Is this tomato blight?

heavysnow

I really hope some of you will be able to help me with this but I am growing my own vegetables for the first time this year and I am very worried that my tomato plants may have developed blight. The stems and fruit are completely clear but many of the leaves at the top of the plants look like this:


In fact, yesterday, I found one leaf that was completely black at the end with a white fungal growth on top - it was swiftly binned! I have been scouring through the websites and gardening books and I think it must be blight. The only thing is - the affected leaves are all at the top of the plants and the stems are completely unaffected at this stage. If it is blight, can I save the plants at this stage by spraying - what is the best spray to use?

olly300

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profiles0803/tomato_blight.asp

Tomatoes grown under glass are not always infected. Plants likely to be attacked - especially outdoor tomatoes - require protective sprays of mancozeb (Dithane) or copper (Murphy Traditional Copper or Vitax Bordeaux Mixture). Apply these before the symptoms are seen as a protection against attack. They will not totally prevent infection, but often slow it sufficiently to save the crop.
The fungus can be seed borne, so do not save seed from infected fruit. Destroy infected plants - do not compost them. There is very little resistance in most cultivars, but 'Ferline', ‘Legend’ and ‘Fantasio’ are believed to be resistant.

tomsolomon

I'm having a few problems with my toms also.....
The kitchen tom has a couple of wilted branches, and the plum tom has blossom end rot on one or two of the fruit.........

I had a feeling I was going to have problems with them, they are drying out to quickly in the green house, and I'm watering them heavily twice a day.

Should I cut the amount of water down a little and do them three times a day?????

Also should I add some calcium to the plum feed, or should it clear up?
All of the newly developed fruit seems to be ok.

G-G_4

One of my big plants has completely died and the other is going strong for the moment, but has some dodgy looking leaves and hardly any fruit :undecided

Not looking too good this year..

mary43

olly300 - thanks for that info. So far our plants are looking good but last year we lost some tomatos and potatos due to blight. I was told it was the wet summer that had caused it or probably increased the likelihood. Luckily we manages to salvage some potatos and tomatos and we're keeping a careful eye on them this year but I didn't realise there was some treatment you could give 'in case of'.

mary43

oh dear...............two of our hanging basket tomatos look as it they've got blight ! OH has sprayed them as they're werent looking too bad so we'll keep an eye on them and see how they go. There was even some fruit on them !
What a nuisance..............still got one hanging basket tomato plant left so here's hoping.

Bangerchick

heavysnow - I had similar looking leaves on my toms (inside a greenhouse) during the damp and humid weather a couple of weeks ago. I cut the leaves back and that seems to have sorted it out - I think the drier weather has helped. As it didn't spread I don't think it was blight but maybe a different fungal type disease - there are many to pick from with toms!!

angelavdavis

I am guessing its due to the wet weather here, but I am pretty furious as there was no sign of problems before I went on holidays and I have had to pull up 10 plants and dispose of the lovely tomatoes that looked so promising and are now brown and yucky.

In particular, the fat boy and plum tomatoes seemed really badly affected. The tigerella and cherry tomatoes appear slightly less affected and so I am leaving the fruits on these and have removed any affected leaves.

Can anyone suggest any outdoor varieties that they have found to be more hardy or have tips on avoiding it next year?

Thanks

zoescrims

All i had left were tomatoes and mine have been 'blighted'

can i ripen them indoors ?

nodwah

wrap then individually in newspaper and keep them in a drawer or something, you could have a ripe banana or tomato in there. Check them regularly for any going bad and most of them should ripen.
Thompsom and morgan has 'red alert' which is supposed to ripen before blight strikes.
But maybe we won't always have such wet summers!

zoescrims

Wrap individually? i've got two bag fulls,is it not wise to wrap a few together?

sorry for the questions but i have to save these!its all i have left in my first year of gardening...

thanks