Soil treatment from late blight in the fall: the choice of drugs, instructions

A serious problem for any gardener is late blight, a fungal disease that affects potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and even strawberries. A rich harvest is the dream of any gardener, both a beginner and an experienced one. But often viral diseases affecting cultures cross out all works. How to deal with late blight - one of the most dangerous diseases of many late blight plants?

What is late blight

Among the most common diseases of cultivated plants is late blight, the very name of which is translated from Greek as "destructive, annihilating." It is caused by parasitic fungi that settle on the underground and terrestrial organs of the plant, as well as in the soil. They cause rot and decay of the tops.

The following symptoms will help you to find out that the plant is sick.

• Brown spots appear on the leaves, which begin to grow at high speed. On stems, the disease manifests itself as the formation of brown spots of irregular shape.
• After a short time, a grayish coating appears on the neoplasms - spores by which the fungus multiplies.
• 3-4 days after infection, the disease covers the entire plant and is transmitted to neighboring bushes.
• In dry weather, the leaves dry and die, in wet weather they rot.
• Affected fruits become covered with dark spots that spread rapidly over the entire surface.

The fungus can also affect the tubers of plants, especially potatoes. They form spots that hide brown tissue underneath.

Dangers of the disease

Late blight is a real disaster for any gardener for the following reasons:

• It spreads fast. If you do not keep track of and destroy the affected plants on time, the disease will affect all crops and ruin the crop.
• Reproduction is carried out by zoosporangia - asexual spores that are very resistant to adverse environmental factors.
• Rainy summers are an ideal environment for breeding zoosporangia, which, once in a suitable environment, quickly increase in number and affect tissue tissues.
• Spores can not only persist on the affected planting material, but also winter in the soil.
• If the tomatoes show signs of infection of the fruit, then the situation with potatoes is more difficult. You can dig a crop in the fall, with horror to discover that he died.

Modern breeders make every effort to develop tomato and potato varieties resistant to late blight, but so far only relative results have been achieved: the disease in these varieties develops much more slowly. However, plants resistant to late blight still get sick.

Given these circumstances, gardeners need to make every effort to prevent contamination of crops. This will help autumn tillage from late blight.

Basic Rules

The first stage of disease prevention is digging a plot in the fall. It is very important to choose dump digging - that is, turning an earthen coma. Digging depth should be equal to one bayonet of a shovel.

It is necessary to observe the rules of agricultural technology: do not plant potatoes or tomatoes on the same beds for two seasons in a row, the same applies to strawberries. To achieve the best result, beds can be used only after 3 years.

When planting, it is imperative to plant crops at a certain distance from each other. "Depression" on the beds is one of the causes of the disease.

These simple recommendations should be followed, but to solve the problem, annual soil treatment with special tools is also necessary.

Effective drugs

Popular methods include soil treatment with copper sulfate in the fall. How to do it? The beds for which planting of nightshade are planned for next season must be watered with a solution of 2-3%, after which they must be dug up and treated with fungicide (Fitosporin-M, Ordan). It is simple to prepare the solution: 2 tablespoons of vitriol are added to 10 liters of water.

Achievements of the chemical industry

In especially difficult cases, the above funds may prove to be ineffective, therefore, soil treatment from late blight should be carried out in the fall using chemical preparations. There are several effective tools, information about which will be presented in the table.

These drugs, when used correctly and carefully, are safe, but it should be remembered that work is done with poisons, so gloves and a cotton-gauze dressing must be worn in advance, and the treatment should be carried out in closed clothing.

Application features

Soil cultivation from late blight should be carried out in the autumn according to the rules that are indicated in the instructions for a particular drug. The application of each of them has its own specifics:

• The Ordana solution should be prepared immediately before use. For soil treatment, it is necessary to dilute 5 g of the drug per liter of water.
• “Acrobat MC”, “Ditan M 45”: 20 g of the substance per liter of water are taken to prepare the solution.
• “Hom”: dosage - 40 g per 10 liters of liquid.

The work of the gardener will be facilitated by the exact following of the instructions. It is very important to remember that while working with drugs you should not smoke, eat or drink. It is unacceptable to prepare a solution in a kitchen utensil.

After tomatoes

Tillage in the greenhouse after late blight of tomatoes can be done using the following drugs:

• Planzir.
• Baktofit.
• Alirin B.
• Trichodermin.
• Phytocide M.

These drugs belong to biologically active fungicides - that is, agents that destroy the fungus. They water the soil in the autumn after digging, in the spring the treatment is repeated. It is very important to moisten the earth abundantly so that water with fungicide penetrates to a depth of 10 cm - this is where the spores are.

Effective in the fight against late blight after tomatoes and Fitosporin-M, which is considered harmless to crops. To prepare a solution for the greenhouse, 6 ml of fungicide should be diluted in 10 liters of water.

It is very important to process the greenhouse itself - to wash it with a solution of laundry soap, both inside and outside. Removing the topsoil, if possible, will not be superfluous. You can use the method of fumigation with sulfur: experienced gardeners who do not want to damage the soil using drugs against late blight, do just that. For this, cuttings of sulfur or sulfur block are acquired. They use sulfur in this way: to avoid fire, a metal sheet is placed on a basin with water, the sulfur mixture is laid out on it and set on fire. Consumption is quite economical: 1 kg of powder can be used in a room of 10 sq.m.

After potato

It is very important to pay due attention to soil cultivation after late blight of potatoes. To do this, it is best to use the drug "Shine." One bag is poured into a jar of warm water with a capacity of ½ liter, after which it is mixed in 10 liters of water. On 5 sq.m. soil will need 1-2 buckets. “Fitosporin” will also be effective (for 10 liters of water 1 tbsp), which is harmless to crops. Soil treatment will help with Bordeaux liquid, which can be prepared independently in enameled or glassware, metal is not suitable for this purpose. How to do:

• In the first container in a liter of water, dissolve 300 g of copper sulfate.
• In a second container, 400 g of lime should be diluted in 2 liters of water.
• Add the required amount of cold water to each of the solutions to get 5 liters.
• Strain lime with gauze.
• Mix with a solution of vitriol.

The resulting liquid should have a beautiful blue color. You can check it with a litmus strip (as a rule, it is attached to the purchased copper sulfate). The blue color indicates that everything is done correctly. If the litmus is colored red, then the proportions are violated, the proportion of lime should be increased.

Main mistakes

Consider the main mistakes that summer residents make when processing soil from fungus:

• Some gardeners believe that chlorine-containing drugs are effective in combating late blight and abundantly moisten beds with bleach, but this is not so. It will not destroy the spores of the pest, but it will cause damage to the beneficial microflora of the soil. It is better to use the proven method - soil treatment with copper sulfate in the fall.
• Another common mistake is the reluctance to carry out prophylaxis if infection was avoided in the past season. This is wrong, measures must also be taken in this case, because it is always easier to prevent infection than to fight the infection spreading at a fantastic pace.
• After thoroughly cultivating the soil from late blight in the fall, some stop there. But you must also not forget about handling inventory. This can be done using a solution of potassium permanganate. If cords were used for gartering tomatoes in the greenhouse, it is also necessary to process them: place them in coils in metal buckets and put them in a solution, wait half an hour.
• In autumn, the tops should be destroyed outside the site, especially if there have been cases of late blight. Some gardeners forget to do this, leaving the grass to rot on the beds as mulch.

Tillage from late blight in the fall will be an excellent preventive measure that will help protect your crop from this dangerous disease. Therefore, do not neglect the advice suggested above.