blight

My tomatoes started out beautifully.  Three different kinds - and such tender skin and buttery insides. And then leaves started to die, and before they ripened, their skin became scabby.

Blight!  What a shame.  Prince Edward Island has ideal conditions for growing a great crop of blight. Lots of rain, and lots of potatoes, which also support this fungus disease.

Blight is an air-borne disease, and without an arsenal of fungicides that the home gardener can't get hold of anyways, there is nothing you can spray that will stop its spread or cure a plant that has become infected.

There is only prevention.  I've heard of spraying leaves with baking soda and water, or milk.  It's supposed to change the pH of the leaf surface.

Good air circulation helps.  I planted two tomato plants across a 4-foot bed, which is too close .
Next year, I swear I will smarten up.  I will put just one row of plants in the bed, three feet apart, and I will nip off the lower branches and mulch the beds well. I promise.

It's important to get rid of infected plants and fruit, because the fungus gives off spores that can travel a long way and infect other crops in the same family, such as peppers, potatoes, and eggplant.
PEI potato farmers want us home gardeners to be mindful of the health of the millions of dollars worth of crops in our fields, and get rid of the offending infected vines and fruit as soon as possible.

I spent the afternoon pulling the plants and putting them in the garbage.

Growing tomatoes is not for the faint of heart.  All that work preparing the soil and growing the plants from seed, all wasted.  Oh well - there's always next year.