Tomato Blight and Blossom End Rot

Tomato Blight and Blossom End Rot... better to be proactive than reactive. Unfortunately, I was the latter. :( My garden has been hit with Early Blight. There is a difference between Early Blight and Late Blight. With Early Blight, you can still hope to salvage your garden.

Early Blight has small round, brownish circles, encased in a halo of yellow. Early Blight is also similar to Septoria Leaf Spot. (http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A2606.PDF) Late Blight takes the leaves by storm, turning them brown and wilting quickly. You can lose a garden within 3 days to Late Blight. This season has been ideal for both--the rainy wet days, turning humidly hot (90's) and having damp evenings. Blight is fungus. I should have prepared better especially once I noticed mushrooms growing in my yard. The environment was perfect for blight.

You can treat your garden with anti-fungus products and you can prevent your garden from producing the spores that are blight. BUT--once it's started to grow, there is little hope of killing it before it destroys your entire crop of tomatoes and potatoes.

Here are some images of stems that I cut off of my tomato plants.


Remove all of the bottom stems that touch the ground, and remove anything that has a touch of the blight on them.

When you are removing the damaged foliage from the garden, try not to touch any other plants or leaves of the same plant, it can be transferred VERY easily!!! Early Blight can settle into your soil if you don't take precautions (and it may already be too late). Once it is settled into your soil, your garden is now contaminated. That is a depressing thought--the fungus can overwinter in your garden soil and begin its killing spree the following season in your garden. Even the tomato cages you put around your plants are now contaminated. I would recommend wiping them down with a disinfecting cloth before you store them for the winter. Also, clean all of the garden utensils with bleach/water mixture. You really can't be too careful.

A little preventative care can save you a lot of heartache later.


I plan to purchase some anti-fungus spray/powder/ bomb! Whatever it takes! And I hope that I can still salvage my plants. Blight should not effect anything but tomatoes and potatoes. Remember the Great Potato Famine in Ireland? Late Blight is what took their crops. Late Blight is a beast of its very own. Early Blight--you can hold some hope--Late Blight, however, there is nothing you can do. You will lose your garden :( It's just a matter of time. And your soil is ruined..etc. It's highly recommended if you have Late Blight to simply pull every plant that is contaminated and hope that you can save the others. Late Blight can travel on the wind--that is why it is such a damaging disease of these plants.

I have also experienced Blossom End Rot on some of my tomatoes. Here is a picture of a couple of my Roma Tomatoes with BER.

BER is fixable! I would recommend pulling all of the tomatoes that show signs of BER. Your best bet is to have your plant put all of its energy into making new blossoms--instead of trying to grow these damaged tomatoes to term. BER is a sign that your garden is low on Calcium. You can put Calcium back into the soil easily! Ready? Eat a few eggs in the morning and save the shells! The shells are loaded with Calcium. Make sure you wash them really well and crush them into very fine particles. (You can put whole shells out there but it will take a long time for the soil to break them down.)

Mix the egg particles into the top soil. The best time to do this is before or as you notice that
blossoms are starting to form. The development of blossoms pulls Calcium from the soil...and once they are developed--it's too late. That's why you should pull the tomatoes that are already showing BER. There is nothing you can do to save it. But you Can help the soil mend itself by adding in some Calcium, removing the damaged tomatoes, and by allowing the plant to develop new blossoms that have plenty of Calcium for creating healthy tomatoes!

Besides BER--there is also such a thing as damaged blossoms. When a blossom is developing, if it gets bumped, crushed, damaged in some way, it will/can effect how the vegetable/fruit looks once it is formed!

Here is an image of an interesting looking cucumber!
But we don't discriminate at ARohlk Farm ;-) He gets to come into the house with the rest of his friends.

Gardens are not as easy to grow as one might think. You have to pay attention to the signs that your garden is giving you and try and stay on top of its needs...because they have plenty! If you love to garden, it will show in its production. Your garden is only as good as the gardner's passion for growing it!

I think back on when I was little and the garden that my mother was able to produce. I wish I had images to show you because there are no words for the effort and production she was able to yield. Amazing, really. Imagine a nicely sized backyard in your hometown. Think about a tree, a swing-set etc. a nicely sized yard... and now think of this area covered in garden growth! THAT is what my mother was able to produce! Can you imagine!? I'm scrambling to save my tiny little plot--I can't imagine how she did it. I can only hope that some of that talent was passed down to me :)