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Hello Fellow Gardeners,
I posted a similar one of these in the Northeast Gardening forum last night and would love to get at least one credible answer which goes beyond this season, since that's what scares me the most. As some of you likely know, we were hit with the same blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine and hit H-A-R-D knocking out even the most fastidious of gardener's tomatoes mostly but also some potatoes as well, and it seemed to happen overnight. It makes the "yummy orbs" disgusting and downright inedible giving one the worst indegistion--but I digress--the point is this: I have a small (4 with a 5th to be built soon) raised bed garden which yielded a bountiful harvest for a worthy cause, namely a local food pantry serving a wide cross-section of a very close town. The tomatoes, "Sungold," "Purple Cherokee," a blueberry x tomato which yielded one of the strongest batches with the thickest skin, "Supersweet 100's," "Sprite," "MiRoma," "Great White," "Rainbow," "Big Early," and "Juliet."
Apparently, the source of the blight has been traced back to infected store stock (eg.Walmart--just a cited example on the local edition of Public Radio) though they didn't cite the one source that I purchased a few plants from (namely Romas) and a local source that donated (mainly Juliets) that had sat on a shelf, in the rain for far too long, and; had a few yellowed leaves which I cut off before leaving the store and prior to introducing these plants to the seed-started stock and all of them seemed to thrive except for some lower leaves which yellowed due to all of the horribly damaging rains which caused damage to everything from corn to turnips and squash, to Eggplant and Apples. All was well until flowers and fruit were starting to near harvest when I noticed that the lower leaves started to yellow and both the leaves and the vines started to get brown to black spots which immediately turned completely brown with no bugs of any kind and, believe me, a local Master Gardener and I looked and came to the conclusion that the only thing that could come on so hard and even affected much of the fruit which touched these areas turning them grayish black under the skin at the stem-end.. I knew so many of the tomatoes had simply become inedible and even those that appeared perfectly fine after a mild bleach soak began to develop these grayish to black spots, especially on the crowns or the bottom-most area. I donate all my GOOD garden fruits and vegetables to a local food pantry except for those which were bad and determined early on, that if I wouldn't buy it, even at a reduced price, then it wouldn't be sent to the hungry as that would be a total insult. But many tomatoes made it to their tables before the blight came on and I insisted that they use the tomatoes as immediately as possible, explaining the blight issue and what to look for to cut out of the tomatoes. All neighboring states throughout New England were hit with late blight and many farmers lost most of their crops since it came on so quickly and so heavily.turned disfigured/black under the skin just like the rest. This looked identical to what I read in an online article on this very subject with the same advice, "Cut down and bag all infected plants and affected fruit, close the bags snugly, and dispose of them either by burning them or in a landfill but, do NOT try to compost them as the spores will thrive in the heat as opposed to being destroyed by it. So, I followed the advice!
All that to ask my dreaded question: Will it return next season or will the -20 temperatures of our harsh winters effectively kill the nasty "alien beast? And, I was a lucky one, I had over 40lbs of fresh tomatoes before the blight hit the plants hard covering even the stocks with disfiguring rust-brown then turning to black spots. People were all but foaming at the mouth for the taste of some of those sweet Sungolds "like I grew last year." So I don't have this issue next season, I'd appreciate an aswer from anyone familiar with blight and its ability to live thought our frigid winters!!
Also, is it safe to plant some white clover as a cover crop in my raised beds just to enrich the soil as that is one of the only opportunities I have with living in an apartment and with only four (waiting for help to build a fith) bed? If not, what cover crop, if any, would be safe to plant and when?
Behold a picture of some of my beauties before the great destroyer hit them...I cried, well nearly, having to chuck fully-developed Great White tomatoes into a Garbage bag simply because they had the tell-tall brown-to-black spots under the skin, especially around the crown of them. By the way, I loved the Great Whites that I DID get to enjoy...my all-time favorite in cherries and over-all production in general has to be "Sungold" and the blueberry x tomato cross (color and production with thick skin and never splitting).
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