Buckeye rot caused by the pathogen Phytophthora spp. can become a major problem in processing tomato production during periods of heavy rainfall which lead to saturated soils. The pathogen can infect developing green tomatoes which are sitting in free water or on saturated soils causing them to rot. Infected tomatoes will develop concentric tan/brown lesions (see picture). In the first year of our study the presence of an organic mulch (cover crop) help to significantly decrease the amount of ground rot infected fruit (see table 6). The organic mulch helps to prevent the infection by the pathogen by preventing tomato fruit from coming into direct contact with the soil.