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I just realized that one of the plants I bought has this. But thank goodness I planted two of my own plants this season and they are doing fine.

my daughter received a supersonic tomato plant from an after school club..after a few days on our windowsill it's leaves turned black, we pulled off the leaves, about three healthy leaves remained...we cared for it like a baby..taking it outside in the sun...protecting it from rain, after a few weeks it began to spring back, all the leaves are healthy and we even have a few flowers on it now.

If the slow food movement was in full swing, and your food supply was only coming from local farms and the existing food chain supply was completely dismantled like they want (instead of being drastically overhauled as it should be), an event like this or drought or an infestation or flood or to much rain, food prices on effected crops would locally and dramatically go up in price at the market. It would not hurt those who are well off (most of the folks who are behind the slow food movement) but it would dramatically effect middle and low income folks. If your only going to rely on local food supply, get ready for local food shortages and price hikes when mother nature decides to shake things up as she always does long before man even existed.

ah, here's the link about "The real jersey tomato" project

http://www.njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/MoretonTomato.htm

Hi,
I grew my cherry tomatoes by seed. They seem to be doing well and I have gotten about a dozen or more with many more green ones on the plants.

What are the chances my tomatoes will come down with this?

Thanks,
Rachel

Since you have Prof. Holmstrom on the line, I wonder if you could ask him about Rutgers' effort to make the tomato taste more like a "tomato?" I believe his organization is experimenting with reaching back to the breeds of tomato that made the "Jersey Tomato" a brand. Waiting patiently!

My son goes to camp at stonebarns who have lost two thirds of their tomatoes. Yet we are having a great crop less tha five miles away in our garden. Both tomatoes and potatoes are great. We grew them from seed though. Could that have anything to do with our success?

The link:

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/Facilities/lihrec/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm

What Brand Name fungicide would your experts recommend ?

This blight on the summers' crop of tomatoes in the Northeast is painful for all tomato lovers!

There is an alternative....look for hydroponically grown tomatoes - Shushan Hydro Farm sells their tomatoes at the Union Square Greenmarket - here is a link to my article about this farm.

http://www.cookwithaloha.com/FoodProductsHydroFarm.htm

I agree - tomatoes are definitely a blight. Possibly, we'll soon be rid of them!

Another question (non-tomato) for the veggie doctor: my zucchini and squash plants develop mildew each summer in late August. Is this a soil problem or the climate? We do not overwater -- we don't water at all, in fact, unless the ground is really dry.

What are the physical characteristics of the disease? The only problem we had with our tomatoes was early in the season, the abundance of rain washed the iron out of the soil causing yellowing of leaves. That was remedied by adding some iron to the soil.

I just spoke w/ my boyfriend, whose family farm which is on Long Island grows tomatoes. He said that they have had a fungus because of all the rain we've had, but that they have sprayed and the tomatoes seem to be ok.

Anything more on the source of this year's blight? I read in the NYTimes last week that a large grower of plants distributed through Home Depot/Lowes/Walmart/Kmart was a likely source. (They did a plant recall in late June.)

P.S.: We live in northern Westchester county and are growing the plants in the garden, in bottomless, raised boxes filled with soil, manure and compost.

I missed teh beginning of the show...Have both mating types of P. infestans been found in the northeast?

Our tomato plants, grown from seeds, were delayed due to the heavy rains and have not yet produced fruit. Will spraying the leaves with Serenade prevent blight, and what signs should we look for?

I have a rather large garden on my deck in Brooklyn and my tomatoes have never looked better. All varieties, standard and heirloom tomatoes are more prolific this year than ever before.

What about the MONO-culture problem?

Short of the use of the exhaustible Ogaglallah aquifer in the MidWest, monoculture is the biggest issue.