Tomato blight can be devastating. Mary on our Facebook page unfortunately has tomato blight and is wondering how to get rid of it.
The first answer is to make sure you are rotating where you grow crops by using a three-year cycle. For Mary, she just doesn’t have the space for this so we move on to other options.
Perhaps the most drastic but also most effective solution is to avoid growing tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and weeds in the Solanaceae family for three years to starve the fungus out.
If that’s not an option we move into management.
This fall, remove all the infected plant material and either throw it away or burn it if you can.
Then next spring and summer, trim the bottom leaves of your tomatoes as they grow.
Use mulch like straw, clean grass clippings or wood chips to create a barrier between your plant and the soil.
Use a copper-based fungicide spray throughout the growing season according to the package instructions. And make sure to space plants far apart to maximize airflow. You can always plant herbs or short flowers between tomato plants to maximize space.
And last, we recommend buying or growing blight-resistant varieties. We have a list of those from a previous Grow with Kare episode with this story on our website.