We love those fresh tomatoes in the south in the summertime! But, when diseases like Early Blight, Late Blight, Southern Blight, Verticillium Wilt, Blossom End Rot, Leaf Spot, Fusarium Wilt, Tomato Spotted Wilt, not to mention the stink bugs, assassin bugs and tomato horn worms, sometimes organic gardeners want to throw their hands up in frustration! Everything you read about organic gardening says it's easier to prevent these diseases, than trying to get rid of them, once your tomatoes get infected. Thinking about some nice fall tomatoes? Here are some preventative measures that might help:

• Try to purchase disease resistant plants - although heirlooms may taste better, they aren't very disease resistant. Warning: "disease resistant" does not mean the plant has immunity, you still must follow some good gardening strategies
• Rotate the area for planting tomatoes about every 3 - 5 years
• Clean all garden paraphernalia, like tomato cages and stakes with a disinfecting beach solution of - 1 part bleach - 9 parts water
•  Soil needs to be warm when tomatoes are planted, they cannot absorb the potassium they need, if the soil is cold (the leaves turn purple) and it weakens them and stunts their growth
• Don't crowd tomatoes, they must have air circulation to keep the leaves dry and to help prevent disease
• Many of the fungal diseases are in the soil from previous years, so when it rains, the spores splash back up onto the lower leaves of the plant, infecting them and this gets repeated until the whole plant is infected. Prevent this from happening, by removing the lower branches of the tomato up to the first set of flowers. Mulch with straw or pine straw, this will help keep rain water from splashing up on the leaves.
• Remove any diseased-looking leaves as soon as possible
• Water in the morning, so foliage has time to dry out before nightfall
• Use a sprayer with organic  copper fungicide for bacterial diseases - they can't cure the diseases, but can keep them from spreading
• Do not compost diseased plants at the end of the season - get them out of the garden 

We hope this information is helpful to you and we invite you to join us as we learn and grow together!

A humble bowl can make for a powerful lunch with fresh ingredients like leafy greens, tomatoes, apples, grapes, tuna, or any combination of your favorites!

Ingredients

1 Large bowl full of leafy greens (spinach, leaf lettuce, arugula)

 1 Can low sodium tuna, or leftover grilled chicken or boiled eggs