Hello Jennnay,
Welcome to The Garden Helper's Forum!!
We are very glad to have you here!!!

I know that there are varieties out there
they say are resistant to those soil born disease's but I don't believe them.... LOL!!

I battle that with you, I have the Septoria leaf Spot, which eats the plant up from the bottom to the top in the midst of the growing season.....

It's in the soil, and that I know of, nothing get's it out.... it's more preventative measures to keep it at bay, until you get a crop in....

Alot has to do with growing practices..

Making sure the soil is well tilled, tomatoes can have an incredible roots system.
Love compost and good aeration...

Check with your local Co~operative Extension for a soil sample.. Tom's love acidic soil...
*and most compost are alkaline content*

And watch the watering, on two levels..
One if there's not enough, it can cause a stress on the plant...
And if it splashes up onto the plant, stem, leaves or fruit, it starts the disease process...
Keep it dry unless it's by rain water..

How to keep it, well, you need some sort of covering between the soil and the plant.
ie; landscape fabric, grass clippings *with no pesticides/herbicides from lawn*, straw, layers of newspaper, etc..
And watering system, maybe drip irragation with emitters, (*probably the best, but can be expensive, time consuming )
Or a watering can and right at the base of the plant water..
I've tried a ba~zillion things, I'm on the bottoms of Juicy~Juice jugs cut off and shoved into the dirt and water in those...
"Always remember to water their toes, not their nose", especially if you have children helping to water...

And your nutrients in the soil also should be some type of Magnesium, Calcium... Mag help's with absorbion of Calcium and most of the time calcium is lacking in soil...
*Try some Epsom Salts *

And I am myself just looking into the Copper...
Found some good info on it at Gardens Alive/Soap-Shield® Fungicidal Soap

And finally, your items you put into the soil have to be cleaned, *I am sooooooo guilty of
NOT doing this ) but you shouldn't put anything back into the soil that had the disease on it, *ie: last year garden stuff like stakes)
with out bleaching it first or getting new...
I am not rich enough to get rid of it, which is half the reason I have it, I borrowed some of my parents tomato cages when I first started out and put it into my dirt... UGH!!!

But with doing all of the above, I do manage to get a pretty good crop of tomatoes.. *although I plant so many, how would I not??*

Hope some of this helps, and don't hesitate to ask anything more, I tend to skip things and go off on jaunts with out realizing it.

Weezie

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Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





http://photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/

Jennnay,
For the most part, that stuff is in the soil
already, it's not that we do it, or anything,
but it raises it's ugly head under certain conditions....

quote:

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except for the notorious rains we have here (it was a dry summer last year though)

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Like you said the "Ugly Rains"
and too much moisture.....
Or tooooo much stress and not able to absorb
the calcium.......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow!!! What a great gardening system you've got there!!!! I'd love to have the drip irragation thing, but $$ are short....

And if you do the copper thing, I'd love to hear about it and what the outcome was for you....
I am hopin' I can get some this year and use it.
I've been reading up on it, and sounds like what I'd need.
I am an organic gardener and this seems like something that helps and isn't toooooo dangerous to use...

Weezie

* * * *
Weezie

Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have
done this have entertained angels without realizing it.
- Bible - Hebrews 13:2





http://photobucket.com/albums/y250/weezie13/

I grow a number of different varieties of tomatoes, including one called Peron Sprayless tomato from Seeds of Change. The catalog describes it as being highly disease resistant and in my garden the vines are noticeably longer lasting than my other tomatoes.
http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.asp?item_no=PS10769

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Terry

May the force be with you

Hey there Jennay..I should have paid more attention to your original post. I'm kind of wondering now what amount of rain you had last year. Water splashing on tomato leaves can cause foliage diseases, of which blight is one. I know Snohomish County can have damp summers, to say the least, but I didn't keep track of your weather last year. I moved from Seattle 2 yrs ago. While there's nothing you can do about the amount of rain you get, mulching the base of the plants with a goodly amount of straw (~4" or so) and burying a soaker hose can really help reduce foliage disease caused by water splashing. I hope your luck is better this year.

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hello my friend,
i do not have a problem with what you describe
but i once lost every plant i planted of san marzano tomatoes in late july although the fruit
were un harmed. i do have a problem with
foliage disease how ever in that the leaves of
the plants start to dry out from bottom to top
starting in late august but i always get in a crop. but usally only until sept 20th. i was raised by old southern italian farmers who never
lost a crop. they always sprayed everything
with copper sulfate at least 2 times in a season.
and they always told me never to wet the leaves
on the plants. in fact they watered very little.
i guess these are not just folk beliefs.
by the way if any one knows a good open pollinated
disease resistant tomato good for canning let me
know.

marcantonio

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mark a pezzano