Early blight of tomatoes

I have had problems with early blight and Septoria spot. Not so much this year. I also made an interesting observation this year. It is a busy year and I neglected my tomatoes completely. this year. They look better than they have in years! Why??? I also noticed after a very wet spring when it did finally dry and I had to hand water, I started seeing leaf issues. It came to me that somehow my hand watering may be the cause. The major difference between rainwater and tap water is the pH. Next year I’m going to acidify the water to match the rain. It may not work at all but maybe the fungal spores need a higher pH to grow? I feel it is unlikely, but my observations warrant a try. I also will hand water with rain water until I run out. I save some for my blueberries.

Drew, do you think it could also be an issue of inadequate watering? Or maybe one of several factors.
Tomatoes don’t seem to show such obvious signs of under watering as some other plants, taking longer to wilt, etc. and I think a lot of people underwater when they are hand watering without realizing it. Particularly because the plants are bigger and putting more energy into the fruit later in the season, so need even more water than early on.

I mention this since I’ve seen some similar timing with arrival of disease and have started to think that its at least partly a result of the plants being more susceptible to disease when not as well watered and well fed. I have a plot in a community garden and I can see the plants that get less attention are often the ones that are showing the most disease. Of course it could just be a coincidence.

Yes a problem and hard to know for sure. You theory also could be right. I grew a couple this year, like Romeo paste, that show drought stress earlier than most. The wispy foliage is weak and wilts easily. It was like a flag to water everything! It was too late if you’re correct. I would need to keep the wispy foliage from wilting at all. Yes stress will lower immune response in all living things so it’s a very good theory. Fits with my observations of drought stress being when the problem occurred. Makes more sense then my theory.
I’m still going to do the acidic water thing next year, at worst I eliminate it as a cause.