How to use phytophthora serum on tomatoes: we fight the disease effectively, quickly and on a budget
Tomatoes (tomatoes) are one of the most popular agricultural crops in our country. These vegetables are unpretentious to care for, but at the same time, they are periodically affected by various diseases.
One of the common "tomato" diseases - late blight, which is treated with special milk whey. This article will show you how to use it effectively.
The content of the article
How whey helps with phytophthora on tomatoes
Phytophthora Is a fungal disease that affects not only tomatoes, but also other plants of the nightshade family. Like all fungal diseases, it quickly destroys the plant, irreversibly spoils the pulp. Therefore, the first thing that gardeners do when they find phytophthora on tomatoes is remove the infected plants and burn them.
But if there are more than one such plants, to prevent further infection it is necessary process plantings with chemicals. The most effective treatment for late blight in tomatoes is whey. It is made from homemade cottage cheese: the liquid remaining after squeezing it out is the whey.
Attention! The best result is obtained by curdling whole cow's milk. A good powder will not work.
Operating principle
Milk has fat in its composition, and even a lot of it remains in milk whey. When they spray her tomatoes a thin film of fat prevents fungal spores from entering plants.
Whey has an acidic environment, which prevents fungal spores from developing. This is the basis of its beneficial effect in the treatment of phytophthora.
Efficiency
The remedy is considered effective because fungal spores, not finding food for themselves, dry out and the plant recovers... Since whey is a natural product, it has no additional harmful effects on the tomatoes themselves or on the environment.
How to prepare the solution
Making a serum solution is easy. Take milk and leave in a warm place for a day... It will start to turn sour. After that, the sour milk is heated, the curd flakes begin to separate from the liquid. The separated liquid is drained - this is the serum.
Proportions and instructions for preparation
To spray tomato plantings, the serum is filtered through cheesecloth and diluted with water: 1 liter of whey will need 9 liters of water. The finished mixture is poured into containers with a sprayer, used immediately. In no case should the ready-made whey be boiled - this will significantly reduce its therapeutic effect.
Important! To make 1 liter of whey, you need at least 3 liters of fat milk.
Lactic acid whey with various additives
To enhance the effect and quickly defeat phytophthora, various substances are added to the finished solution. A liquid with copper sulfate or with iodine has an especially good effect on the disease.
With iodine
It is believed that one of the reasons for the appearance of late blight is an excess of nitrogen in the soil... Nitrogen fertilizers are applied to reduce soil oxidation, which is characteristic of a large part of the territory of our country.
Iodine improves nitrogen metabolism and reduces the acidity of the earth. In addition, it has an antimicrobial effect and improves the general immunity of plants.Therefore, twenty drops of iodine tincture are added to the prepared milk whey solution.
With copper sulfate
Copper sulfate is a salt of copper sulfate. His widely used in the treatment of fungus in plantsby dissolving salt crystals in water. It is sold in a pharmacy or gardening shops.
When preparing whey with vitriol, it is important to observe the dosage, otherwise the plant will get burns or there will be no effect from the treatment. For 1 liter of serum, take 8 g of vitriol solution.
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How to handle correctly
Plants are treated with a whey solution without additives all season - as a preventive measure. A milk solution with iodine or copper sulfate is used during the period of ovary formation or as needed if late blight has appeared on already grown fruits.
Important! The whole plant is processed. Particular attention is paid to the lower leaves, where a large accumulation of phytophthora spores is most often observed.
The solution must be filtered, the smallest droplets of liquid should remain on the plant. As for the rules for processing rules, they are the same as for other drugs:
- spray plants in the morning or in the evening, when there is no hot sun (a cloudy day will do);
- the mixture should be warm, with a temperature not lower than + 20 ° С;
- if serum with iodine was used, it is not dangerous for the human body - processed tomatoes can be eaten the next day;
- if with vitriol, then they are eaten no earlier than a week after processing.
The nuances of processing in the greenhouse and open field
Tomatoes growing in greenhouses usually get late blight less often.... Therefore, greenhouse vegetables have to be processed with milk whey less. Keep in mind that the microclimate of the greenhouse changes after spraying, therefore, after treatment, the greenhouse is immediately ventilated, and spraying is carried out on wet soil.
Outdoor processing is carried out in warm calm weather.
Preventive use
Preventive treatment with milk whey is carried out about once a week or once every 10 days. This treatment is carried out four times per season, even if no noticeable signs of disease are visible on the plants. The serum prevents its appearance, so prevention should not be neglected.
Tips & Tricks
To prevent late blight from interfering with the harvest, follow the rules of crop rotation: do not plant tomatoes next to potatoes and eggplants, do not use the same place for tomatoes for two seasons in a row, plant these beds with green manure plants between planting tomatoes.
Besides, the development of phytophthora is facilitated by excessive soil moisture and imbalances in nutrients. Therefore, a competent approach to watering and timely fertilization will be an excellent means of preventing this disease.
Read also:
How to prepare boric acid solution for tomato ovary
How to feed ash cucumbers in the open field and in the greenhouse
Reviews
Let's take a closer look at how experienced summer residents respond to whey.
Tatiana, 63 years old: “I am very afraid of any chemicals in the garden, so whey is the best solution. There is no harm from it and one benefit. I use it for tomatoes, cucumbers, and strawberries. ".
Nikolay, 47 years old: “I have a large garden and have vegetable beds. I adhere to the principles of harmonious farming, I try to alternate plantings, I regularly ventilate the greenhouses. Therefore, my plants rarely get sick. But if late blight suddenly appears, serum is a good remedy. And as a fertilizer it also helps ".
Masha, 30 years old: “I got the garden from my mother, tomatoes grew rather crowded, phytophthora was discovered soon after flowering. A neighbor advised me to spray with milk whey. Serum with iodine helped, the spots of the disease disappeared.For the future I will remember that the tomatoes must be clamped at a distance from each other. ".
Conclusion
Phytophthora is an unpleasant, but defeated disease. One of the main treatments is spraying plants with whey, which is made from ordinary milk.
For greater efficiency, iodine is added to the serum, which creates an acidic and lethal environment for fungal spores, or a solution of copper sulfate.