no longer organic

It’s very hot and humid here today. This weather is hard on people and animals alike and even though the garden is growing like crazy the humidity and heat are also excellent for diseases in the garden. Today I participated in a conference call about how to make homeowners aware of the serious tomato and potato disease late blight. Michigan State University Extension folk want everyone to be aware that the disease is in the state again this year. Controlling it on a homeowner level helps protect farmer’s crops. And homeowners knowing about how to control the disease will let them harvest tomatoes and potatoes this year. Last year many home gardeners lost their entire crop of tomatoes.

We discussed whether or not there was a good organic control and the consensus was unfortunately, is that there is not. When late blight hits your entire tomato or potato crop is usually gone in a few days. It’s too late to spray with chemicals after the disease attacks a plant; you can only protect plants with preventative sprays. For the first time in my entire adult life I am spraying my tomato plants with a fungicide on a regular basis. Last year I tried neem oil, considered to be organic- but I lost all my plants to late blight. Organic controls have to work and be readily available to consumers as well as affordable. Copper sprays and blends have some effect, but usually only delay plant death a short time.

I like being organic. I wish no crops had to be sprayed. However working on the front line and seeing the devastation of home gardens last year I am also a realist. I like fresh, vine ripened tomatoes. If I don’t grow them at home and go out to buy them at the farmers market you can bet that that farmer has treated the plants with something and probably something a lot stronger than I can buy and use at home. ( If you want recommendations for late blight control see my article on it here
Hopefully in a few years researchers will have bred late blight resistant plants and will have discovered cultural and organic controls that deal with it effectively. In the meantime if you grow tomatoes and potatoes- or cucumbers- which have their own new deadly disease called downy mildew- and you want to be sure of a crop you need to spray them preventatively. Don’t beat yourself up over not being organic. If you follow the label directions and wash the tomatoes well before eating you won’t be getting any more chemicals than when you apply most make up, shaving creams, and hair dyes, which most consumers do without thinking twice about.