Contrary to popular belief, the main issue regarding tomato disease is not how to prevent them from coming, but rather how to manage them. Rather than figuring out ways to prevent the spread of tomato disease, tomato gardeners are currently determining tomato disease remedies.
This article gives a few insights into how to prevent contamination of pest and bugs to your sweet tomato plants:
How does a tomato catch a disease?
High level of moisture in addition to poor quality of soil may draw pests that later infect tomatoes.
Below is a list of the most common pests found in the average garden that spawn tomato diseases, along with details regarding how one can prevent these pests from inflicting damage:
Early Blight – These are soil-borne fungi that stagnate around a plant’s remains. Rainy weather conditions and unhealthful plants contribute to the existence of these fungi. To prevent them from spreading, one can simply spray sulfur and copper around and on the plant. It is advisable that one remove the plants that are affected and clean away any garden debris.
Late Blight – Rather than curing late blight, one should try stopping it for prevention. Moreover, late blight can be controlled by using copper sprays.
Southern Blight – Work with ammonium rich fertilizers and add calcium to counteract this blight from attacking. One may rotate crops for further protection.
Gray Leaf Spot – One must clean the garden until it is free from debris to prevent gray leaf spot from infecting tomatoes. This tomato disease occurs when tomatoes are kept at a warm and moist temperature.
Septoria Leaf Spot – Just spray copper and treat the garden to prevent the septoria leaf spot during the first signs of it showing.
Verticillium Wilt – In the case of Verticillium Wilt, it is best to choose hybrid tomato varieties due to their high resistance to this kind of pests. If Verticillium Wilt attacks the tomato, remove the affected part immediately to stop its spread.
Management and Preventive Measure
In order to avoid pests like greenflies, gardeners should plant African Marigolds all around the tomatoes, as marigolds ward off pests like eelworms and greenflies. Pets and other farm animals also do not like the smell of African Marigolds, making it an ideal choice to keep plants and animals away from tomatoes.
There are also lots of vegetation crops that can be planted with tomatoes. These are very efficient in keeping away almost all kinds of insects and diseases that insects may inflict upon tomatoes. Good examples of these vegetation crops are basil, onions, parsley, oregano, chives, and celery.
It is also important to carefully water tomatoes, especially when there is not enough sunlight to avoid tomato problems. Over-watering tomatoes can cause the soil to be moist. As pointed out earlier, moist soil is one of the foremost breeding grounds for most pests. When watering, make use of a dripper water system in order to prevent splashing in the soil, as splashing might create blight inside the tomato vegetation.
Malpractice in gardening is the number one cause of tomato diseases and pests. It is essential to weed soil regularly, use organic fertilizer, and regulate the soil to drive away these pests. Also, make sure to spray the tomato plants with an anti-aphid spray early in the day before having warm weather and continue to spray at least once a week. This is one way to prevent these pests from laying their eggs in your tomato plant.
Use quality soil and a natural covering around the plants. Also, make certain that there are enough spaces in between plants to freely circulate air. This will aid in the avoidance of disease spread.
Routinely water the plant daily, preferably during early dawn and late evening. Do not let the water splash the soil “up” onto the lower foliage, as this may cause blight. This system also saves the trouble of manually watering plants using a hose.
Work with organic tomato fertilizer, for this will ensure a superb and healthy tomato crop.
Weed your tomato beds regularly. Many tomato diseases and pests thrive in poorly maintained soil.
One can easily prevent tomato diseases and pests from infecting plants, if and only if one follows good gardening practices by: tending the soil, fertilizing, watering and getting rid of infected foliage.