Hi all,
I live in Zone 4 - Northern VT. Last year was not a good year for my garden. We had a very wet, cold rainy summer and the garden rarely had a chance to dry out. Hence the fungus thrived - my tomatoes all but keeled over from blight, the strawberries were covered with gray mold, the lilacs lived under a sheath of powdery mildew. Basically the fungus family had a field day and there was little I could do. Baking soda spray wouldn't touch it. Copper sulfate didn't do much for it.
Hoping that this summer will be a bit dryer. I'm not entirely an organic gardener, I am a chemist so I make my own decision knowing what I do about chemicals, but I don't use too many commercially manufactured pesticides or fungicides. I rotate crops every year, and I keep the diseased plants out of the compost and soil as much as possible. I plan to use a plastic mulch this year to keep the soil from splashing up onto the tomato plants. Can anyone give me any other advice in terms of preparing my fungus infested soil?
Thanks much.