Late blight Tomatoes

Late Blight; a fungus that affects tomatoes and potatoes. It's particularly bad this year because it thrives in wet weather. The disease caused the Irish potato famine in the 1840s and can kill a plant in a matter of weeks. If you have late blight, don't compost or burn the infected plant because the spores will travel. To kill it, officials say put the plant in a plastic bag and throw it away. There are two commercial potato growers in Vermont and both plan to spray a fungicide to prevent infection.

Tim Schmalz is a Vermont plant pathologist tracking late blight. It turns leaves dark and dry. It's in New Hampshire, New York and now Vermont. The plant Schmalz was examining came from a big box store in Chittenden County. To stop the spread the state ordered all infected plants destroyed. It won't cause another famine because we rely on more crops now, but the impact could still be huge.

While late blight can cause major crop loss health officials say it does not pose a direct threat to people if you were to eat a vegetable from an infected plant, but because it looks so unappealing that's rarely a problem." "We live pretty far out in the country so I'm hoping some of it doesn't spread," Gonyo said. A shared hope for farmers already dealing with wet weather and low milk prices.