Blight and Tomato Trials

Tomato Trials

Late blight has ruined the tomato patch, and as a way to look “on the bright side of life”, I’m treating this outbreak as a learning opportunity. I’ve split up the patch into different zones, each with an identifying marker. The first zone is a control, as I’ve learned from the scientific method. In the control zone, I will not use any treatment, and see how the plants fair with no intervention. In the photo above, the control zone is shown on the left. In the center is zone E, and on the right is zone F. These have the most promising results thus far. Zone E is showing excellent new growth, and I’m encouraged to the point of hoping for some tomatoes out of this area. Zone F is not as bad as the control zone, but still not good. The plants in this zone look bad, but are not getting worse. I may section off another zone, and apply both treatments from E and F to the new zone. 

I’m not following the scientific method completely however, as there are 20 + different types of tomatoes spread out and mixed up in the patch. I’ve tried to make the zones large enough to contain multiple varieties in the hopes that I’ll be able to tell if it is one particular tomato gene that is a factor, rather then just the treatment.

All in all, I’ve certainly learned what hasn’t worked, and I’ll definately grow blight resistant varieties in the future.