Re: septoria and late blight

**K* M* <k*@iol.ie>**

On 7 Jul 2009, at 12:39, Miranda Smith wrote:
>
> If you plan on using a plastic enclosure at the end of the season-- 
> tunnels
> or a home-made hoop house--you have time for a second crop. Watch them
> carefully and pick off infected leaves as they occur--the disease  
> spreads
> from the bottom.
>

If you are using a hoop house you can normally avoid both septoria and  
late blight completely by sinking a one litre flower pot into the soil  
beside each plant and running the nozzles of trickle irrigation into  
the flower pots (or of course by hand watering into them if you don't  
have trickle irrigation). This keeps the soil surface completely dry  
and so long as you don't let foliage get too dense and keep air  
circulating you will prevent both of the above diseases. On both sides  
of the Atlantic recent weather is teaching us new tricks - doing what  
we did before without thinking about the reasons behind it is no  
longer an option and parroting what it says in the books is a recipe  
for disaster.

kathryn
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