Posted: 07.28.2010

Feature by summer intern, Ashley Nimtz

Late Blight is back again this year, and there is more of it than ever before!!  Blight is showing up much earlier than last year and is now in potatoes as well as tomatoes in Wisconsin.  The Blight showed up in five counties, mostly in central Wisconsin. 

Amada Gevens, UW Extension agent in Plant Pathology, told me that if you find the disease - report it right away.  She says once you find the disease, destroy the plants and avoid spreading the spores.  Gevens explained that if you feel you might have the disease, take a sample and send it into the UW diagnostic lab for free testing. 

Last year was the first time Wisconsin saw the disease in the past few years, according to Gevens.    The blight is prospering this year because of  July’s wet weather.  The wind and rain that came with those storms easily carry spores from place to place - rapidly spreading the disease.  The warm, damp weather incubated the spores allowing them to grow even faster.    Right now, blight's been confirmed in Kewaunee, Waukesha, Monroe, Portage, and Marquette counties according to Geven’s, but she says so far there have only been individual cases.  Numbers of cases could increase every day, however.

Gevens says the best thing to do right now is to protect your plants.  She says to apply fungicides while the forecast is sunny.  For more information about the Late Blight, and what fungicides to use visit www.plantpath.wisc.edu/wivegdis.

« back to news articles