We Know Early Blight, but Late Blight??

Yes, late blight, the potato famine, a disease we rarely EVER see in Kentucky is here. And with a vengeance, especially in Eastern KY. This disease attacks both potatoes and tomatoes and has been diagnosed on tomatoes in Kentucky in the following counties: Laurel, Larue, Jackson, Breathitt, Johnson, Montgomery, and Wolfe.

Late blight is a fast-moving disease that has very much enjoyed the cool, damp, cloudy weather that we've had pretty much all this summer.

We are highly encouraging gardeners to scout their tomatoes (and potatoes) for this disease. Fungicides are recommended -- something like chlorothalonil (Daconil, Fungonil) or mancozeb/maneb.

For those of you doing things organically, use fixed copper or Oxidate. Under high disease pressure, even these will not work.

Let me know if you see anything suspicious in your gardens!

Summer Harvest

I've been patiently waiting on my 'Purple Haze' (All-America selection) carrots to make a root. Here's what I got:

One turned out orange. I'm unaware of the stability of the purple color. Or maybe a stray seed just got packaged up in error. Look at the interior of this carrot! Great stuff! I took a bite before realizing I wanted to take a picture....

And here is one of my 'Diva' cucumbers, also an All-America selection. Not a spine on it, smooth as a baby's butt.