Northeast Gardening: RE: Stop Late blight from next year!, 1 by thethorinator

thethorinator wrote:
Hmmm...Digger, if you happen to have gotten the name and where it was to contact him, could you ask this otherwise difficult question as I was thinking about planting white clover in those areas for a cover crop which I believe does the same thing as Hairy or Winter Vetc but that I could just dig under in the spring since I can't exactly till with such small beds; that is; whether they will carry the blight over the winter? I'd appreciate it and will attempt to see if I can reach someone in our UMASS extention or similar office..

I did hear one thing that I read would kill ALL DESTRUCTIVE eggs, larvae, grubs, spores and bacterium of all sorts prior to planting, similar to baking soil before to sterilize it before planting indoor plants into it. The little tip I read was to put heavy-duty plastic over each bed, except those with perennials which you wish to protect that can be dug up temporarily into a warmer environment like your garage, etc. The plastic was to be put on at the end of winter when you get the first GOOD, LONG thaw and can get through the snow-cover to allow the sun to super-heat the first few inches or more into the soil, encouraging it to kill all the above and spores. Apparently it would get even warmer in this artificial "oven" than any compost pile would, but would accomplish the same thing and even better...keep those overwintering grubs and other disgusting thing but actually leave the earthworms alone since they, apparently, overwinter deeper in the soil any way and will only go to the depth with which they were comfortable. This might be an old wive's tale, but I'd I'd really like to know if there's anything to it. This is a picture of some of my tomatoes BEFORE the blight hit...luckily, I got enough of this variety (Great White...Look at the size just before harvest, that's my big hand cradling half of one!) to safely save and ferment and give a slight bleach to some of it's seeds.

Sincere Blessings,
Thor