Topic: Tomato Disaster

[moonbells]

My Dad's lost all his indoor tomatoes now. He was moaning last night - everything has gone brown and the tomatoes squishy and rotten. If it's not blight then it's something darn like it... and this in a greenhouse.

Does anyone else here rely on a drip watering system for greenhouses and have problems? Dad's only seems to have hit this since he installed his...

moonbells

[redimp]

If you pick healthy looking unblemished green tomatoes from plants when the blight first hits, you can save them by taking them home, washing them thoroughly - use a little drop of bleach or campden tablet in the water, rinse very, very, very thoroughly and allow to dry. This kills off any of the blight fungus. You must lay them out not touching to ripen, and remove any that do start to go brown.
I grow Sungold, Red Alert, Roma, gardeners delight. I understand that Ferline is said to be fairly blight resistant.

If you water blight infected ground with camden, will it clean the ground of the virus?

[plot51A]

Thanks the snail and jennym. Was too depressed on Monday to think about doing anything with the green tomatoes - OH suggested Green Tomato chutney but I always think of that as a last-gasp-use-them-all-up-in-the-autumn sort of thing and the jars sit in the cupboard and don't get eaten so that was a definite no-no. Have definitely got quite a lot of green ones there so will follow your advice jennym and hope for the best.
Would windbreaks or shields help in the future? Trouble is we seem to get potato blight regularly in this area, and there are rogue pots pop up everywhere in my plot where others have grown in the past, so I don't think it's possible to find anywhere that won't have the spores in the soil. The price one pays for living in the warm but wet west I suppose but at least some other things like it

[Scufftastic]

All my tomatoes have succumbed to blight too!  They'll have to be dug up, but what's the best method of disposal of the diseased plants?
Should I burn them, or will this just release the spores into the air and condemn everyone else's tomatoes?

[wardy]

Lots of peeps toms are still green but it's still only early August so plenty of time for them to ripen yet (always optimisic I am)  :)
If soil is blighted then you can grow outdoors in growbags and containers in compost rather than your soil
I have always grown outdoor tomatoes and find them to be pest free and easier to look after but they are later to ripen which you'd expect.  The excess foliage causes problems with ripening so the foliage which has not got fruit on it has to come off.  All the plant's energies are supposed to go on creating fruit -not foliage  :)

Having said all the above, and defoliated my toms, I've still not got one ripe one yet.  I still expect great things  :)

[RosieM]

Hi All,

I have drastically reduced the density of my tomato plants this year having lost the lot last year, defoliating and trying to generally increase the airflow. I now have loads of toms, none ripe but they are finally starting to get that yellowy gold look, I'm still keeping everything crossed as the big hit last year was at the end of August so I know I'm not out of the woods yet.

I know I ought to be even more strict with the defoliation and side shoots but I can't bear to see those stringy, nude, yellowing vines even if they do have a good crop, I like to feel (and smell!) healthy green abundant leaves and don't those bush plums have a lot of them!

Good luck everyone,

Rosie

[wardy]

Yes me too Rosie.  I love healthy abundant foliage and I like the smell of tomato foliage.  Some folks hate it    So I had to be strict with myself and get rid of it  ;D

[Roy Bham UK]

Hi All,

I have drastically reduced the density of my tomato plants this year having lost the lot last year, defoliating and trying to generally increase the airflow. I now have loads of toms, none ripe but they are finally starting to get that yellowy gold look, I'm still keeping everything crossed as the big hit last year was at the end of August so I know I'm not out of the woods yet.

I know I ought to be even more strict with the defoliation and side shoots but I can't bear to see those stringy, nude, yellowing vines even if they do have a good crop, I like to feel (and smell!) healthy green abundant leaves and don't those bush plums have a lot of them!

Good luck everyone,

Rosie

How do you go about pruning back, do you take a whole stem/stems or just cut bits off?

[ina]

There are allot of varaities that are resistant to many diseases like blight!

