Thanks for that advice. We have a couple things common to this area that most of us have to fight every year, anthracnose, bitter pit, white mold, a few others I can't think of off the top of my head. Copper treats most of them. So, I'm going to try giving heavy doses to my garden beds this year, while treating all surrounding areas. The problem is not only in the garden beds. It is part of the natural habitat here. Fighting it takes drastic and consistent treatment, including removing heavily infected trees and shrubs. I will have bitter pit in my apples every year because of their close proximity to the forest, but if I trim effected branches and haul them to the dump every year and treat with copper, I can control it. You can't even burn this stuff because that will spread it more.
Again, this is life in the rain forest, and it is a beautiful area. It will take time to get on top of it. We've only been here for 5 years and have been trying to figure this out for that long. I finally talked to a small local garden shop who explained all this to me last summer. So this year is war time, and hopefully next year we'll be able to grow some tomatoes.
There is a Master Gardener course at the local community college. I wanted to take it last year, but I was incapacitated with this stinking anemia that is coming back again this year. If the doctors can get on top of it this year, I'll take that class. I think they will be able to give great advice for our particular area.
It must be so hard to watch your DH go through this.
