The Clever Korner

My tomatoes get spots and die back every year

Most of what gets called blight is soil-borne and arrives by splash. Three free changes to how you water and mulch do more than any spray you can buy.

5 that work6 options weighed1 to avoid

What actually works

◆ Proven
Mulch the soil surface

The spores overwinter in the soil and get onto the lowest leaves when rain or irrigation splashes. A mulch layer physically stops that, and it is the single most effective thing on this list.

◆ Proven
Water the ground, never the leaves

Drip or a soaker, in the morning. Wet foliage overnight is the condition every one of these diseases needs.

◆ Proven
Strip the bottom 12 inches of leaves

Those leaves contribute little and they are the landing zone. Space plants for airflow while you're at it.

◆ Proven
Rotate — three years off nightshades

Tomato, potato, pepper and eggplant share the diseases. A bed that grew tomatoes shouldn't grow any of them next year.

◆ Proven
Resistant varieties

Look for the letter codes on the packet. It's free to choose better.

✕ Avoid
Milk spray, baking soda, aspirin

Milk has some real but weak evidence against **powdery mildew** specifically, and essentially none against blight. These circulate as cures for everything, and they are not.

Also searched as

tomato blight · early blight · late blight · septoria leaf spot · yellow leaves tomatoes · tomato disease · leaves spotting brown