Tomato blight - what to do with pots, canes etc?

beckstrous

Hi All

We are reeling from a devastating case of tomato blight in our greenhouse. Really gutted as we put so much work into the toms, especially my husband - it was his pet project. I think we grew too many as the greenhouse was like a jungle - you could not move for foliage.

Pretty much all of the plants have been binned - all except two which looked healthier than the rest. They did have some blighted leaves but we took those off and are hoping for the best.

I picked loads of green toms from the blighted plants and put them on trays and windowsills inside. Most turned bad but a few are clinging on. I assume if they look okay, then they are okay?

Anyway, the lesson for next year is obviously to grow less, but what about the pots we grew the plants in? Should they be thrown out? I hope not as they were quite pricey! What should we clean them with?

We also had bamboo canes. Can we clean these or should we start again from scratch?

And lastly - I made a real mistake in saying to hubby (before we knew about blight) to put tomato foliage in the compost. I realise we cannot use this compost now but how should we clean the compost bin (can we clean it, or do we need to destroy it?).

Unfortunately, the compost bin is next to our potatoes so I assume we cannot really do anything about it until those have all been harvested. The potatoes look okay so far but I am very nervous!!!!

Also how should I go about cleaning the greenhouse? We used pots and growbags but the tomatoes did also root through into the soil.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks :-)

ventureuk

Give everything a good wash with a hose and use it all again but.......

Next year spray your toms, cucs etc with Dithane 945 twice whilst they are growing, mildew will be reduced by 90%.

For those who are freaked by the use of a chemical please have a look at the contents of your deodorant, makeup, shampoo etc you cover your body in chemicals everyday without a second thought.

After proper and selective use of Dithane, slug pellets and a systemic bug killer I have produced more food than ever, in near perfect condition with little mildew and almost free of insect attacks.

Three years ago I tried a year without chemicals and my yield was down by 60%.

Organic gardening is all well and good if you have acres but at home when you want to see the time and effort you expend appear on the table, chemicals make perfect sense.

olly300

Wash the pots out with disinfectant or detergent, rinse them properly and let them air dry then reuse.

Farway

Don't worry about the foliage in the compost bin, blight spores are airborne, not soil borne, so the normal rotting action will see them off

As others said, give a scrub down, normal one is Jeyes fluid, and next year, as ventureuk says, start spraying early

I agree with all he / she says, no chemical is fine if room enough, but if only a few plants and you want to eat, then reach for the sprays / pellets etc

foxgloves

We always get hammered by blight so for the last 3 years we've grown Ferline. They are not immune to blight but becuase they are able to resist it much longer than other varieties, you can usually get your crop ripe. The last 2 years, the Ferlines haven't had blight at all. This year, with all the rain, our potatoes got it and after a while we started getting the first small signs of it on the tomatoes both outside & in the greenhouse. I removed & binned the few affected leaves & sprayed with Bordeaux mixture which is apparently ok for organic gardeners to use. The plants haven't got any worse & the vast majority of the tomatoes are now ripe and have also stored well with no signs of blight in the fruits. If I was still growing Marmande & Gardener's delight, they'd have gone down like ninepins, so I think I'll stick to Ferline in future. I do sympathise, as I remember how we used to feel when we'd put all that work in just for horrible blight to strike.

Sazbo

Just to add that I went through the blight nightmare last year - it is soul-destroying. This year tried a blight-resistant beefsteak variety called Fantasio and have had good results thus far. Have had two small outbreaks of blight - I removed the affected leaves - and the plants and fruit seem to have come through ok. Just wanted to pass that on in case it might help anyone.

Saz x

Lotus-eater

Blight spores need living material to survive on, once it dies, so do they. You can leave the pots out in winter if you like to make sure.


The thing about organic growing, is that you can't just do it and expect it to work, it takes time, to build up the populations of micro organisms and insect populations. Not to mention animals which will help you.
It's also a skill that needs to be learnt.

Dithane is one thing I would probably use, but I don't, because I manage without it. One of the main reasons, is that I also grow alot of Ferline.
Grow french marigolds in a greenhouse with toms and maybe basil and you shouldn't have any insect problems. Use organic slug controls and there is no need to use chemicals in a greenhouse. Keep the leaves tidy and the greenhouse ventilated and you shouldn't get any mildews.

It's easy to just leave the crops and not look after them, then when it all goes wrong, blame it on gardening organically.

ventureuk

In the tunnel I grew borage (flavour) and french marigolds (pests) alongside the toms, when combined with Dithane I no trouble to speak of. I removed my last marigold only yesterday, it was 3ft tall and 2ft wide, smelled great but I needed room for winter lettuce planting.

Belt and Braces

izzwizz_2

We grow without the use of any pesticides, even organic ones, and don't have problems like those above. I agree with Lotus-eater, you can't just try it for a year and expect it to work if you've previously been using chemicals because you will have killed off all the helpful organisms. It will then take time to build these populations back up. For blight, avoid growing potatoes & outdoor tomatoes near the greenhouse - potatoes will get blight which then spreads to the greenhouse. Grow cordon varieties of tomatoes to aid air circulation, and don't let them get too crowded. We just grow normal tomato varieties, but the blight-resistant varieties sound like a good idea. Be vigilant in the greenhouse and remove any leaves / plants that look diseased as early as possible to prevent spreading. Keep the watering & feeding right. Sorry about your blight problems - I guess it happens to everyone once in a while. Like others have said, the compost should be fine and you can reuse your pots & canes next year.

Primrose

Wash your pots and canes with a strong disinfectant or Jeyes Fluid and they'll be OK for next year. I also wouldn't worry too much about the infected material on your compost heap. Many years ago before I really understood much about blight and my tomatoes were devasted by it, I put all the material on the heap and nothing dire happened to any of my plants when I subsequently dug it out again.
I too grow more Ferline now as they're blight resistant, but as I grow other varieties as well, I also spray with Dithane a couple of times, starting around mid July and this year I've been completely clear of it.
The other thing you can try to do next year is grow some tumbling varieties. They seem to fruit earlier. I also grow Tumbling Red & Tumbling Yellow outdoors in containers and they start fruiting earlier than the upright variieties so are more advanced when blight starts to strike. My own experience is that they seem less susceptible to blight too for some unaccountable reason - at least in my garden.
The other thing you can do is wash all your green tomatoes thoroughly before allowing them to ripen indoors. This will hopefully remove any blight spores which may still remain on the skins and give them a fighting chance of survival.

rosie383

Thank you for that Primrose. I got blight just yesterday, and picked all the tomatoes and binned the plants. I didn't wash the tomatoes as soon as I brought them indoors (didn't think of it TBH duh!) and by this morning I had to bin lots and washed the rest and made green tomato chutney from them today and managed enough for 6 jars. Just hope the ones on the lottie don't get blight too!