Comments on: Return of the Fungi

By: plantsondeck

plantsondeck — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:03:57 +0000

It’s a little hard to tell from your photo, but I think you grow your tomatoes in containers, too. So, if you’re like me, each plant is precious — however, many tomato diseases are actually fungal, which means they’ll eventually produce spores and spread like crazy. (You may be hearing about the late blight that’s tearing through the Eastern states.) So yeah, if you can bear it, pitch the plant, sterilize the container, buy new soil, and start something new. I couldn’t pitch mine just yet because they’d started producing and I wanted to enjoy whatever yield I could. I’m not terribly worried about the late blight as I started mine from seed (and it’s not a seed borne disease). Good luck.

By: miss m

miss m — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:35:36 +0000

Thanks for your comment and sympathy ! I have given it a trim. I don’t mind losing one. My real worry is the risk to the other tomato plants. Is this contagious ? Should I keep it a safe distance away or simply chuck it altogether ?

By: Fern @ Life on the Balcony

Fern @ Life on the Balcony — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:26:56 +0000

I’ve found that cutting off any branches withing 10 inches of the soil line and being really vigilant about cutting off all suckers has helped avoid diseases. Also, I prefer to stake my tomatoes rather than using cages because I think it helps keeps air flow moving better.