Early Blight

[headfullofbees]

This is a problem that is more troublesome in some of the trans-Atlantic ex-colonies than the mother-country, but, with the start of the tomato-growing season heralded in some of the warmer states, one which I have pondered.
Alternaria is the fungus which causes this devastation, and as it is both wind and soil-borne, practically impossible to eradicate, but that doesn't mean we can't mitigate it.

My suggestion is one which I used last summer, with some success, on a different problem, and it regards transplanting.
So many sites suggest burying the plant as deeply as possible when planting out in the ground, right up to the first leaves.
This seems to me to be asking for trouble; a lot of plants succumb to this fungus after spores splash up onto leaves, from the soil, during heavy rains, SO DON'T DO IT.

Plant your tomato in the ground at the same depth it was in pots, strip off the cotyledons (seed leaves) and any other leaves/suckers below the first truss of flowers, or, if no trusses have yet formed, to the growing tip and one leaf.
Keep removing all leaves below your bottom truss of tomatoes as you go.
Tomatoes grow tap roots to reach down into the soil for water during drought, and surface roots become redundant when buried.

If you are concerned about the stability of the plant, earth it up like you would potatoes, or, better still, hill up with a woodchip mulch, as this mulch will splash less than soil.
This thick mulch may also help to extend your season in hotter climes, by reflecting heat and keeping the soil slightly cooler.

 

[Chuck]

Last year I kept horticultural cornmeal sprinkled under the plants and zip, zero, nada early blight. I started with the seedlings to stop damping off and kept at it until harvest. Spider mites finally did all of the plants in, but well after harvest. Probably because I didn't pull up the plants and stopped spraying insecticides.