With rain, careful what you wish for
I guess it pays to complain, sometimes. As I write this, I am looking at my rain gauge and see that more than 4 inches of rain has fallen this past week at my home in Conesville. Other parts of our region, notably the Hunter Mountain area in the Catskills, have received more than 10 inches and there are flood warnings issued for parts of 3 counties in the Capital District. The Schoharie creek at the Gilboa dam was 10 feet above normal last Thursday morning.
Some of you might be thinking that 4 or 5 inches of rain will keep our gardens supplied for the next five weeks, even if it does not rain again. This is not the case at all, since most of this rain has run off, once the ground became saturated. Once soils reach what is known as their “field capacity” the additional rainfall is of no use. Field capacity varies with soil types and texture. Heavy soils, which have lots of clay will retain moisture longer than sandy soils. There is a greater chance of root rot in clay soils, since waterlogged soil lack oxygen and roots may suffocate. This is a good time to evaluate your landscape soil for wet spots that may limit your plant selection. The good news is that there are landscape plants tolerant of all sorts of soil conditions. There is still plenty of time to select and plant new landscape trees, shrubs and perennials.
Our garden plants will quickly evaporate the excess soil moisture and within a week or so, we will need that one inch per week rainfall, once more. Right now, I wish I had about 10 more rain barrels under my gutters to take advantage of all the surplus! I still fear that we will return to drought conditions in a few weeks as this has been the pattern the past several years. Having a few hundred gallons of stored rainwater will allow me to water as needed.
Unfortunately, the excessive moisture will also create perfect conditions for diseases to develop. Of course we deal with certain diseases every year, but this year there is an outbreak of late blight disease caused by Phytopthora infestans that is absolutely devastating to tomatoes and potatoes.
Right now this disease is widespread in central New York and is headed our way. Some of you may remember that about five years ago we had an outbreak of late blight that virtually eliminated most gardener’s tomatoes. I recall it as the summer of “no tomatoes” and that was a very sad thing! I managed to apply a fungicide spray to my tomato plants during a brief respite from the showers this past week and I will spray again as soon as I am sure it will be dry long enough for it to help.
Most pesticide applications are “rain safe” once they dry on the leaves. I don’t like to use pesticides on my home garden crops, but I also don’t like not getting any tomatoes!
The most common tomato diseases we see every year, such as early blight and Septoria leaf spot may prematurely defoliate the plants and reduce yields, since they are mostly foliar pathogens, but late blight often eliminates the entire crop as it attacks the fruit as well as the foliage. It even affects harvested fruit. There are few things more disheartening than watching the long awaited tomato harvest rot on the windowsill. I just harvested and ate my first three Sun Gold cherry tomatoes and they tasted wonderful! I suspect that some of you grow only tomatoes in your garden because they are so much better than store bought.
There are too many over-the-counter fungicides available at local garden centers (both organic and conventional) to list here. Some of these are used to prevent late blight, but none are completely effective and none can cure an outbreak once it occurs.
I suggest that you consider using one or more of these products before you see symptoms. Symptoms of late blight include grey streaks on stems that may sprout a fuzzy mold in humid weather. Leaves and fruit also develop grey regions that turn brown and eventually rot. Early blight symptoms are different and usually produce brown spots on leaves with bright yellow tissue surrounding them.
Your local garden center staff may be able to advise you as to which products are most effective. All the more reason to shop at local garden centers!