Phytophthora Will Not Work - We Are Fighting With It And Defending Ourselves

2023 Author: Ava Durham | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 07:13

How much work do we put into ensuring that our garden will please us with an excellent harvest. But every year, in the second half of summer, there comes a moment when brown spots suddenly appear on potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and pepper, and we understand that this is all - the end of our work - late blight has appeared! This insidious disease most often catches us by surprise, and despite the fact that everyone and everyone knows about it, many do not even think about fighting it. And all because they are afraid of chemistry, which can defeat him, and even then not completely! However, there are prevention rules that allow to restrain this attack and modern, completely harmless to humans, biological products aimed at combating its pathogen. In this article, we will talk about them.

Late blight - what is it

In order to understand how to deal with late blight, you need to learn as much as possible about it. This insidious disease is caused by fungi from the genus Phytophthora, which include about 70 species (although scientists estimate that there may be about 100-500 species that have not yet been discovered). Loves rainy weather and associated sharp temperature fluctuations. Distributed by zoospores. Hibernates in soil, on affected plant debris. Easily transmitted from one plant to another by wind and rain drops. It affects stems, fruits, leaves, root system of a huge number of crops.

Most often, potatoes are an indicator of late blight in our areas. He is the first to be affected by the disease and becomes the source of its spread.

On potato leaves, late blight manifests itself in the form of brown oily spots. Since fungi release toxins, infected tissues quickly darken and rot in wet weather. The lower leaves die first, then late blight covers the entire plant. At the same time, the edges of the leaves are often pulled down. On the underside of the leaf plates, the spots are surrounded by a whitish cobweb bloom.

Potato tubers are affected by late blight at the time of formation. More massive infection occurs during the harvest period, from contact with the affected tops. The lesion manifests itself in the form of gray (lead) spots, the tissue under which becomes brown, but does not soften. Rotting starts during storage.

Loves late blight and tomato. On its shoots and leaves, the spots are brown or grayish in color, gradually increase, at high humidity they are covered with a whitish bloom of mycelium. The affected plant parts quickly rot. Fruits either do not form or lose their market value. On them the spots are gray-brown, hard, slightly depressed. Under the spots, a gray-brown tissue is observed that grows in wedges deep into the pulp. The affected areas soften as they mature.

It affects late blight and eggplant, and pepper, and garden strawberries. In strawberries, the root system is the first to suffer. The central cylinder of the root turns red, the roots are exposed and die off. In the spring, the leaves acquire a grayish color, grow poorly, die off. With the fleeting course of the disease, the plant withers suddenly, starting from the bottom of the bush.

How to deal with late blight

In the fight against late blight, preventive measures are used primarily: destruction of affected plant residues, compliance with crop rotation, selection of the most resistant varieties and hybrids to the disease, planting healthy planting material, maintaining spatial isolation between plants and crops capable of transmitting infection to each other. In addition, you can get ahead of the spread of the disease by planting early varieties and hybrids of vegetables that have time to give the harvest before the mass destruction of plants. And to include the introduction of beneficial microflora into the main list of land care works by using modern biological products.

Why today more and more gardeners are choosing biological products to help

Why today more and more often in the issue of prevention of not only late blight, but also most other diseases, we are talking about biological preparations with effective microorganisms, such as Baikal EM - 1, Tamir biosecurity? Because, basically, only those who grow products for sale allow themselves to use chemicals in their gardens. Most of us are engaged in gardening precisely in order to grow pure products, for ourselves, for our children, and therefore choose methods that are safe for human health to help.

Phytophthora fungi feed on decaying plant tissues. Their disputes persist in the ground for over 8 years. The life cycle can be described by the following scheme: soil - plant - host - soil. For this reason, the introduction of a complex of beneficial soil-forming microorganisms into the soil significantly improves it, accelerating the processing of organic matter and displacing pathogenic microflora. In addition, by converting unavailable nutrients into available ones, you provide crops with more nutritious nutrition, enhancing their growth potential and immunity. Healthy plants are better able to withstand any diseases, including late blight, and give a much larger harvest in terms of volume and quality.

Thus, biological products perform several tasks at once: they improve and cleanse the soil and contribute to the natural resistance of the crops we grow to unfavorable external conditions and diseases.

How do Baikal EM - 1 and Tamir biosecurity work?

All biological products show the best results in the fight against plant diseases when used regularly. Moreover, the earlier this application begins, the more reliable the protection.

In the fight against late blight, it is best when beneficial microorganisms are introduced into the ground already during the pre-sowing preparation of the beds. To do this, Baikal EM - 1 is diluted in warm water, at the rate of 100 ml per 10 liters, and the top layer of earth is shed. Thus, by the time of sowing seeds or planting tubers, seedlings, the soil is already saturated with useful microflora and has an improved structure, especially when organic matter is introduced.

Then you need to process the seeds. Here, 5 g of the drug is enough for 200 ml of water. And then, to conduct weekly watering of grown plants, using 10 mg of Baikal EM - 1 per 10 liters of water. In this case, the task is precisely the strait of the root zone, and not saturation of the soil with moisture.

In risk areas where the danger of late blight is high, it is possible to process the green mass of crops by fine-dispersion spraying. In this case, a thin film is formed on their surface, the bacteria present in which effectively resist pathogenic microflora. However, such treatment postpones late blight infection by only 10 - 12 days, so spraying must be carried out regularly.

Tamir biosecurity is a derivative of Baikal EM-1. Its composition also allows you to effectively resist late blight and a number of other diseases by regular weekly spraying of crops at a concentration of 10 ml of the drug per 10 liters of water. However, it can also process plants that already have signs of the development of the disease, daily, until they completely disappear. For this, a working solution with a concentration of 1: 300 is used.

Both drugs work well in combination, enhancing the effect. They are completely harmless to humans, soil, and plants. After their application there is no recommended waiting period (for the drug to decompose), vegetables can be removed, washed and eaten immediately.

Output

Despite the fact that late blight is a "thunderstorm" of vegetable and berry crops in all climatic zones, it is possible and necessary to fight it. Moreover, today biological products that are completely harmless to the ecology of the soil and human health have come to the rescue in this struggle. With their help, it became possible not only to get away from the problem of diseases, but also to qualitatively improve and improve the soil, increase the quantity and quality of the crop. And most importantly, to avoid the chagrin associated with a rainy summer and wasted work.

May this season pass without phytophthora!