Tomato plants have been removed from stores
in half a dozen states as a destructive and infectious plant
disease makes its earliest and most widespread appearance ever in
the eastern United States.
Late blight - the same disease that caused the Irish Potato
Famine in the 1840s - occurs sporadically in the Northeast, but
this year's outbreak is more severe for two reasons: infected
plants have been widely distributed by big-box retail stores and
rainy weather has hastened the spores' airborne spread.
The disease, which is not harmful to humans, is extremely
contagious and experts say it most likely spread on garden center
shelves to plants not involved in the initial infection. It also
can spread once plants reach their final destination, putting
tomato and potato plants in both home gardens and commercial fields
at risk.
Meg McGrath, professor of plant pathology at Cornell University,
calls late blight "worse than the Bubonic Plague for plants."
"People need to realize this is probably one of the worst
diseases we have in the vegetable world," she said. "It's certain
death for a tomato plant."
Tomato plants have been removed from Home Depot, Wal-Mart,
Lowe's and Kmart stores in all six New England states, plus New
York. Late blight also has been identified in all other East Coast
states except Georgia, as well as Alabama, West Virginia and Ohio,
McGrath said.
It is too early in the season to know whether infected plants
will taint large crops or negatively affect commercial growers. But
if that happens, growers could be forced to raise prices to cover
costs associated with combating the disease.
Agriculture officials in the various states still are trying to
determine where the outbreak started. One major grower,
Alabama-based Bonnie Plants, supplies most of the tomato plants to
big-box stores, but it is unclear whether the plants were infected
before or after leaving the supplier's multiple greenhouses.
"There's no way in the world you can pin this on one plant
company, but we just happen to be the biggest," said Dennis
Thomas, the company's general manager.
The company has regularly inspected greenhouses in 38 states,
including Maine, New Hampshire and New York. Its most recent
inspections - in New Jersey and Pennsylvania - found no evidence of
disease.
"We've not been written up one time for any late blight disease
that was confirmed," Thomas said, noting that Bonnie Plants sprays
seedlings before shipping them to stores, but that doesn't happen
after the plants arrive. He said the company was proactive in
removing plants once the outbreak occurred.
In the meantime, plant experts are warning gardeners to be on
the lookout for the disease and to take quick action if it crops
up. The first sign is often brown spots on plant stems, followed by
nickel-sized olive-green or brown spots on the tops of leaves and
fuzzy white fungal growth underneath. Tomato fruit will show firm,
brown spots.
Spraying with fungicides can control late blight if begun before
symptoms appear, but many plant experts recommend removing and
destroying the plants instead to prevent spores from traveling.
Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board,
said the state's potato farmers are concerned, but not in crisis
mode.
"It's pretty easy to make our growers aware of it, that's the
simple part. But what we've started to do is really reach out to
home gardeners throughout Maine to ask them to be very diligent
about checking their tomato plants or potato plants," he said.
Hilary Chapman of Hopkinton, N.H., hasn't yet seen any signs of
blight on her four tomato plants - two she planted from seed and
two purchased from a small local greenhouse.
"I have one plant that has two tomatoes on it, and everything
looks good," she said, "but I'll be watching."