The Irish Potato Famine and My Tomatoes.

Did you know that the Irish potato famine was caused by a disease called late blight?

Unfortunatley, my tomato plants have fallen victim to its devastation. I noticed the Carolina Gold variety starting to wilt towards the bottom of the plant and just thought it needed water. About a week passed and Jimmy asked me how long it had been that way. Now you can tell exactly who the gardner is....ME....he hadn't even noticed them.


He inspects the leaves, pulls a few and places them into a ziploc bag. Next thing I know he has disected some of them, they are on slides and his students are looking at the findings under a microscope. Sure enough, it was late blight.

I have three varieties of tomatoes. Juliett (roma), Rutgers and Carolina Gold. The Rutgers variety has the worst case of the disease. The Roma tomatoes have been the most resistant.

Since the disease spreads rapidly and is airborne it could effect the Wisconsin potato crops this year. People with suspectable plants have been encouraged to destory them.

Nevertheless, we must take my plants down....conquer and destory. Sniff Sniff........at least they had a good run this summer and produced TONS of tomatoes, disease or not.