Tomato plants dying!!! Help!

Farway

pedrothefish wrote: »

my tomatoes are the same as the pictures posted by hotcookie is there any cure? and also if I have to bin them what do I need to do to the earth that they are in? I dont want the same to happen next year
thanks in advance

There is no cure for blight

The bligt is not in the soil, it comes from spores on the wind, the spores love hot humid weather

It is wise to pick up any blighted leaves / toms etc, but this alone will not prevent blight because a neighbour 4 doors down may not be doing this

PS you could sign up for blightwatch alerts then at least you can get spraying well ahead

LisaB85

I have looked in more details at the stems and it does have those black marks so I think it is blight, I assume I chuck the plants and not compost them? it is strange it has only affected the plants in the grow bags though :-S

pedrothefish

apparently spraying bordeaux mixture from june onwards about once a week helps keep the blight away, so I might look at that next year, also a tomato called Ferline has good resistance to blight.

rabidbun

It could also be scorching of the plant by sun and wind followed by grey mould, which has very similar effects to late blight. No cure for this either, though you mostly only lose the very smallest tomatoes on each truss if you remove them when the stems show signs of mould. Tends to occur in this colder damp sort of weather as well as warmer humid weather and if tomatoes get waterlogged or are poorly ventilated it speeds it up. The healthier the plant (well fed, not crowded or stressed -easier said than done), the less prone to damage and thus the less areas that the grey mould can take hold, so prevention tends to be the key with it.

You can minimise damage or slow the progress by removing affected bits of plant, but I have found that it tends to spread so I remove the whole plant once it hits the stems. I have lost three so far this year to this - a pain of a year to gyo, so my sympathies if it is that!

The lumps and bumps on the stems sound like root nodules if the are green, white and yellow on the first few inches of stem - where the plant would easily throw out new roots if buried deeper.

Farway

pedrothefish wrote: »

apparently spraying bordeaux mixture from june onwards about once a week helps keep the blight away, so I might look at that next year, also a tomato called Ferline has good resistance to blight.

You had better get your Bordeaux mixture stocked up now, it will very likely be unavailable by next year, copper content etc. It is not banned, read the article

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/8825203/What-can-I-expect-from-my-avocado-plant.html

The licenced alternative is very expensive compared to BM so I would get a bit of a stock in

demystified

rabidbun wrote: »

It could also be scorching of the plant by sun and wind followed by grey mould, which has very similar effects to late blight. No cure for this either, though you mostly only lose the very smallest tomatoes on each truss if you remove them when the stems show signs of mould. Tends to occur in this colder damp sort of weather as well as warmer humid weather and if tomatoes get waterlogged or are poorly ventilated it speeds it up. The healthier the plant (well fed, not crowded or stressed -easier said than done), the less prone to damage and thus the less areas that the grey mould can take hold, so prevention tends to be the key with it.

You can minimise damage or slow the progress by removing affected bits of plant, but I have found that it tends to spread so I remove the whole plant once it hits the stems. I have lost three so far this year to this - a pain of a year to gyo, so my sympathies if it is that!

The lumps and bumps on the stems sound like root nodules if the are green, white and yellow on the first few inches of stem - where the plant would easily throw out new roots if buried deeper.

I have to agree it looks like botrytis (grey mould) damage to me, do you have good ventilation in your glasshouse? It's always worst in cool, damp, poorly ventilated areas. It always kicks in in late autumn in my greenhouse toms, but with all the rain we've had it could occur earlier I guess, depending on where you live.

If it's continuing problem you can spray with carbendazim or benomyl.

rubytuesday

They need loads of water even if it rains.

Here is some good advice.

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=ca7a4ee124d417376ae2fbff4&id=d2f3e37334

and this http://www.growbetterveggies.com/growbetterveggies/instructions-on-how-to-grow-better-tomatoes.html