Tomato late blight, where are the press releases?
It seems to me that this would or should be a bigger story? Bonnie Growers, supplier of vegetable plants for most of the box and chain stores across the country send out infected plants to millions of people. Yet, at least in the blogging world I have heard hardly a peep. Is this story somehow under the radar, or am I just making too much out if this? I checked out Bonnies web site, nothing. Home depot, nothing. Lowes, nothing. Wal-mart, nothing. If we knew we had sent out tomatoes plants that we're infected we would be freaking out. Late blight can cause the tomato plants to die. Thousands of people who bought tomatoes at one of these stores could have infected plants. The disease has also spread from these home gardens to commercial fields.
I can only imagine how my customers, who have waited all winter and spring to plant their tomatoes, would feel if they had to pull them up. I would hear no end of it, and rightly so. One of my local suppliers had to stop shipping their tomatoes, right in the middle of the season, because of suspected problems (they we're cleared).
Think of the implications of depending on one grower for all you vegetable needs. When something goes wrong it can affect many people. Bonnie say's they didn't send out infected plants on purpose. It was a terrible mistake, yet why no mention of this at the companies web site. Shouldn't all of these companies be warning their customers of this potential problem?
Are their any bloggers on the east coast that have had to deal with this? I heard it could be in Ohio, too? As far as the companies mentioned above, why no mention in your web sites? Shouldn't the gardening public be warned about this?