About a half dozen cases of late blight have cropped up in Maine. It's a dangerous fungal disease that affects mostly tomatoes and potatoes.
UMaine Cooperative Extension Pest Management Specialist Jim Dill says late blight can spread very quickly.
The recent wet, windy weather makes it easy for the fungus to grow and travel miles.
You can identify late blight by a white fuzz on the bottom of plant leaves and a wet brown area on the top of the leaves with a green halo around it.
"Unfortunately, this is the type of disease in tomatoes or potatoes, if it goes unprotected, untreated literally in like 5 days a whole field can go down, again if the weather conditions are right. This is the disease that caused the Irish potato famine back in the middle 1800's," said Dill.
Commercial farmers can use fungicides to protect their plants. Home gardeners should wait for a sunny day to pick off and remove diseased portions of the plants.
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