Viewing post #18264 by Remy

You are viewing a single post made by Remy in the thread called My favorite Heirloom Tomato.
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Apr 3, 2010 8:45 PM CST
Name: Remy
Z6 WNY
I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Hi,
I just want to clear up some confusion here about the tomato diseases mentioned above. Early Blight(not always early) and Late Blight(not always late) are Fungal diseases not viruses. For these 2 fungal diseases, it does not matter whether or not a tomato or a hybrid or heirloom. If you have heard otherwise, it was misinformation.
Early Blight causes oyster shell looking marks and the leaves become yellow eventually dying off. It likes hot humid weather. A severe case can kill a plant, but with spraying organic or not, the fungus can be controlled. The spores can overwinter so good sanitation is recommended.
Late Blight kills plants right quick. It looks like actual furry mold on the plants and then they become a slimy mess pretty much overnight. It is air born and likes cool damp weather. There is no cure. This is the disease that affected so many gardeners last year. Luckily, it does not over winter! It can only survive in living tissue. So unless you grew Potatoes that were infected and saved those, you don't need to worry as long as Mother Nature is good to you this year.
There's other fungus problems like Septoria and those also affect hybrids and heirlooms the same.

Viruses are a totally different group of tomato diseases. If you live up north, you really don't need to worry about them. Though I'm sure it could be possible to buy infected plants. Down south is different(and I'm not sure about the west.) Some areas are prone to viruses. There are hybrids with disease resistance to certain viruses. If you live in an area prone to a particular one, it is best to buy resistant hybrids along with heirlooms in case the virus rear its ugly head. In fact I spoke to one southern gardener that has to buy only plants resistant to a certain virus or they can not grow tomatoes.
Hope this helped some,
Remy
[url]http://sampleseeds.com[/url]

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