Plant Disease

    CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Tomato plants have been removed from stores
in half a dozen Northeast states as a destructive plant disease
makes its earliest and most widespread appearance ever in the
United States.
    Late blight - the same disease that caused the Irish Potato
Famine in the 1840s - occurs sporadically in the Northeast, but
this year’s outbreak is more severe because infected plants have
been widely distributed by big-box retail stores and rainy weather
has hastened the spores’ airborne spread.
    Plants have been removed from stores throughout New England and
New York. Late blight also has been identified in all other East
Coast states except Georgia, as well as Alabama, West Virginia and
Ohio.
    Symptoms include large olive-green or brown spots on the tops of
leaves and white fungus underneath. Experts say home gardeners
should destroy infected plants to prevent spores from spreading to
commercial farms.
   
    (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)