Here is another interesting comment about the Late Blight that we have been talking about the last  few weeks. This comes from Dr. Margaret T. McGrath at Cornell. What's interesting to me is the lack of concern from employees at the box store. According to Dr. McGrath, " The store manager I spoke to on the morning of Saturday 27 June said he could not do anything with the symptomatic plants since the store did not own them as they were being sold under consignment (other university/extension staff elsewhere got similar responses)." Because they don't own the plants until pay at scan is complete, it's not their problem. This comment is disturbing, "The most severely affected plants were gone when I returned Monday afternoon, but there remained some that should have had visible symptoms that morning based on the severity of the symptoms when I saw them. The clerk in the gardening center didn’t say anything about the condition of the plant, which was one of the worst, that I brought to the check-out to purchase (for a colleague investigating the pathogen strain(s) involved with the outbreak). She had a good opportunity to look it over as she turned the pot to find the bar code. There were still plants with late blight for sale in this store on 2 July."

Dr. McGrath hit it on the head with this, "Under the current marketing system there is not the ability or knowledge (plus perhaps interest and concern) at the retail level for a store response which greatly exasperated the situation."

Here is the full comment from Dr. McGrath,

"Update and Corrections on the Late Blight Situation in NY from Dr. Margaret T. McGrath.

Following my report on July 1, more information was obtained from home gardeners as they learned about late blight and brought plants to extension diagnostic labs. On Long Island, where I am located, some gardeners reported late blight started on plants purchased as early as mid-May.

While late blight is not uncommon in the northeastern region of the US as a whole, occurring most years in some potato production areas, it is uncommon in other areas. This is the fifth time late blight has been found on Long Island during the 22 years that I have been the vegetable pathologist here. And it is the earliest and most widespread occurrence. Previous first diagnoses were on 5 July, 26 Aug, and 3 Oct in 2 years. The 5 July outbreak was in a commercial potato crop. The grower successfully managed late blight by destroying affected plants and applying fungicides that target the late blight pathogen. Other growers were immediately alerted so that they could adjust their fungicide programs, which normally would not include products specifically for late blight. No additional crops were found affected that year.

Plants were not removed quickly from stores in all areas. On 13 July, 19 days after the first report of late blight on tomato plants at a store in NY, NYS Ag & Markets inspectors brought plants with late blight to me for diagnosis. Some of these with the Bonnie Plants label were severely affected suggesting the disease had been present for awhile.

Under the current marketing system there is not the ability or knowledge (plus perhaps interest and concern) at the retail level for a store response which greatly exasperated the situation. The store manager I spoke to on the morning of Saturday 27 June said he could not do anything with the symptomatic plants since the store did not own them as they were being sold under consignment (other university/extension staff elsewhere got similar responses). I explained the seriousness of this disease, I left him with the write-up prepared for gardeners, and I showed him the symptoms although he really didn’t want to see them (when I asked if he wanted to see the symptoms he said ‘no not really’ to which I responded ‘you really should know what it is’ as I turned and led him to the next aisle where they were). I hoped that he would look at what I left and decide maybe this was something worth looking into before Monday morning when he said Bonnie Plants staff would be coming as usual to take care of the plants. I especially hoped there would be a decision to remove the plants considering it was finally a nice weekend that would likely bring out many gardeners. The most severely affected plants were gone when I returned Monday afternoon, but there remained some that should have had visible symptoms that morning based on the severity of the symptoms when I saw them. The clerk in the gardening center didn’t say anything about the condition of the plant, which was one of the worst, that I brought to the check-out to purchase (for a colleague investigating the pathogen strain(s) involved with the outbreak). She had a good opportunity to look it over as she turned the pot to find the bar code. There were still plants with late blight for sale in this store on 2 July. The response (hopefully) would have been much faster if what was being sold was something contaminated with a human pathogen. Fortunately late blight does not directly affect people and the pathogen is not like another plant pathogen, Aspergillus flavis, which produces a carcinogenic metabolite. However, late blight can have a tremendous impact. It is a very destructive disease that can cause complete crop loss, as is happening this year. The financial and emotional distress can be insurmountable."