Hi Martha, I just posted a question about early blight myself, so I'm in the same boat. I think it has been a very good year for certain types of plant fungi. I believe I have apple scab on my crabapple, black spot on a rose bush, and early blight on one tomato plant when I have never had any of these problems before. I see you are in Ontario...my in-laws live near Guelph and when we were up in July I noticed the beginning stages of what I thought was early blight on all of their tomatoes. So it probably was just a bad year.

I don't know if starting them in the basement would cause a problem with early blight, but I'd certainly be worried about your seedlings damping off. Dryer is probably better so if you have a different spot, it wouldn't hurt. The seeds should be fine if saved properly and don't show any fungus on them. I'm not a botanist, but I don't recall any fungus diseases which are passed on in such a manner. You can use the same garden, but again it wouldn't hurt if you can move the plants to a different part of the garden. I believe early blight can build up in the soil if it's a problem year after year and moving plants around can help that. Cleaning up the dead vegetation after harvest can help, too. I do a lot of mulching in my garden, but I always pull out the dead vegetable plants to try to minimize disease spread from year to year. Hate to lose the organic matter, but I'd rather not take the chance.

Well, I hope I haven't passed any incorrect information on. If I have, I'm sure someone else will correct me. Good luck!

Mark

Hello Mark, and thank you for the input. I too clean up all the plant waste from my garden. Much mulch as well...this is a very hot and humid summer..I noticed my beans also have very yellow spotted leaves this week. The garden that has my tomatoes...only has tomatoes and hot peppers...lots of tomato plants a few peppers. I may just plant a ton of garlic and maybe some root veggies there next year..and move my tomatoes into another garden that is now for the other veggies...I will also try to get some clean top soil to add. As for the basement..I will start and keep them upstairs next year. Thanks for the info on seed saving..I do the process as Dr. Carolyn says..so they should be disease free..thank you, Martha/zucchini