2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Late blight is a disease that attacks mainly nightshade crops (eggplant, pepper, tomato, potato), as well as strawberries, buckwheat and castor oil plants. The damage to crops from late blight can be enormous, so it is extremely important to identify a devastating disease in time
About the disease
The causative agent of this disease is the mushroom Phytophtora infestans. Its spores develop mainly on leaves, gradually moving through the vegetation. The most favorable conditions are when, for two days or more, the air humidity is at around 75% at its temperature exceeding 10 degrees. The spores are washed into the soil by rain - it is there that the infection of potato tubers often occurs. The wind also carries the spores for many kilometers.
It is not always possible to identify an unpleasant disease in its early stages, and it is far from always that it affects the vegetation at once. Late blight is accompanied by the formation of dark spots on the leaf plates of plants, as well as on their stems. On the back of the leaves, under rather humid conditions, a fluffy bloom of white color is also formed - in this case, the plants may die entirely. Infected potato tubers are characterized by the appearance of dark or gray patches that have a reddish-brown tint under the skin.
How to handle
For planting, you should initially select the most healthy seed, as well as varieties and hybrids that are resistant to late blight. Correct crop rotation, fungicide treatment of the seed and mulching of the soil will also be beneficial. When sowing various crops, it is very important to maintain spatial isolation (for example, potatoes are planted far from tomatoes) and not to overfeed them with fertilizers. Lack of light, stagnant air, as well as thickening of plantings are not welcomed - these are powerful provocateurs of the disease.
If possible, it is recommended to reduce the increased humidity of the air and try in every possible way so that moisture does not get on the vegetation once again. The bottom leaves touching the ground should be regularly removed, and heavily infected plants should be eliminated completely along with damaged fruits and then burned.
The fertility of the soil must also be closely monitored - it should be moderately loose, without excess or lack of nutrients.
Before sowing, the seeds are treated for 20 - 25 minutes with a 1% solution of potassium permanganate (1 g per 100 ml of water), after which they are thoroughly washed and dried. It is recommended to feed seedlings from time to time with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers.
Useful measures can also include the treatment of plants during the growing season with the so-called copper-soap emulsion (200 g of soap and 2 g of copper sulfate are taken for 10 liters of water), as well as garlic with potassium permanganate (for 10 liters of water - 1.5 g of permanganate potassium and one and a half cups of garlic pulp). You can water the plants with this composition: for 10 liters of water, you need to take 30 g of potassium chloride and 40 drops of iodine (about half a liter of this composition is consumed per plant).
If all the methods of dealing with the disease have exhausted themselves, it is allowed to move on to chemical methods of struggle. An effective tool is considered to be foliar feeding of vegetation with a solution of boric acid - only one teaspoon of this agent is needed for 10 liters of water, and about a liter of solution is consumed per square meter.
Chemical treatment, as a rule, is carried out with a 1% solution of Bordeaux liquid, as well as cuproxate (for 10 liters of water - 25-50 g) or copper oxychloride (0.4% suspension - 40 g of the product is taken for 10 liters of water). After one to two weeks, re-spraying should be carried out. As for the last treatment before harvesting, it is carried out: with Bordeaux liquid - 8 days, with other preparations - 20 days before the start of harvesting. When using chemicals, it is imperative to follow safety precautions. Personal protective equipment should also be used: a hat, rubber gloves, goggles, a dressing gown, a cotton-gauze bandage or a respirator. The weather during processing should be calm and calm, with no rain and dew.
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Late blight is perhaps the most common fungal disease of tomato. A humid environment and damp weather favor its development. In sunny weather and dry air, phytophthora is quite difficult to find on tomatoes. However, even if you still had to face a similar scourge, you can significantly reduce its harmfulness. The main thing in this case is to detect late blight on time
