Published: August 09, 2009 11:38 pm      

Harvest of headaches: Fungus brings frustration for gardeners

The telephone calls seeking advice from Cambria County’s Master Gardeners were so numerous Thursday staff had to bring in extra phones to handle the crush.

“The calls are about tomato blight. I’ve had people with 60 and 90 plants, and a lot of it has gone too far. They just have to throw away the plants,” said John Drahnak, coordinator of the Cambria County Master Gardener program.

Late tomato blight, from the same family that caused the potato famine in Ireland in the 1800’s, has put commercial growers on alert and is forcing backyard gardeners across the region to yank the sickly, fungus-infested plants from the ground long before they bear any red fruit.

The blight also is turning up in some potato patches and it can spread to eggplant and pepper plants.

The fungus is caused by the cool temperatures and rain that has plagued the region much of the summer. Apparently, there are few areas in the region left unscathed.

Phil Gardner, who grows vegetables in his backyard along Uhl Street in Somerset, said this is the first time in 30 years he has seen tomato blight. He put 20 tomato plants in the ground this spring, hoping for a bumper crop. As of late last week he had lost about half.

“I don’t know. I’m hoping the plants I save will make it,” Gardner said.

Former Tribune-Democrat reporter Linda Hudkins, who gardens at her home outside Ashville, said she was surprised by how swiftly the blight moved through her plants.

“They’re standing down there looking like someone took them out with a flamethrower,” she said. “From the first spot until they were all gone took about five days.”

Unfortunately, by the time the first olive green to brown spots appear on the leaves, it’s probably too late to save the plant.

After making sure it is blight, the only thing left to do is pull the plants from the ground, making sure to get all of the roots and dispose of them, said Miguel Saviroff, of the Somerset County Cooperative Extension Service.

“I’ve had three and four phone calls a day. It’s something that came this year in what they call the perfect storm,” he said.

Other species of the fungus world prosper in wet and warm environments, but with late tomato blight the ideal conditions are wet and cool, Saviroff said.

Plant specialists advise keeping the plants out of the compost pile. The fungus spreads by airborne spores, so they need to be placed in trash bags and left lying in the sun for several days to fully kill the living host needed to survive.

Then send the trash bags off to the landfill.

The garden can be sanitized by covering it with clear plastic and allowing the sun to bake the soil for a week or so, Drahnak said.

Those tomatoes that ripen on the vine despite the blight are safe to eat if they are washed properly, Saviroff said. “Wash them well and dry with a paper towel, then they are safe to eat,” he said.

Green tomatoes from blighted plants can be ripened in a paper bag and consumed.

Some recommend, as a final precaution, planting tomatoes or potatoes in a different part of the garden next year.

Longtime tomato grower Gene Krotzer of Somerset said he first identified the blight in his garden on July 21.

“Once it starts it spreads pretty much like wildfire,” he said.

“The late blight epidemic is hitting very hard.”

Its greatest impact appears to be on backyard tomato plants, but it is also turning up on potato plants and has commercial growers on guard.

“We found it in our fields and we’re treating for it, we’re spraying,” said Jim Hite,er4 a third-generation farmer from Chest Springs who has

200 acres of potatoes to worry about.

Hite, who ships the bulk of his crop to a variety of potato chip companies, said he won’t know the impact of the blight on his crop until he digs the potatoes in the fall and sees the black spots.

“The potential is there for it to be bad,” Hite said.

For Krotzer and many in the region, gardening is a labor of love. To put so much time and effort into something just to see it die is hard to take.

“Forty-two tomato plants, stalked, some five foot high, tied up, it’s a nightmare,” he said.

Consumers also should be prepared to pay higher prices for tomatoes into the fall.

While commercial growers including Thad Hess of Hess Family Farm Market, Somerset, are staying ahead of the blight, the large loss in home gardens will send more canners and preservers to the markets.

“You’ll see an increase in prices,” Drahnak said. “As demand goes up, the price goes up.”

Hess, who is struggling to maintain the nearly 500 tomato plants he has outdoors and in greenhouses, thinks the blight will shorten the growing season. Already, home gardeners are calling to order tomatoes by the bushel, he said.

“It very well could increase tomato prices. We have a lot of customers saying they’re having the same problem,” Hess said.