NH Tomatoes Under Attack From Above

This sounds like a monster movie,"Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes", comes to mind, but the recent rain here in NH could lead to a non-fictional problem. Early blight!

It's funny how we go from famine to feast so quickly in New England, not two days ago I was worried that we may never see another drop of rain again AND there were headlines about actual dust from the Sahara desert moving into US airspace.

NOW?

It's rained on and off for the past two days, and tomorrow's precipitation may even be more intense. This could be a problem for your tomato plants!

If you're new to growing tomatoes, 'Farmer Train' is here with some advice on how to prevent 'Early Blight' from forming and ruining your dreams of a summer filled with tomato sandwiches and home made salsa!

Blight is nothing but a scary sounding word for fungus. Fungus, of course, starts to grow when it has a nice breeding ground. A good example of this, the bottom of tomato plants after three straight days of rain.

How do you stop it from ruining your crop? It's easy, but does require some work. Clip away the branches on your tomato plants up to a foot off the ground. This stops the blight dead in its tracks and doesn't hurt the plants themselves.

YouTuber MIGardener also takes it a step further on the above video and suggests spraying your plants with a solution of 1 gallon of water, 2 tablespoons of baking soda, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and a couple drops of dish soap and mix it up thoroughly.

Spray your plants with this only ONCE every two weeks and that should also help keep the blight away.

If you have a plentiful and blight free crop? Feel free to send any extra tomatoes to the radio station in lieu of cash payments.

Good Luck!