Comments on: Tomato Disappointment: A Farmer’s Perspective on Late Blight in the Northeast

By: Seacoast Eat Local » Blog Archive » Market Notes: Why CSA’s matter

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:16:07 +0000

[...] • Tomato Disappointment: A Farmer’s Perspective on Late Blight in the Northeast and the agonizing decision at Caretaker Farm, MA, of whether or not to use copper fungicide to fight it: “On my farm, we won’t spray anything, ever. For the first time, I can truly understand the desire to spray.” [...]

By: » Read, Then Digest CKP National Blog: Resources and Updates on Our National Initiatives

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:48:17 +0000

[...] of the Killer Tomatoes! Late blight is a huge problem affecting NE [...]

By: Jennifer Friedrich

Jennifer Friedrich — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:55:00 +0000

A devils bargain? 20%, 50%, even 10%? that is the make it or break it bottom line for a lot of farmers. Most organic farmers don’t like using sprays for controls but if it means sustainability, ie the ability to sustain their farm, that why is it so awful? We should be directing our attention to cooperative extension who, in my opinion, is behind the eight ball and under serving a population of farmers who deserve and have worked for the research, attention and dollars so given them by their tax dollars.

By: MK

MK — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:55:39 +0000

The biggest single reason why we don’t spray is not the risk of eventual disease resistance, but the health risks for us, as farmers. Because we are a small farm (only about 7 acres in production) we would have to use a backpack sprayer, rather than a tractor-mounted boom sprayer. This would expose us much more directly to any chemical we used to fight the blight. Besides, all of the farmers I’ve talked to who used copper have said that its efficacy was virtually nil. To use conventional sprays on our tomatoes (which might indeed save them) would be less like giving a cow penicillin to fight an infection, and more like treating cancer in a cow with chemotherapy. The cure is not worth the cost, to us.

By: Chiot's Run

Chiot's Run — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:25:34 +0000

Another good reason to start your own from seed.

By: sally oakley

sally oakley — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:33:09 +0000

yup, that disease started to migrate north about 20 years ago. i recall when it hit wash dc. we lost rhododendrons, mostly. but it is debilitating. no way of saving the plant, we would have to dig up soil from beds and replace it.

By: Joanne Rigutto

Joanne Rigutto — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:43:47 +0000

While I applaud everyone’s values regarding spraying, I don’t think that if there is an actual outbreak of disease or of pests, that spraying to control that specific event is going to contribute to pesticide resistance, fungicide resistance, etc.. It’s generally long term exposure to a chemical or substance, or some other alteration in an organism’s environment that makes the development of resistance possible by eliminating enough of the succeptable members of a given population, over time, to give the resistant members of that population a reproductive advantage, that is, there are a lot more of them left to reproduce, and there are enough that the risistance is passed on to a large enough portion of the next generation to make those individuals the domanant reproducing organisms.

In my opinion, if you have an infection or infestation that you could treat in a one (or a few times) application, and that would save your crop, refusing to use those tools would be comperable to refusing to use antibiotics in the event of a bacterial infection in your livestock. Of course you don’t want to feed antibiotics to the livestock as a feed supplement ‘just in case of an outbreak or infection’, but if I have an animal that would be healed with penicillin, and that animal will die without it, I would be wrong to refuse to treat the animal. Same with plants.

Just my opinion.

By: emily palmer

emily palmer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:50:26 +0000

great essay mk. i’m a partner on a small farm on martha’s vineyard, and tomatoes are typically 50% of our revenue, and they look awful this year (although no late blight yet). We’re not going to spray them either. We went heavily into cut flowers to compensate, and have our fingers crossed that maybe the tomatoes will finally kick into gear in august or september – after all the tourists leave, but late is better than never. I guess as farmers, we’re going to see years like this every now and again.

By: Amerigo

Amerigo — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:06:51 +0000

The nursery in Alabama may have been a contributing factor, but phytophthora is pretty common, remaining latent in living tissue, ususally seed potatoes. The “Certified” grade for seed potatoes allows up to 1 percent late blight infection. In a cool, wet year like this one, and like 1845-46 in Ireland, the disease will run rampant, as we all have seen. Also, spraying copper is effective as a preventative under moderate pressure, but once your tomatoes or potatoes are infected, only systemic fungicides will work….if you get it early enough. THOROUGH field sanitation (elimination or exclusion of infected plant parts from a farm) is critical for everyone in the northeast this summer and fall.

By: Joya Parsons

Joya Parsons — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:01:26 +0000

Excellent post. I know the “to spray or not to spray” dilemma well; I caved three years ago and used pyrethrum against a literal army of blister beetles that descended my tomatoes overnight. Even though it’s organic-approved, it’s still toxic enough that I felt like a traitor to everything I thought I stood for. This year, I’m resolved to hold my ground even if (when) late blight shows up and just take the financial hit. It will set me back a bit, but not ruin me, and I know that makes me very, very lucky and the tomatoes are more than a month behind because of the weather anyway. I’ve tried to shift focus to extra fall vegetables and gourmet/specialty crops in the hopes that I can make up a bit, but nothing gets traffic into the market stand like tomatoes, so things have been unusually slow.

Next year… next year will be better.