early blight

I hosed my tomato plants from above every evening just to cool them down after the heat: three mornings later, what had spread on the lower leaves wasn’t sunburn

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I hosed my tomato plants from above every evening just to cool them down after the heat: three mornings later, what had sp...

Three nights of evening overhead watering created the perfect conditions for fungal leaf spot to flourish on tomato plants. What looked like sunburn damage was actually a textbook case of septoria or early blight—diseases that thrive on wet foliage and spread through water splash.

I put last year’s tomato stakes back in the ground to save a few euros: three weeks after the first watering, I saw what had come back up onto the lowest leaves

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I put last year's tomato stakes back in the ground to save a few euros: three weeks after the first watering, I saw what h...

Reusing tomato stakes seems like smart gardening economy—until fungal spores dormant in the porous wood wake up with spring watering. Within three weeks, early blight and other diseases can devastate your crop. Learn the simple disinfection method that costs almost nothing.