Willie Kirk, Plant Pathology

This article was originally posted to the Vegetable CAT Alert on August 26, 2009.

After visiting several smaller acreage tomato growers in western Mecosta County last week, it became clear that the 2009 epidemic of late blight was extraordinary. All fields visited had late blight. The symptoms ranged from about five percent of the foliage and one percent of the fruits to 100 percent of the foliage and fruits infected. Clearly, this epidemic was beyond the experience of any of these growers who were largely stunned and certainly one of the worst I had ever experienced. In order to document this epidemic, I recorded some video footage and posted it on YouTube. In addition, a flier was prepared for distribution in these communities to guide these growers on some actions they could take to reduce the impact of this disease both for themselves and their neighbors.