Alternaria alternata

camdenestate2013 · August 2020

Hi in our community food garden we are suffering from the above. I have read loads and disposed of all the infected plants but is there a treatment for the soil as we no longer have any plants to treat but want to prepare the soil for next year. Any suggestions?

Dovefromabove · August 2020

I think the important thing is to practice good garden hygiene ... clear up and burn or otherwise dispose of all fallen leaves and plant debris, and when planting do not overcrowd your plants ... allow for good airflow between the plants as they grow. It’s very tempting to cram them in when space is limited, but it does lead to problems with moulds and fungal infections etc.

Watering the soil and not the leaves is also important so you avoid the warm wet conditions that the fungal spores need in order to spread. Installing seeper hoses rather than using sprinklers or hoses and watering cans helps to avoid wetting the foliage.

Mulching around tomatoes and other plants after planting out can also help to prevent infection.

I would leave the land bare and fallow over the winter to allow the winter weather to deal with residual spores etc ... hopefully there may be some frosts, although I appreciate that in Camden they may be a rarity.

I would avoid any temptation to use fungicides. Fungicide resistance is growing and causing increasing problems for plant health as well as our own.

Butterfly66 · August 2020

If you mean blight then no, I dint think the issue is it remaining active in soil, it’s air borne spores which cause subsequent infections -assuming you’ve cleared all infected material. I believe there is a website that warns of blight risk in your area, there’s a link on the RHS

Alternaria alternata

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