be sure to wear a hat and protection from mosquitoes!
