"Every year the same thing happens to my tomatoes. At first they grow great but then in early summer they start losing leaves from the bottom up. Eventually the whole plant is trashed and tomato production stops. What is happening and how can I stop it?"
Two words: Early Blight. It's the lucky (and rare!) gardener who doesn't see this problem. The cause is a fungus and control involves several elements.
HOW TO CONTROL:
Garden Cleanup: Be sure to remove as much diseased plant material as possible. At the end of the season, clean up well and don't compost debris. Just throw away all debris.
Crop Rotation: If possible, grow tomatoes on a different site every year, not using the same site for at least three years. However, unless you have a huge garden, this can be pretty difficult.
Staking & Caging: Keeping the tomato plants off the ground helps tremendously, as often the spores linger in the soil.
Mulching: One of the most common sources of Early Blight infection comes from soil splashing on the lower leaves of the plants, either from rain or irrigation. Mulch prevents this. Wheat straw, newspaper, biodegradable plastic, or flattened cardboard boxes work great. Plus, your plants get the advantage of a more evenly moist root zone, which increases yields and reduces fruit cracking.
Timely Fungicide Spraying: Get a fungicide containing chlorothalonil or mancozeb, and spray at recommended rates a couple days after setting your plants out. Then spray every 10 days or so. Spray after rain, too. Keeping up with this spray program will protect your plants all summer and into the fall.
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