Is it worth risking your home-grown tomatoes to grow a few potatoes in your vegetable garden? That’s the question Meg McGrath, plant pathologist at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center asks in her article, Late blight: Playing ‘Russian Roulette’ in your garden with potatoes.
Both crops can be quickly killed by the disease, which was particularly devastating in 2009. But the pathogen requires a living host to overwinter, which could be volunteer potatoes in your garden or potatoes you’ve saved from last year. Even purchased seed potatoes aren’t risk-free, says McGrath.
If you do grow potatoes, be particularly vigilant for signs of the disease. (See pictures below and at McGraths’ photo gallery.) And be prepared to act quickly to prevent the spread of the pathogen, which is carried long distances by wind. Remove infected plants and put them in plastic garbage bags and leave them in the sun to ‘cook’ the plants and hasten death of the pathogen.
Read McGrath’s whole article and visit her photo gallery of late blight on potatoes and tomatoes for images to help you identify the disease and links to other late blight resources, including link to a new national tracking system for the disease.
Or visit our previous post Late blight update.
