If you’re a tomato grower who takes pride in producing quality crops, then spotting signs of powdery mildew on your tomato leaves is probably your worst nightmare come true.
However, thanks to AECI Plant Health’s detailed guideline on preventing and managing outbreaks, your tomato nightmares can be now be a thing of the past.
In this week’s Farmer’s Inside Track episode, Dr André Cilliers, the marketing manager of AECI Plant Health, breaks down tomato powdery mildew, ways to identify it and how to treat this common threat.
According to Cilliers, powdery mildew on tomatoes is a particularly aggressive disease that destroys leaves almost completely. This, in turn, reduces the photosynthetic capacity of the plant and affects yield, he explains.
Oh yes, and if you’ve wondered why some of your tomatoes are tasteless, it’s because powdery mildew often affects the taste.
How to fight back
In South Africa, he explains there are two reasons why farmers could see powdery mildew on their tomato plant leaves.
One of those reasons is because “infection occurs under conditions of moisture on the leaf, and of course develops under those conditions”.
“The danger of powdery mildew on tomatoes is that it develops very quickly and under different conditions,” he adds.
But while powdery mildew on tomatoes can be a headache for commercial food producers and agriculturalists, AECI Plant Health has got some great products to combat this disease.
Cilliers says, “The crop will never be completely lost if you follow a few basic guidelines and use certain products.”
In the episode, Cilliers also unpacks:
- Products helpful in preventing powdery mildew;
- Treatment;
- Spread of the disease; and
- Reducing plant stress and more.
Want to know more? Listen to the full episode of Farmer’s Inside Track.
Option 1: Click here to listen on Spotify (all mobile and other devices).
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Option 3: Click here to listen on Google Podcasts.
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