Is this tomato blight?

olly300

ericpode wrote: »

I have 4 plants and they seem to have been struck with something.

There are quite a few tomatos and we have had a few ripe ones already. Those still on the plant look fine so far, but the stems have large-ish grey patches, and odd branches (mostly low down) seem to be dying.

Pics of tomoto blight I've seen on the net seem to have brown yeuchy patches on the fruit, but my fruit seem OK in appearance so far.

Take some pictures including a close up and post a link to it on the board.

http://www.trygardeningwhich.co.uk/article.php?p_id=20&
It could be grey mould or Botrytis cinerea.

ericpode wrote: »

Whatever I've got, is it SAFE to eat the fruit - i.e. if it looks OK it's safe to eat?

If it is grey mould and the fruits have their shiny surface yes.

ericpode wrote: »

Should I just pick ALL of the fruits now (even the green ones) and bin the plants, or should I allow them to carry on ripening and growing in the hope that I may still get more edible fruits from them?

Personally I would pick the fruits and get them to ripen indoors.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi all

Guess I have been lucky..all my tomatoes have been grown outside in tubs.. and apart from 2 tomatoes with blossom end rot... I have been disease free... they are starting to die off now -but I have stopped watering to let the last ones ripen quicker. I have been taking some off as soon as they started to ripen and placed on the windowsill to finish off.
Most of mine have been roasted and frozen for making pasta dishes through winter -have over 40 bags in the freezer and now have run out of room so will be using them as they ripen now..
If its any help i grew:-

• san mazarno
• apricot brandywine
• purple brandywine
• plum -various from supermarket tomatoes
• baby - ditto
• garten pearle
• Villma
• yellow pear -these did amazingly and are still going... a definite "do again"
• money maker
• tigerella

I think that is it.. I have orderd more varieties for next year and am saving some of the brandywine seeds from this years crop -just got them drying off before I pack them away

I don't know if it helped, but as soon as my fruit were on and were waiting to ripen I removed lots of foliage so the air could circulate better and the warmth/sun could get to ripen them too.. they looked a bit odd -but it was worth it for the amount of fruit i got in return..
Hope everyone has better luck next year

Little_Mama

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Hi all


I don't know if it helped, but as soon as my fruit were on and were waiting to ripen I removed lots of foliage so the air could circulate better and the warmth/sun could get to ripen them too.. they looked a bit odd -but it was worth it for the amount of fruit i got in return..

I spotted a few people who had done that at the allotment, something I definitely plan to do next year.....don't care how they look I just want something edible!

Have also noted down a few of the ones you grew, will give Yellow Pear a try based on that recommendation.

Best wishes
LM

ericpode

Take some pictures including a close up and post a link to it on the board.

On closer inspection, a couple of the fruits do have a small amount of brown blemishing.

Anyway here are some pics. Notice that most of the fruits look fine.

Please click on each image for the full-size photo.

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there LM...

this is just a small sample of what I have had this year... the yellow pear have been very heavy croppers and taste so sweet




Hi Ericpode...
If i was you I would snip off any tomatoes with those brown blemishes -just in case it spreads.. As soon as I have seen any sign of a leaf trying to discolour etc I have whipped it off and into the bin

Lemoncurd

Ericpode, my plants have the same as yours, they started off with just the brown sections on the stems but now the whole plants are affected and all the leaves look like they are dying and are yellow/brown. It has started to affect the fruit now too (none of which has yet started to ripen). Am going to go and try and rescue the remaining tomatoes this afternoon.

ericpode

I've just been clearing a lot of the shrivelled up branches and leaves and it's revealed several more fruits which have varying amounts of brown areas - looks like the pics I've seen on the net of fruit with tomato blight.

Also the grey stain patches are a lot more extensive on the stems that I thought. In my pics above the staining looks fainter and more brownish than reality - in reality it is more grey and darker.

It's not looking good. I'm consdering whether to harvest all the fruits I can (including all the green ones) and binning the plants.

Little_Mama

I've jsut cleared my allotment of 10 tomato plants and I probably threw out about 6 months worth of tomatoes, all blighted to one degree or another.

Silly question time, should I bin the canes I used to stake up these tomatoes? Will they carry the 'virus' onto next year if I reuse them?

I don't mind buying new canes, i just really don't want to lose my whole crop again.

LM

ericpode

I've just been in touch with Nick who has a tomato growing web site

http://www.tomatogrowing.co.uk/index.html

and he was quite helpful, answering a couple of questions I had. He said:

The fruit [which is OK now] will start to display brown patches soon so pick all of the ripe ones and leave the green ones on the plant if we get a few good days of sun (hopefully!) and that may bring them on a bit before they are affected.

When you pick the green ones too, ripen them by putting them in a bowl with a ripe banana ... the gas the banana gives off speeds up the process.

It's a good idea to cut the ripe ones in half before eating as blight sometimes affects toms from the inside out.

The affected tomatoes aren't poisonous, just cut the brown areas off and they should be ok. However, when they start to go brown they do so very quickly if the plants are badly affected, so [in that case] it may be best to remove all the toms and destroy the plants and make the best of the remaining toms.

LittleMama, it might be worth dropping Nick a line - he seems very helpful.

nodwah

Little_Mama wrote: »

I've jsut cleared my allotment of 10 tomato plants and I probably threw out about 6 months worth of tomatoes, all blighted to one degree or another.

Silly question time, should I bin the canes I used to stake up these tomatoes? Will they carry the 'virus' onto next year if I reuse them?

I don't mind buying new canes, i just really don't want to lose my whole crop again.

LM

It's a fungus and if you're growing outdoors there spores could be and will be everywhere - wet summers give them the best growing conditions. So if we get a drought next year the blight won't be a problem :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
If you're growing inside a greenhouse you can clean everything and start fresh next year