Billy wrote:
In article ,
Bert Hyman wrote:

In

Billy wrote:

I'm guessing that your plot is screwed for 3 to 5 years. In any event,
the only thing you can do with confidence is to lay down a sheet of
fairly thick vinyl and put a raised garden on the site with fresh
soil.
That's a good idea, even after things might have healed; that would give
us a more controlled environment.

Do you have any pictures of the tomatoes and basil, or can you
describe how they looked? Did your tomatoes look like
http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/TomatoProblems.htm
or
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/publications/pm1266.pdf
They look almost exactly like Fig 1. of the Iowa State publication,
illustrating "Septoria leaf spot."

The pictures in http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/A2606.PDF
seem to be a little better.
It looks like you have an experiment to do, if you're up to it. Plant
one more tomato where you had your problem and follow the cultivating
practices outlined in the article.

http://attra.ncat.org/calendar/quest..._organic_contr
ols_are_there_for_sept
Fungicides, organic or not, have shown limited results with Septoria
leaf spot:
€ Copper and sulfur are fungicides approved by the National Organic
Program (NOP) Standards. Application of copper is a routine disease
control practice in organic tomato production in the eastern United
States. Copper functions both as a fungicide and bactericide and is
labeled (under the NOP) for anthracnose, bacterial speck, bacterial
spot, early and late blight, gray leaf mold, and septoria leaf spot.
Commercial products like Kocide 101� are used in both conventional and
organic tomato production for the control of Septoria leaf spot,
bacterial spot, bacterial speck, anthracnose, and early blight.
Applications are made on a 7-10 day schedule and the result may be 8-12
sprays per growing season. See the resource Eggplant, Pepper, and Tomato
XXIV; Septoria Leaf Spot by Howard Schwartz and David H. Gent of High
Plains IPM for information on applying specific copper fungicidal
controls. Note that the pesticides listed in this publication are not
all organic. Only some of the copper fungicides are permissible.
----



How about fumigating with trichloronitromethane? It's pretty nasty,
but it breaks down and/or dissipates rapidly. It also goes by the
name chloropicrin.

Bob