View full sizeEarly blight on a tomato leaf.After the long wait through spring for warm weather to get tomatoes growing, the last thing you want is a disease disaster: a yellowing, moldy, polka-dotted plant that seems to be melting right in front of your eyes. Early blight and late blight can devastate your crop. Here's how to attack -- or better yet, prevent -- these fungal diseases:
• Healthy, stress-free plants are better able to fight off disease. So improve soil by adding organic matter, fertilize and water properly and keep the area around tomato plants weeded so plants don't have to complete for nutrients and water.
• Don't do any overhead irrigation. Water with soaker hoses, drip system or furrow irrigation.
• Thin leaves so that sunlight reaches the center of the plant and it gets good air circulation.
• Pick off infected leaves and get rid of them. Disease spores live in the plant debris, so clean it up well and do not compost.
• Next year, plant disease-resistant varieties.
-- Homes & Gardens staff
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