Late Blight Moving North in US
Late blight is on the move in a northwards direction. Agricultural officials have been keeping an eye on the matter, since the first case was detected in Long Island earlier on in the season. Now the disease has been reported in Syracuse and in Duchess County.
According to Cornell cooperative extension horticulturist Amy Ivy, it’s anybody’s guess if the blight will continue moving north.
“It depends on the weather; the spores will be blown in, that’s how they’ll get here at this point. And, you know, it’s just a matter of what the weather decides to do,” said Ivy, who added that the region typically gets storms at the end of the summer that may carry late blight spores.
There have already been high winds this Summer, which is all it takes to carry the microscopic spores.
However, it’s not just about the distribution of the spores, there also needs to be two other factors present - namely the host plant and the correct conditions for the diseases to flourish.
Ivy said, “So luckily, the weather, this terrible, dry weather we’re experiencing on every other front, has been discouraging to most diseases. Not just late blight, but other ones too.”
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