Things finally look like they are starting to get established and are growing fast! The peas are abundant, plants are getting tall and green, but within that green I spotted some yellow...and brown.
The problem with excess rain (like 10" excess) cold soil, and windy conditions (especially on top of Long Hill) is another kind of growth. Fungus. Specifically, early blight and septoria leaf spot on the Solanaceae family: tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes and peppers. Once the plant is infected, it cannot be cured, but it can be controlled.
http://ipm.uconn.edu/documents/raw2/416/Pest%20Message%206-14-13.pdf
(excerpt from the UConn IPM weekly newsletter)
I found early blight on only one farm this week and ironically that was in a high tunnel. Remember that this disease infects leaves based on how long the leaves are wet and they have been wet in the field more or less continually for a couple of weeks. Scout your tomato and potato plantings weekly and start fungicide applications as soon as you find the first early blight lesion on the lowest leaves on the plant. The lesions are .-3/4 inch in diameter, and have concentric rings like a target. Conventional growers can use protectant fungicides to start the season such as a mancozeb type product like manzate, dithane or penncozeb, or can use a chlorothanolnil product such as Bravo. Organic growers can use OMRI-approved copper products or try a new competitive fungi product by Certis called DoubleNickle.
The good news is that late blight has not been found anywhere in the Northeast, so despite all the rain and cool weather, we are not recommending preventative sprays for late blight at this time. Of course, if you find early blight in your planting and need to start your protectant program, the products mentioned above for early blight will provide protection from low levels of late blight spores as well. We recommend that you save your more potent and expensive late blight fungicides for later in the season in case the disease shows up or to use on downy mildew in cucurbit crops when it show up.
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Here is what you can do:
Check your plants at the garden, and especially if you see evidence of this, take a few minutes to do a few things:
1. Trim the plants up from the bottom to remove infested foliage and increase distance of the plant from the soil. (this should be done as the healthy plant grows as well to protect against soil-borne diseases)
*remember that you and your tools can spread the spores around, so try to touch the plants as little as possible and put the clippings in a plastic bag. You should also sanitize your tools in a 10% bleach solution, preferably as you go along to kill the spores. I know this is hard to do as it takes preparation, but I just have to suggest it!
2. Don't compost the infected leaf material. Bring it home with you and throw it in the garbage. The spores can survive in the soil over winter, and cause disease the next year.
3. Put a layer of mulch, hay, or landscape fabric/black plastic under the plants to discourage soil splashing during heavy rains and watering.
4. Keep scouting your plants for new infected leaves, and keep on top of it. You can purchase organic copper fungicide spray to inhibit new infection on clean leaves. The problem is, you are not curing it, but controlling it. This means it has to be reapplied every week or so throughout the season, especially after it rains.
Here is one kind of spray that I will be purchasing:
http://www.amazon.com/Bonide-811-Copper-4E-Fungicide/dp/B000LNXY22/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371754058&sr=8-1&keywords=copper+fungicide
http://www.planetnatural.com/product/liquid-copper-fungicide/
Good luck! I'm dreaming of tomatoes, and am willing to fight my battles with mother nature to get them!
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