Disaster in the Tomato Fields

This post could also be called "There is no FUN in Fungicide" (thank you Fran). So, it happened last Friday, but the saga started on Thursday. Though our tomatoes were thriving, looking wonderful and just getting ready to start picking, I received notice from the ag extension it would be best to treat the plants for early and late blight. As a sustainable farmer, I prefer not to spray anything, but, as these tomatoes were under contract, I decided to go ahead and get a fungicide on them. I looked up organic solutions, and arrived at copper sulfate, which also goes by several other names. It is a water soluble fungicide, so I could get a couple small sprayers and Silver and Thomas could get it on easily. So after running some errands Thursday, I stopped at a local agricultural store (I cannot name it due to possible legal proceedings). I asked if they carried copper sulfate, yes. I asked how much I should get, was given a number for an acre, which was divided for a quarter acre, I arrived at getting ten pounds, so I would have some for another time if needed. I received the ten pounds of CS in a brown paper bag. Since there was no label, I asked the person what the product to water ratio for mixing was. I was told one pound to one gallon of water, I asked for a pen from another person that was there, asked the ratio again and wrote it on the brown bag, along with 5 pounds for quarter acre. Good to go. I headed home.

Bright and early Friday, Silver and Thomas arrived. Their first course of action for the day was to weed wack and get the grass mowed (this is our way of organic pest control), and by the time I arrived at about 9:30, that was almost all done. Next to the spraying. We assembled the new sprayers, and following the instructions I received from the ag store, put 2 pounds of CS in each sprayer and added 2 gallons of water. They sprayed, but seemed to run out long before we hit 5 pounds. We actually have more that a quarter acre, and 25 pounds would actually be 6.25 pounds to the quarter acre, so we finished up the 10 pounds. Silver and Thomas had to leave, so I ran errands, returning to the farm at about 6pm to collect the days eggs. I was just leaving when I looked at my tomato field. My heart stopped in my throat, tears welled up in my eyes, and I felt like I had just received a kick in my stomach. My tomatoes were dying. What had been a vibrant and green crop was now brown and as any observer could see, in dire straights. I had my camera with me, here are the first glimpses of what I saw:

I was paralyzed with fear, all the hard work that we had done, what happened? It had to be the spray - I had no other explanation. I immediately called our extension agent, David Hull, and told him what I was looking at. He told me he was on his way to the office, then would come right to the farm. In desperation, I thought that maybe I could wash the stuff off and undue some of the damage. Fran arrived and took over, and David Hull arrived. The news was worse than bad, it was deadly. The concentration that the ag store had told me for the product to water ratio was wrong. Not just wrong - poisonous. According to a generic copper sulfate that David had found on line, the proper way to mix CS is 2-3 pounds per 100 GALLONS. So I had used a mixture about 90 times more concentrated than it was supposed to be, in essence, toxic. Then other things started to come to light. First, it is not legal to sell chemicals in anything other than their original packaging. It should have had a label on it. If it had, I am sure I would have double checked how to mix - but as it was, all I had were the verbal instructions. Now here is where I kick myself in the arse for trusting that a store that has been in business for more than a half century would give me incorrect mixing instructions. My lesson learned? Trust no one.

So, where so we stand now? I have documented over the past four days the death of my money crop for the year. I will not be able to even sell the tomatoes that are just now ripening, as they too could contain toxic levels of copper. My land has been poisoned too, it will take years to make the soil healthy again. I am angry and hurt. I was counting on this crop to break the farm even for the year, and now I have lost that and my farm market crops which were also planted in that same field. My recourse? I have called the state about the packaging and labeling issue, they came out to the farm this morning and took my statement, pictures and a sample of the tomato plant. They were on their way to the store that sold me the product, I'll let you know how that worked out when I find out. Here are more pictures of the death of my tomatoes.

Day three after spraying:

Day four after spraying:

Today, day 5, they look even worse, so I am done with the pictures. Once the lawyer says I can rip them out, I will. Then till and add some composted material, and finally this fall a cover crop of buckwheat. I will pull soil samples next spring, and hope that at the very least I can put flowers in that field next year. This has been such a tragedy.