Late blight afflicts both tomatoes and potatoes. In fact, it is the same disease that caused the potato famine in Ireland. It is a fungal disease and spreads through spores that can be transmitted through physical contact with plants, as well as through the air. Once airborne, the spores can spread for miles from a single infection site.

For a while things were looking much better here at NCF than at some other farms in the greater Boston area. Two major CSAs in Lincoln had to destroy their entire tomato crops a couple of weeks ago. Many other farms in surrounding communities also reported that they had to destroy at least part of their crops. Still things looked pretty good here. But with late blight that can change very quickly. The disease can kill a healthy crop in a matter of weeks. For the last two weeks I’ve been watching in dismay as our first planting of tomatoes has succumbed to the disease. It appears to have found its way into our second and even third plantings (no thanks to the deer, which are moving—and browsing—amongst the tomatoes every night these days). While we might get a small harvest of tomatoes, 2009 is going to be remembered as the year without tomatoes—at NCF as well as most of the other small, organic farms in the area.

So is there anything that could be done about late blight? Conventional farmers have an arsenal (literally) of systemic fungicides at their disposal that can effectively control late blight. Organic farmers are not allowed to use them. (Hum, I wonder why?) What organic farmers can use is copper. Unfortunately, the only way for copper to work (as well as those systemic fungicides we’re not allowed to use) is proactively—that is, you have to start spraying it before there’s any infection. And therein lies the catch for many of us small-scale, “organic” (i.e., not certified) farmers—we don’t want to spray for something that might happen. We often don’t want to spray at all!

The University of Massachusetts extension office recommends that organic farmers spray their tomatoes with copper every five days, or every time it rains, whichever is sooner. Has anyone looked outside lately? We’d certainly be spraying more than once every five days if we followed this advice. Not only is this not possible for many small farms because of the time involved in spraying a major crop so often, but copper is, well, toxic. When spraying you need to wear boots and socks, long pants, a long-sleeve shirt, goggles, and a respirator. And while tomatoes thus sprayed can be sold within 24 hours of spraying (!), UMass recommends that harvesting crews also wear long pants, long sleeves, and rubber gloves until the fruit is washed. Sound like something you want sprayed on your vegetables every five days or more often?

It’s not something I feel comfortable doing—for my sake, my crew’s sake, my customers’ sake, or for the soil’s sake. A healthy farm depends in part on fungus in the soil that helps make nutrients available to plants. Dumping a fungicide on the soil every five days or less for an entire season (or two, or three, or every year) seems a bad idea if what we’re trying to create is a sustainable farm system.

So what are we doing? Like most farms in the area, we’re destroying our tomato plantings as they become infected and replanting if possible to try to salvage some value from those beds. It may be extra carrots, or broccoli, or radishes, or greens, but many of our tomato beds will be replanted with something that we can harvest before the hard frosts come. It’s the best we can do; it’s all we can do. So we’re sucking it up and trying to stay cheery as we plow under crops that we’ve been nurturing since March.

Greg Maslowe
Farm Manager
greg@newtoncommunityfarm.org

Tuesday, September 29, at 7 p.m.

For more information and to reserve your seat, contact Jerry Regosin (jregosin@aol.com) or download the reply form on our Web site.

For more information, click here.

Mark your calendar: This year’s Harvest Festival is on Sunday, October 18.

To make it happen, we need volunteers to help out with the Harvest Festival. It’s a great way to enjoy the farm and make a contribution to building community around it. We need people to help with planning and organizing, and we also could use help on the day of the event. If you are interested, contact Peter Barrer at pbarrer@verizon.net.

Photo: Romi Selinger and Nina Lokshin at last year’s Harvest Festival

Click here to see more event details on our Web site.

Click here for the news report from the farm.

If you have any thoughts or questions about the FiT program or any other educational programs at the farm, please contact farm educator Yannick Perrette at education@newtoncommunityfarm.org or by cell phone at 917-584-4420. Happy summer learning!

Photo: Jasper Maslowe and Marissa Krasner deal with carrots in the FiT program.

For information about summer classes, click here.

This was the third year for the ride but the first year NCF participated. It was a wonderful sight to see 70 riders turning onto Nahanton Street and then pulling into the farm. They were impressed by our operation and enjoyed the fresh beans and cucumbers–perfect for a hot, sunny day.

To see the recipes, click here.

If you can help us with any of these items, please contact Greg Maslowe at 617-916-9655 or at newtoncommunityfarm@comcast.net. We are a 501(c)3 organization. Your donations may be tax-deductible. Thank you for your support!