Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-03-20
THE TOMATO BLIGHT.
It's Cause and the Remedy.

49,
section, was about ten years ago in our
field of tomatoes, but did not know what
kind of disease it was that affected our
plants, which / supposed were as healthy
as any we had We were not troubled any
after that until about five years ago, when
it appeared again and threatened to ruin
our crops as well as that Of several Of our
neighbors. 1t has been in the county in
several localities since, but not until last
year did it work much damage. From all
parts of our State last year we could hear
of it seriously affecting the plants.
Near my home was patch of tomatoes
which proved to be an entire failure. The
grower cutting all up but five hundred
hills, which he left standing, but from
which he did not get enough tomatoes
for his family Of three. A grower from
Camden county told me that he did not get
500 from one hundred sash Of tomatoes.
Another from our own county $l36 from
one hundred sash. You could see the
effects of the blight in nearly every field of
tomatoes in the Western part of our county.
While did not travel much at the time
when tomatoes were growing, | did not see
a patch from Mt. Royal to Auburn, which
was along the road that was entirely free
from it. Also the patches near Paulsboro
that we passed were affected in some
places. 1t not only hurt the crop, but it
made the fruit ripen premature and de-
strOyed the flavor. If the Board of Health
of the various cities would condemn such
tomatoes, | think it would be beneficial to
the growers of good tomatoes, and we
would get considerably more than we do
with these in the market The blight is
caused by fungi, being plant growth
caused by bacterial germs. We have known
it to attack plants in our seed houses when
the plants were young Also in the cold
frame | saw two beds affected last year
which the growers thought was notbl light,
but that the weather caused them to look
yellow.
Sometimes we mistake endema for
blight. Endema generally appears on
young plants. The plants in the seed
houses turn yellow all over The terminal
foliage is affected as much as the others
while with blight the terminal foliage is
generally green. You have probably
noticed in your patches of tomatoes plants
turning yellow and producing very little
fruit which is of inferior quality. That
has been caused by this disease. I have
also seen plants having both endema ard
blight and then they were worthless. In
cur seed bed four years ago we had endema
in places caused by injudicious watering.
We used kerosene emulsion on them and
got the plants in good condition when they
were ready for cold frame. In our patch
five years ago | first saw the old leaves
turn yellow the last time we cultivated
them, but did not become alarmed at that
because some do every year. Then | saw
some of the leaves which | knew ought to
be green become lighter in color, and there
seemed to be slight thickening and curl
ing OF the margin of the leaves, and |
began to detect brown spots in the leaves
even when they were green. They soon
began to turn yellow and drop off. The
hot moist weather at that time was favor
able for blight which made our case a
serious one. The leaves kept on dying and
dropping off, and our plants became feeble
and impaired in health.
Some of the tomatoes on the vine when
they ripened equaled the famous Swedes-
boro blisters that have been in our markets
the past two years. The vitality of the
plant seemed to be spent and the leaves
being oil left the tomatoes to the mercy OF
the suns rays.
Blight may be contracted by the tomato
plant thro' several agencies | would not
use any seed from plants diseased with it.
Would save seed from healthy plants
Some varieties are more susceptible to il
than Others, and if your kind blighted and
you do not spray, discard them and get
some that grow vigorous vines. Through
the agency of spores, which may be in the
soil you use for your seed bed or cold
frame, or might be in the field where you
put your plants These spores not only
attack tomato plants but common weeds. !
had fine crop Of ivy, the poison variety,
on one side ofmy Acme patch that blighted
as bad as any tomatoes. My men sprayed
the vines and it was the spraying or climatic
conditions prevailing at that time we
certainly had fine crop of poison vines
that Summer. The infection of tomato
plants may be caused by the insect pests
that infest this part Of our State. | have
seen the plants covered with the flea that
sometimes plays havoc with sweet potato
plants. Also the Colorado potato beetle
may cause the trouble After they bite
all the branches off they can, they some
times bite holes in the leaves that leave
room for the spores to develop Several
other beetles can produce the same result.
The aphis, which is sometimes found on
plants and which some growers think pro-
duce the condition that is caused by the
blight, | do not think causes the disease,
but think it produces an enfeebled state
thatmakes it capable of taking it and the
progress of the disease more rapid.
So much for its cause, now the treatment.
In preparing your seed bed do not take
any soil from the fences where you had
tomatoes the previous year as it may be
defiled with bacterical germs that produce
blight We mostly take it from sweet
potato beds which we think is as free as
any we can get. Sometimes with good
cultivation and favorable conditions the
plants will out-grow the effects of blight to
certain extent, yet in these cases it causes
some deterioration in quality of the toma-
toes though lack of shade) to ripen I'M
evenly and sun blister if it gets as hot as it
was on the first and second of July last
year. Sometimes we think it has stopped
and will outgrow it as with our patch until
we have several days hot moist weather,
when it spreads and becomes worse than
ever, and sometimes ruins the entire crop.
The only treatment we found to do any
good was the Bordeaux solution. In 1897
| tried different things, but none proved
effectual but Bordeaux. l had no sprayers
but put one hundred gallons on twelve
hundred hills with the watering pots.
While it did not stop the disease entirely,
being applied too late, we picked our best
tomatoes from them, and in fact the only
ones that we're perfect after the first settings
were off the rest of the field. Since then
we have always sprayed with the mixture
not always as we should, but when ever
time permitted. If you do it as you
should, spray your seed beds before you
plant the seed, then about one week before
you transplant to the cold frame, then one
week before putting in the field, and not
less than two or three times in the field or
more if you have the time to do it. For
making the Bordeaux / have two barrels
that hold about sixty gallons EACH You
can measure the water the first time you
make it and mark the barrel so that after
ward you need not measure again. In
one put twenty-f gallons Of water with
six pounds sulphate of copper. The best
way is to put the blue stone in small
flour or salt sack and have it suspended so
it will be in the water, twill then dissolve
in short time. The first time I tried to
dissolve it we put it in vessel with enough
water to cover it we'll, and then went to
stirring it, There seemed to be more blue
stone the longer we stirred.
Then we put it on the stove to boil and
nrod11ced something nameless Then !