I have been polishing my blog and getting it ready for company when I was rudely interrupted by this article. So, ready or not I am putting out the Welcome mat!

Potato famine disease striking home gardens in U.S.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s, is killing potato and tomato plants in home gardens from Maine to Ohio and threatening commercial and organic farms, U.S. plant scientists said on Friday.

“Late blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States,” said Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University’s extension center in Riverhead, New York.

She said the fungal disease, spread by spores carried in the air, has made its way into the garden centers of large retail chains in the Northeastern United States.

“Wal-mart, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart and Lowe’s are some of the stores the plants have been seen in,” McGrath said in a telephone interview.

The disease, known officially as Phytophthora infestans, causes large mold-ringed olive-green or brown spots on plant leaves, blackened stems, and can quickly wipe out weeks of tender care in a home garden.

McGrath said in her 21 years of research, she has only seen five outbreaks in the United States. The destructive disease can spread rapidly in cooler, moist weather, infecting an entire field within days.

“What’s unique about it this year is we have never seen plants affected in garden centers being sold to home gardeners,” she said.

for the full article go to
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/07/11/cooler-weather-bringing-the-luck-of-the-irish-to-the-usa/
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Plant disease ‘late blight’ hits veggies early, hard
By Associated Press
Friday, July 3, 2009 – I posted 7/12/2009
“Tomato plants have been removed from Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s and Kmart stores in all six New England states, plus New York. Late blight also has been identified in all other East Coast states except Georgia, as well as Alabama, West Virginia and Ohio, McGrath said.”
“Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board, said the state’s potato farmers are concerned, but not in crisis mode.

“It’s pretty easy to make our growers aware of it, that’s the simple part. But what we’ve started to do is really reach out to home gardeners throughout Maine to ask them to be very diligent about checking their tomato plants or potato plants,” he said.”
for the full article go to
http://newstrendz.com/article-bar/2996116/Plant-disease-late-blight-hits-veggies-early-hard
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Potato Famine-like blight raises concern
By PAUL POST, The Saratogian
Published: Friday, July 3, 2009 – I posted 7/12/2009
“The fungal disease, called late blight, affects potatoes, tomatoes and eggplant and has been detected throughout the Northeast all the way to Presque Isle, Canada.”
“New York’s potato and tomato growing industries generate a combined $96 million per year. ”
“Infected plants have a nickel-sized olive green, brown or purple lesion on their leaves with a fungal growth on the under side. People who detect such conditions should eliminate plants immediately. Plants should be tied up in a plastic bag and thrown in the trash.

Plants shouldn’t be buried, because the disease will stay in the ground.”
for the full article go to
http://www.saratogian.com/articles/2009/07/03/news/doc4a4d59264371a843822421.txt
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“The effects of Phytophthora infestans in Ireland in 1845-57 were one of the factors which caused over one million to starve to death and forced another two million to emigrate from affected countries. Most commonly referenced is the Great Irish Famine, during the late 1840s.

The origin of Phytophthora infestans can be traced to a valley in the highlands of central Mexico. The first recorded instances of the disease were in the United States, in Philadelphia and New York City in early 1843. Winds then spread the spores, and in 1845 it was found from Illinois to Nova Scotia, and from Virginia to Ontario. The fungus crossed the Atlantic Ocean with a shipment of seed potatoes destined for Belgian farmers in 1845.[10]”
for full article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_blight
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The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family (also known as the nightshades). The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species. Potatoes are the world’s fourth largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize.[1]

Wild potato species occur from the United States to Uruguay and Chile.[2] Genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species suggest that the potato has a single origin in the area of southern Peru,[3] from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex.
for full article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato

The tomato is native to South America. Genetic evidence shows that the progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit with a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

My notes:
Some of the articles continue with, what seemed to me to be, dire futures for Organic farmers.