The_Sexy_Snail (aka The_Snail)

So far I have only found two varieties of blight resistant tomatoes, both have been available only recently.
Dingerbells, you may want to try Ferline. Every year I lost almost all my tomatoes to blight (even tho' they were in the greenhouse) and was just about to give up on tomatoes two years ago. After I participated in the Ferline trial, my hopes returned, I had a good harvest with just a touch of blight that spread so slowly that the fruits had time to ripen (of course I removed the affected parts immediately). This year, all around on the allotment complex potato and tomato crops have been severly affected by blight, my Ferlines are still standing proud.
Next year I'm going to try Legend, also a blight resistant type.

Snail, if you know of other blight resistant tomatoes, I would be very interested.

[carloso]

yes my Ferline are doing well at this minute and i believe that my Beef toms have the dreaeded blight the leaves have started to go rusty and there always seems to be something wrong with the beef ones from the strat they also seemed to suffer from End pollock rot or something (the underneath of the Tom started to go dark and inwade as such) any way theyll not on next yrs list !!
My yellow pear seem to be doing ok at this time but dont hold ya breath lol 
The blight hit the potatoe sin my neighbours about 2 week ago so i guess im not suprised
But i have had a few toms already so ill not complain (Much)
My allotment is about clear of everything no except fruit and the odd cali and carrot as it all needed to be double dug which 75% is now completed and it can rest a bit over winter but it better be ready to start to earn its keep next yr !!

Question

would fleece keep the blight out ???

carl

[ina]

Interesting question Carl.
Somehow I don't think fleece will keep blight out, it is a micro-organism and I think that where air gets through, blight will too plus the fact that it might be in the soil waiting for a chance to pop out.
I hope there's someone who really knows it for a fact.

[beejay]

As I have always understood things, blight is airborne so fleece would not necessarily protect the plants. It can survive on old vegetation & I have always assumed not in the soil itself but I'm not sure on that. It also needs wet. I seem to remember Mr Flowerdew doing some trial a few years back erecting plastic over his outdoor toms to see if that would help (it was designed so the water run-off went to the plant roots!), but don't know what happened. As it can occur in green houses I can't see it being worth it.

You would have thought there would be more work/research on blight resistant toms.

[plot51A]

You would have thought there would be more work/research on blight resistant toms

Couldn't agree more beejay. When I first thought I had tomato blight I searched the net extensively - came up with very little. It was all about potatoes.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Blight's a fungus which willdoubtless be spread by spores. These things are microscopic, comparable in size to a bacillus; fleece definitely won't stop them.

[Nathan]

Now now periwinkle don't diss green tomato chutney.  Just thinking about my mother-in-laws on a slab of cheshire cheese in a white bread sandwich makes my mouth water.

[jennym]

[quote author=redclanger
If you water blight infected ground with camden, will it clean the ground of the virus?


The blight is a fungus, and I imagine that the chemical acts as a sort of fungicide. Wouldn't think it would work in the soil, too much to tackle and the blight is airborne anyway. Jenny

[wardy]

I googled and found information on the HDRA sight which talks about growing in fresh compost (which Tim did) but apparently it can be spread on your boots and tools.  I've looked at most of the seed catalogues and I don't think there are any statements about any tomato variety being blight resistant, and Ferline is described as blight tolerant so, seems the best one to be growing where you've got the dreaded disease  :(

[beejay]

But does Ferline taste any good? No good growing a tom which is resistant but lacks taste.

[ina]

Of course...!  I wouldn't  grow 'em if they didn't taste any good. They have a most wonderful flavour.

PS: Wardy, look in the T&M catalogue for 'Legend tomatoes' as well, also blight resistant or tolerant whatever.

[Doris_Pinks]

Thanks to Ina this is my second year of growing Ferline, lost all my toms to blight inside and out last year, and the ferlines hung on the longest!
This year the Ferlines on my plot are holding up well, hope I haven't put the moccas on them now! :-\