Alberta Agriculture is alerting everyone to the continued
risk of Late Blight. This is a fungal
infection that attacks tomatoes and potatoes primarily although it apparently
can infect peppers, eggplants, and (surprise!) petunias.
The disease is carried on live plant
materials; we are advised to watch plants raised from potatoes seed and transplants
purchased at garden centres, both of which could be carrying the fungus into Alberta
from another location.
A couple of years
ago, Leona wrote a
posting on the CampusRoots blog about Late Blight that included advice on
what to look for as well as tips to practice good plant hygiene if you find it.
If you are further interested, you
might want to check out the
anxiety level about Late Blight on the Alberta Agriculture website (sorted
by most recent postings first).
On a
personal note, a gardening buddy gave me some tomato seedlings last year that were
healthy to the end of the season.
However, when she forwarded this alert to me a few days ago, she noted
that she lost all her tomatoes last year to Late Blight; it must have come into
her garden through some other vector.
So
the advice is to watch your plants and deal
with the situation accordingly.
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