Tomato blight...

GreenFly_2

Can I just add to emiff6's post that it is best to use something like Dithane which does break down in the soil after a few days

foxgloves

This is the 3rd year I've grown Ferlines. Yes, they are blight resistant....no sign of it last year or the year before BUT with all the humidity & endless rain of the last 2 or 3 weeks, they do have signs of it now. They generally take longer to succumb so more chance of getting tomatoes ripe before it afffects them. So far so good, have cut off the few leaves with suspect patches, sprayed with Bordeaux mixture and am picking loads of big ripe fruits. If I'd still been growing my old varieties, they'd have gone down like ninepins by now, so while no tomato yet seems to be immune to blight, I shall stick to Ferline. Potatoes went down with it first, so sprayed as far as I could reach with Bordeaux too. Seems to have been mostly at the leaf stage as partner has now lifted the spuds & they seem to be keeping well so far. Very few affected. It is soul destroying when all that work has been put in. Bordeaux mixture can't cure it, think it just slows down the ravages to give more chance of a crop.

Primrose

It's gutting when you lose your tomatoes to blight. I grow a number of varieties including Ferline which is supposed to be blight resistant but not totally immune. I've sprayed twice with Dilthane, one in mid July, and again in early August. We've had one blight warning for our area so I'm checking my plants daily.
One way of possibly beating blight is to grow some earlier ripening varieties, i.e. the Tumbling type (Tumbling Red and Tumbling Yellow). These started ripening in mid July so if you grow a few of these you stand a better chance of harvesting some before blight gets a hold.

mcgrow

Try not to overuse Bordeaux mixture, the copper will end up in the soil and depending on conditions, may build up each time you use it - I think there's plans to phase it out in a few years.

BUXTONRABBIT

Most of mine got blight last year. So far so good this year though. I will second that about the tumbling tomatoes I have loads that have already ripened. I think I will grow all tumblers next year.

Sazbo

I also lost everything last year This year I've tried a blight-resistant variety called Fantasio - a beefsteak type. Had a full smith blight warning recently, but so far so good, touch wood... <touches head>. Picked about half a dozen big red toms tonight for dinner which were delicious and checking everyday for signs of the dreaded lurgy.....

Saz

Dustykitten

Just found the first signs of blight on my martine plant. Not on the Gardeners Delight yet but I'll be checking twice a day from now on.

Sazbo

Well two nights ago I saw the first signs of it on my Fantasio, a day after my above post! It was a handful of leaves affected on one plant, so I cut those all off and have been watching like a hawk ever since, with everthing crossed. So far, no further signs... but we've had more rain this evening...

s

Primrose

I think this funny wet/humid weather is ideal for blight spreading so I think all of us need to check our plants every day now, especially as it's getting to the point where a lot of tomatoes are starting to ripen and we run the risk of losing all our efforts. If blight appears, remove the affected leaves immediately and put them in the dusbin - not on the compost heap.

kimaldis

For the third time in a row I lost pretty much every plant I have, both outdoor and greenhouse. The greenhouse was wiped out in about 3 days, the outdoor ones were slower, and I managed to save a few green ones for window ripening and green tomato chutney.

There's an interesting aside here. My wife came down the other night with a nasty bout of what could have been food poisoning. She'd had one of my plum tomatoes in a salad the evening before. None of them showed any sign of blight but the next day when I cut a couple more open they were rotting from the inside. A few on this plant had developed bottom end rot on the vine too.

It's extremely difficult to diagnose food poisoning or its source with any real certainty and I've never heard of anyone poisoned by tomato fruit but this is suspicious.

My potato crops did very well, Desir! in particular but they were dug up earlier, before all this rain.

More blight resistant varieties seem to be coming to market of late. There may be hope yet and I refuse to give up.