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In anticipation of the harvest, gardeners, unfortunately, face not only positive emotions, caring for and observing the development of the plant, its growth, flowering, fruit set and ripening, but also their diseases. As a rule, any disease comes unexpectedly, it is always thought that it will not affect us, but we must always be prepared for it. To do this, you should stock up on the necessary knowledge in advance in order to recognize the disease in time and start fighting it as early as possible so as not to completely lose the crop. In addition to the stock of knowledge, it will be useful to stock up on the necessary means of combating the disease.

In this article I will talk about a very unpleasant and insidious disease called late blight , simply called late blight .

Late blight is one of the most common plant diseases. Its danger lies in the fact that it affects not only tomatoes, but also other types of plants and can easily move from one plant to another.

Plants such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, potatoes, apple trees, garden strawberries, castor beans, buckwheat, and even some indoor plants can become infected with late blight.

Late blight most often manifests itself in the second half of summer, especially if the weather is damp and rainy during this period, and the air temperature is not too high (20-25 ° C). Such conditions are the most favorable environment for the rapid spread of the disease.

Phytophthora is caused by Phytophthora fungi, which are spread by spores.

Phytophthora can affect both underground parts of plants (tubers) and aboveground (leaf blades, stems and fruits).

Signs of late blight.

The main signs of phytophthora are brown-gray spots, which are often surrounded by a ring of whitish mold or covered with a coating resembling a cobweb. Affected parts of plants quickly die off, often this leads to the death of the entire plant. Fruits lose their presentation, taste, become unsuitable for processing, transportation and storage.

How to avoid late blight?

To avoid the appearance of late blight, it is best to carry out preventive measures. But if the disease has already appeared, it must be treated immediately. And the sooner you start treatment, the easier the plants will tolerate the disease and you will be able to save the crop.

On different plants, late blight manifests itself in different ways. Consider its main features.

Late blight of tomatoes.

Tomato late blight appears as gray-brown spots of various shapes with a light green border around the edge. If you look under the sheet, a snow-white coating is clearly visible from below. These are very dangerous spores that scatter over long distances, infecting various plants.

The development of the disease on a tomato leads to the death of inflorescences, peduncles and sepals. If the disease progresses, then it will destroy the fruits, regardless of their degree of maturity. Dense brown spots of various shapes will appear on them.

With late blight, the tomato «blackens» not only on the outside, but inside it also becomes black and bitter in taste. Phytophthora damage to tomato occurs very quickly and leads to a complete loss of the crop.

The main measures for the prevention and control of late blight of tomatoes:

• crop rotation
• preventive treatment of plants
• sparse landings
• moderate watering
• application of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers to the soil.

If the plant is already sick, urgently remove leaf blades affected by late blight, completely treat the bush with fungicides, such as OXYHOM, HOM, BORDEAU LIQUID, ALBIT, SCOR, PROFIT GOLD, PHYTOSPORIN (it is better to use it as a preventive measure and in the initial stages of the disease) and others.

From folk remedies, many gardeners use a solution of milk (maybe better than sour, or kefir) with a few drops of iodine and the prepared mixture, carefully spray the tomato bushes and the ground around them as a preventive measure.

It is very important at the end of the season not to leave plant residues on the beds, they must be removed in a compost heap. If there were diseased plants on the beds, then these plant residues must be completely collected and burned, and the soil in the beds should be treated with preparations appropriate for the disease.

It is useful now to stock up on the necessary means of preventing and combating such a serious disease as late blight, since at the first manifestation of the disease, it will be necessary to immediately process the tomatoes in order to preserve the crop.

So, in this article, I told you how to prevent, recognize and treat late blight of tomatoes. I wrote about tomatoes, since most subscribers and readers are interested in tomatoes.

If it is important for you to know how to deal with late blight of pepper, potatoes and other crops, write about it in the comments, I will write about it in one of the next articles.

Friends, write which of you have encountered such an unpleasant disease as late blight when growing tomatoes? How did you deal with it? What preventive measures do you use to prevent late blight? Share your experience and knowledge with other gardeners in the comments.

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