It depends on what you mean by "blight"? There are 2 very different types of "blight" (Early Blight and Late Blight) with different causes and symptoms. Plus it is a catch-all phrase used by many to cover all sorts of diseases. So it might help to know what exact symptoms you have with your plants, when it starts in the season, and how quickly the plants die after onset of the symptoms.

I don't want to have to use anti-fungal spray every week on my toms.

Unfortunately that is the standard recommendation every time the question comes up and the only approach that has any high degree of success - regular application of a fungicide like Daconil from the day of planting.

But other things that may help somewhat is to greatly increase your plant spacing to improve air circulation in and among them (4'spacing or greater), stake and prune the plants heavily to increase air circulation, rotate crops as much as possible, remove any affected foliage ASAP and dispose of it away from the garden, don't enclose the tomato plants by taller plants (ie: corn) as that blocks airflow, and as your weather permits plant earlier.

Early Blight (a.solani) is the most common and despite all of the above, without the regular use of fungicide, it is just something we have to live with.

Dave

PS: You can learn a great deal about which exact disease you may have by checking out the site below.

Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Tomato Problem Solver

You should contact Clemson Extension to see what varieties they recommend for your county.

T

David, do you mean Charleston NC or Charleston SC, not that it makes a huge amount of difference, depending which one although within NC there's some differences.

If in NC or SC then first I'd do what Dave suggested above and try to make a diagnosis. It's often hard to Dx a disease from pictures b/c photos are static while diseases are progressive, but give it a try or at least try to describe the symptoms here in your thread.

Things like are the spots on the foliage, if so what color, what shape, how big and are there any yellow halos around them. All of those things can help ID a foliage disease.

Is there any wilting when there shouldn't be, stuff like that.

Once you've got some kind of a handle on it and you still can't ID the problem after describing it here then I think your next step is to check out Tamu and then if still no ID to contact the nearest Cooperative Extention Service.

My brother now lives in NC and I can tell you that NCSU has some wonderful pages dealing with tomato diseases but right now I don't have time to do a Google search for you.

So how about going step by step.

Describe the symptoms to folks here, see what they might be thinking and then Check out the TAMU site, which is excellent.

The point is, that if it's a foliage disease or two, there are ways of helping to prevent those, if they are fungal, not bacterial, but if it's a soilborne disease such as Fusarium or Root Knot Nematodes, then that's more of a problem in certain areas of both NC and SC.

Hope that helps.

Carolyn, who forgot to ask what varieties you've grown in the past that got diseased, and also when do you put out your plants b'c that can make a difference as well. And do you raise your plants from seed or buy them. I know, a lot of questions, but without any photos from you it makes it more difficult to ID tomato diseases.

When I moved to NC I discovered that many of my neighbors grow tomatoes in two, separate seasons -- removing and replacing their plants when they stop producing in the vicious heat of July.

I'll be trying that this summer since it seems that their young, vigorous, new plants outproduce my tired, season-old ones once the fall production season starts up in late August.

Hi all, I'm in SC...I didn't know there was a Charleston, NC. :)

I most definitely get early blight, but it seems I get it alot later than most folks. In fact I get stuff I've never seen before:

{{gwi:1305638}}

Also:
{{gwi:1305639}}

Oh, and one other thing, I'm not sure of what my next door neighbor is doing, but his toms were spaced closer than mine up against his house and he barely got blight. I know for a fact he didn't use much daconil, so I have no idea how he managed.

Just my opinion, but neither of those pictures look like they have early blight or late blight.

To be honest it looks more like a nutrient deficiency of some kind. Here's some things that may help point to a cause:
1.) Are you primarily growing in the ground or in containers? If in containers, what's the soil mix used and what are the container sizes (I see at least one containered plant above).
2.) Tell us your watering schedule.
3.) Have you been fertilizing, if so, with what and how much?

To be honest, based on what I see, this is no blight (early or late) and appears to be most likely a nitrogen deficiency. Here's a brief description of nitrogen deficiency in tomatoes:
"Growth dwarfed, thin and upright habit; stem and petioles rigid; leaves pale green, occasional purplish tints, older leaves yellowing."

I see all of those symptoms in your pictures.

Below is a link to site that pictures more deficiencies of tomato plants; It is also the site I used for reference.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nutrient Deficiencies in Tomatoes

Your neighbor may just be doing something as simple as growing toms which are resistant to the local disease pressures. Sneaky neighbor. Like I said before, contact Clemson and ask for their tomato variety and growing recommendations. I bet they would love to see your photos too, it would help them to help you.

That doesn't look like either early or late blight to my aging eyes. I'm pretty sure it's not either.

I agree with Homegardenpa. This is a fertilizer and/or watering/drainage issue.

Under-fertilizing, over-watering, and/or poor drainage can cause these issues.

I've found that over-fertilizing container tomatoes will cause the leaves to get crispy and brownish-black all along the outer edges of the leaves. That doesn't look like what's happening to your plants, so you might be under-fertilizing or over-watering perhaps?

If you recycle your potting mix check the pH level of the mix. If you're using soil in your containers, it's probably not a good idea and you should use potting mix.

I would get a water soluble fertilizer and use according to the package directions for indoor plants, if you're not already. Those nutrients are readily available to the plant. Make sure your container is draining well and there's no sogginess in the soil.

This is very fixable. The good news is that it isn't any type of blight. :-)

Agree. Based on your pictures Early Blight is not your problem. We'd need a great deal more info about your growing conditions to narrow it down any more.

Answering homegardenpa's questions above would help a great deal.

Dave

not sure, but that first picture looks like early septoria? the second one looks like over or under fertilization/watering (probably watering)