Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Always a bit of a bummer when you grow tomatoes: Blight is one of those diseases that can cause a lot of damage and quickly.Two varieties: early blight (Alternaria solani) and late blight (Phytophthora infestans). This last species is a close relative of the famous potato disease that cause massive potato crop losses in Europe, especially Ireland, which led to the horticultural Refugee movement and the run to the New Americas.First of all: “early” and “late” are not sound diagnostic names for the disorders, as both can be “late and “early” respectively.Alternaria can be identified by its leaf-spotting, and associated rots on developing fruit, especially at the distal end (non-stalk end)Phytophthora has characteristic lesions on the base of the plant – often on the lowest parts of the main stem, just above the soil. The stem looks black and often “narrower” in patches.Later that develops into a more obvious symptom whereby the leaves start to droop, go yellow and often shrivel up. By then it might be too late