Homemade Remedies for a Tomato Blight

Symptoms

• Tomato blight first appears on the lower leaves of plants as small, brown spots. The leaves will turn yellow and brown, and as the disease progresses, the foliage will wither and drop from the plant. The absence of leaves will allow too much light to get to fruits, creating sunscald and sunburn. Blight is caused by a fungal growth that spreads in wet weather.

Prevention

• The three blights that attack tomatoes are septoria leaf spot, early blight and late blight. All three grow in wet conditions, and all show similar damage symptoms. The best way to control blight is to prevent it. Rotate crops regularly to prevent tomato blight, which may overwinter in soil. Change the planting site for your tomatoes every year, repeating the same location only once every three or four years. Remove tomato vines and other debris every fall and discard of it immediately. When watering tomato plants, water the soil around the base of the plants. Splashing water and wet foliage only encourages fungal growth that creates blight. Always water in the morning, giving plants time to dry in the sun during the day.

Mechanical Control

• When tomato blight symptoms occur, remove all affected leaves immediately to prevent the spread of the disease. Burn, do not compost, these infected plant parts. Blight lives in soil and may continue to affect plants even after you treat the problem. If blight symptoms persist, remove the plants that have been affected and treat tomatoes with a homemade fungicide.

Homemade Fungicide

• Make a homemade fungicide using common ingredients. Mix 2 1/2 tbsp. of cooking oil with 2 1/2 tbsp. of baby shampoo in 1 gallon of water. Shake the mixture well before adding 2 tbsp. of baking soda. Put the mixture in a spray bottle, and spray it directly on tomato foliage to kill blight. The fungicide should be sprayed on both sides of the leaves. Re-apply the fungicide every five to seven days until all symptoms of blight disappear.