Post by nightmist on Jun 5, 2014 11:17:35 GMT -5
A couple of weeks after getting my tomatoes into their beds I saw early blight in about a third of them. I used bordeaux mixture and that worked a treat on it, so problem solved.
Here is what I am curious about.
There was not a spot on the Cherokee Purples, but the Mortgage Lifters they were planted with were hit hard. The Oxhearts were barely touched by it, but the Polish Linguisas in the same bed had almost as much as the Mortgage Lifters. In the bed in between those two I have Paul Robesons and Comonaut Volkovs, there was a bare scattering of blight on plants on the outside edges of the bed (nearest the other two beds).
This just defies everything I have ever heard about these types. I had already determined from previous years that this business of heirloom varieties being more prone to disease and blight is a crock. I watched my neighbours tomatoes fall to late blight a couple of years ago, while mine (less than 100 feet away) thrived. His were all hybrids, mine were all heirloom, and that is not the only example.
I have been told (and read) repeatedly that the Mortgage Lifters are less prone to stuff than average for an heirloom, and that Cherokee Purples are delicate and catch everything. That the Russian varieties are climate hardy where I am, but that they catch every little thing. The Russians are consistently my best producing plants.
I am thinking that the "common wisdom" about heirloom hardiness is garbage, and most of the information about the hardiness of the particular types is either very geographic, or extremely weather dependent.
Watcha think?
BTW my recipe for bordeaux mixture is a little weaker than you see in the vineyards.
I do a 1-1-10 mix, copper sulphate (bluestone), hydrated lime, water. It is plenty strong enough to eradicate any fungus in the garden, sometimes with just one application, but I usually follow up for a couple of weeks to make sure it is dead in the soil.
Here is what I am curious about.
There was not a spot on the Cherokee Purples, but the Mortgage Lifters they were planted with were hit hard. The Oxhearts were barely touched by it, but the Polish Linguisas in the same bed had almost as much as the Mortgage Lifters. In the bed in between those two I have Paul Robesons and Comonaut Volkovs, there was a bare scattering of blight on plants on the outside edges of the bed (nearest the other two beds).
This just defies everything I have ever heard about these types. I had already determined from previous years that this business of heirloom varieties being more prone to disease and blight is a crock. I watched my neighbours tomatoes fall to late blight a couple of years ago, while mine (less than 100 feet away) thrived. His were all hybrids, mine were all heirloom, and that is not the only example.
I have been told (and read) repeatedly that the Mortgage Lifters are less prone to stuff than average for an heirloom, and that Cherokee Purples are delicate and catch everything. That the Russian varieties are climate hardy where I am, but that they catch every little thing. The Russians are consistently my best producing plants.
I am thinking that the "common wisdom" about heirloom hardiness is garbage, and most of the information about the hardiness of the particular types is either very geographic, or extremely weather dependent.
Watcha think?
BTW my recipe for bordeaux mixture is a little weaker than you see in the vineyards.
I do a 1-1-10 mix, copper sulphate (bluestone), hydrated lime, water. It is plenty strong enough to eradicate any fungus in the garden, sometimes with just one application, but I usually follow up for a couple of weeks to make sure it is dead in the soil.