Purdue: Growers should inspect tomatoes for blight

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University experts are urging tomato growers to inspect their plants for a fungus-like organism, saying a destructive disease known as late blight has been found on tomatoes in Tippecanoe County in west-central Indiana.

Late blight flourishes in cool and wet conditions. Symptoms include olive-green or brown spots on leaves and white fungus underneath when conditions have been humid. Brown spots develop on tomato fruit.

Lab Director Tom Creswell says all growers should assume their crops may eventually be affected and should apply fungicides if the weather remains cool and cloudy. Infected plants in home gardens should be removed immediately and either burned or put in a plastic bag for disposal.