Is this tomato blight?

avantra

mmm.. same here, all my toms are kak and had to go to the compost hip.:mad:

Next season I will get me a glass house :j

zoescrims

my tomato plants in the green house were also 'blighted'...not a good start!

Primrose

I prefer to grow organically but last year lost most of my tomato crop to blight so have sprayed regularly this year with Dithane and picked 50% of my crop before some signs of blight appeared on the stems of a few Moneymakers. However, my Gardeners Delight seem to have remained unaffected. I've picked all my outdoor tomatoes now and washed them carefully. They're now finishing off the ripening process indoors on trays lined with newspaper. But I've put tomatoes from plants with small signs of blight on separate trays, well away from the others and am checking daily for any signs of deterioration. This is such a pain, isn't it, when we spend so much care and attention on our plants? Very dispiriting, but I guess we'll all be out there again next year, trying again and hoping for better luck!
Avantra - don't put your blighted tomato plants or fruits on the compost heap. The blight spores will remain in the compost and be transferred to the soil later, wherever you dig the compost in. If you grow tomatoes in that soil, they'll run a huge risk of becoming infect. Put the blighted stuff in the dustbin or your green rubbish disposal bag.

MRSMCAWBER

Morning all

Well when I was on my way home yesterday I spotted a hous a street away who had a serious case of blight attacking his tomatoes... so it is heading this way :rolleyes:
I have also found that the last couple of mornings have felt frosty..in September :eek: -so yesterday I decided to strip the remaining tomatoes off and finish them in the window sill. I didn't bargain on having over 11lbs out there :eek: :rotfl: ... I have over 40 bags of roasted in the freezer -so there is no room for them at the moment :rolleyes: ...I have now gaot them sat in every window bottom..along with the 3lb that were allready in there and those sat in the kitchen waiting to be roasted
I got all the plants out and into the BIO dustbin as that is due for collection today -so hopefully that has got rid of most of the risk.. just have beans, butternut, pasrnips, carrots and a few other bits n bobs out there now.

Im going to start cleaning all the canes, lables pots etc today as i want to get my winter peas, broad beans etc in next month :j
hope everyone has better luck next year

evie451

Oh the pain of tomato blight! after having nursed along plants grown from seed for a long time they had to be ditched last weekend as i felt the battle between me and the fungus had me in retreat I had grown Moneymaker and Gardenperle and bought two tumbling toms.

However i did get 4.5lbs of green and 3.5lbs of ripe so i am looking forward to using my Aunties chutney recipes! i also read in a magazine about preserving some of the cherry ones by drying them in the oven, apparently you can use them like sun dried tomatoes so i might give that a try as well:D
i did notice that the fungus seems to be able to spread to other tender plants i have seen some sign of attack on a pepper plant and a couple of chilli plants so thats why i acted quickly. i don't want to lose everything else:eek:

Primrose

evie - I've not heard of blight spreading to pepper and chilli plants and would be worried if this happened as I'm growing these as well. I moved all my chillis and most of my peppers indoors a week ago because I was worried about the chillier nights affecting them. Like Mrs. McCawber, I've got trays of ripe, semi ripe and green tomatoes everywhere indoors - I've picked 64 lbs altogether from 24 plants and like her, both my freezers are packed to the gills. I might try oven drying some down too and filling them in jars with oil - this certainly reduces their mass considerably although my previous attempts haven't been 100% successful. I've also made some batches of home-made tomato soup with onions, garlic, tomatoes & chicken stock (1 onion to each 1 lb tomatoes) and whizzed it up with a stick blender. This is a good way of using up some tomatoes and it will keep chilled in the fridge for about 5 days.

angelavdavis

Little_Mama wrote: »

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

I also wondered about this and have decided to buy new for next year and not to use the old ones on the tomatoes next year.

So depressing coming home to this when I was expecting a lovely crop instead!

Thanks to everyone for your advice - have also ordered my suttons seed catalogue and will be specifically aiming to purchase blight resistant for next year - two years of depressing tomatoes is enough for me!!!

evie451

Primrose I know it was quite scary when i noticed the other plants appearing to suffer with the blight type fungus too:eek:
it looks exactly the same as the tomato blight the bottom leaves start to go yellow then bits of the plant start to go including buds, branches and leaves. I am going to disinfect everything as when you disturb the fungus i can actually see the spores coming off it! the only plus for the other plants seems to be that they don't suffer as badly or as quickly....

i will try the resistant varieties next year for definite

Little_Mama

angelavdavis wrote: »

I also wondered about this and have decided to buy new for next year and not to use the old ones on the tomatoes next year.

So depressing coming home to this when I was expecting a lovely crop instead!

Thanks to everyone for your advice - have also ordered my suttons seed catalogue and will be specifically aiming to purchase blight resistant for next year - two years of depressing tomatoes is enough for me!!!

I'm not too fussed about the canes as I got them from the 99p shop! :rotfl:

I'll use them in my garden and get new ones for the allotment and, like you Angela, it's blight resistant ones for me from now on!
Moneymaker is definitely off my list from now on. :mad:

Here's to next year :beer:

LM

Primrose

I've grown various varieties of tomatoes this year. The Moneymakers have been the first to get the blight. I've one Sungold which is totally blight free and my Gardeners Delight seem to be OK too. But I did spray regularly, so it's disappointing that some plants still caught it, and that some of the picked tomatoes seem to be developing it. Still can't get over the speed at which it seems to spread. One day a tomato is OK, and when I look at it the next day half the skin is covered with blotches. It humans caught blight, it would reduce the human population pretty quickly!!