Vegetables
Insect and disease control is especially important for fall vegetables. Both increase their damage during spring and summer. Unless controlled, the pests can wreck havoc with fall crops. Early blight on tomatoes and potatoes attacks leaves, stems, and fruit. As stem canker or collar rot, they can be destructive to young seedlings. Symptoms are irregular brown spots on leaves. On stems and fruit these spots may be sunken. Spots enlarge as tissue dies around infected spots.
Late blight on tomatoes and potatoes usually isn’t a problem. But blight may appear during cool, wet periods in fall, with night temperatures below 60 degrees and day temperatures below 85 degrees. Disease may infect leaves, stems, and fruit as water-soaked spots that rapidly enlarge. Disease sometimes produces white cottony growth on lower leaf surfaces. Spray plants at five to ten-day intervals with the fungicide Maneb.