Hi Alice,

Sorry to hear you have some wilting Obedient plants. Thank you for your photos and I agree with you that it looks like Southern blight. This disease thrives in a warm, moist environment which certainly describes our weather lately.

Here are some actions you can take to mitigate the spread of this fungus.

1. Remove and dispose of all infected plants. Do not place any infected plants into compost piles as the fungus is heat-resistant and could survive to infect other plantings down the line.

2. Remove or deeply bury the top six inches of soil. The challenge of doing this is making sure you have removed all of the living fungus and any mycelium. Adding an additional 6 inches of new, clean soil to your garden bed may be an option, doing this after the growing season is over.

3. Test your soil's pH. Southern Blight thrives in low pH soils (pH 2-5) but does thrive in soils with a pH of 7 or higher. Testing products are available at local hardware and garden centers. UDC also offer soil testing - see this link:

https://www.udc.edu/causes/land-grant/center-for-urban-agriculture-gardening-education/soil-testing/

4. Give the plants in your garden beds some room.  Southern Blight likes moist soil and a dense canopy of vegetation. Crowded plantings can trap moisture in the top of the soil and provide a breeding ground for fungus. Well-spaced plantings that allow sunlight to reach the soil will improve these conditions.

5. Clean your garden tools after use. See the link below for tips on disinfecting tools from the University of Minnesota.

https://extension.umn.edu/planting-and-growing-guides/clean-and-disinfect-gardening-tools

Here are some more resources on Southern Blight from reliable sources in our region:

https://extension.umd.edu/resource/southern-blight-vegetables/

https://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/files/ppfs-gen-16.pdf

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/southern-blight-of-vegetable-crops

Hope this information helps and that you're able to limit Southern Blight's attack on your garden.

Good luck,

Cyndy

DC Master Gardeners