Topic: Any one NOT suffered from tomato blight?

[amphibian]

I have some blight here, but the plants are coping well. Just a little foliar infection, all removed. If it gets wet again I suspect it will flare up in a big way.

[Garden Manager]

My site was clear until last week and is spreading slowly. I've defoliated my outdoor plants to try to get a few more fruit to ripen.

Wow what a crop! Hope they dont get hammered by the blight too much. Done the same to my plants myself today so mine look much the same (a bit less fruit and in pots though!).

Blight hasnt got any worse since i sprayed them with 'bordeaux' a week ago ad thank fully the fruit arent too badly affected so managing to get a decent crop off them so far.

[Duke Ellington]

No sign of it in the greenhouse but its definately on the allotment! I refused to grow any outside on the plot this year ~~it was too upsetting last year :'(

Duke

[Twoflower]

what's "bordeaux" ?

[ceres]

Bordeaux Mix is a fungicide used to combat blight on potatoes and tomatoes.  It's a powder mix of copper sulphate and slaked lime and is permitted for use in organic growing although some people don't like to use it because it contains copper.  To be most effective, it has to be sprayed before blight hits and then at the recommended intervals.  You can buy it in garden centres. My experience is that it doesn't stop the blight completely (probably because of less than perfect spraying and also rain washing it off) but it keeps it at bay long enough to get a ripe crop.

[Twoflower]

Thanks i'll have to keep an eye out for that as i've had blight on everything (or so it seems) :'(

[Fork]

I have got blight but acted swiftly to remove all the leaves from my plants.These are what I harvested this morning.The tomato type is Vanessa.

[SMP1704]

Fork, they look wonderful - what's the taste and texture like?

Might be one to try next year ;D

[KittyKatt]

Mine are ok so far, despite having had full Smith periods for most of July and every day except 2 days so far in August! There is blight elsewhere on the allotment site, but I have been taking off any suspect leaves and spraying regularly with Dithane. I really don't like doing this, but I lost the whole crop in 2007 and Bordeaux wasn't very successful in 2008. I have had a few Gardeners Delight ripen so far - good taste. I'm also growing some Sweet 100 a couple of Shirley and some Russian ones that were given to me (not sure of the variety). I have tried Fantasio and Ferline in the past, but didnt really see much difference in their blight resistance. I'm thinking about a poly tunnel for next year, but still not sure. I've grown tomatoes in the garden before I got the allotment, and they still got blight!
Kitty Katt

[jordsbabe]

Amazingly i've not had any blight this year! Which is strange as i've not been able to do much because of a bad back, i planted and just let them get on with it. I was even unable to pinch out and i've had my best crop yet!

[Garden Manager]

I have to admit I was a bit late spraying with bordeaux MIXTURE this year. I just never seemed to have the opportunity until it was a bit too late. I either didnt have the time or the plants were too wet from rain!

Last year though i sprayed in plenty of time and it saved the crop and most of the plants.

TBH i am rather annoyed with myself over the whole business.

[telboy]

I thank you for all your comments & contributions. Blight seems to be a serious on-going problem wherever you live in the UK (forget Scotland)  8)
From your posts:
- I do not see a trend in resistant varieties.
- There seems to be caution with regard to 'self setter' potatoes, composting     haulms/deseased plants.
- Spraying with dithane/copper mixes & defoliating has some success.
- Polytunnels do assist in spore control.
I'm not writing a paper on this but would like to try to grow toms. again one day w/o moving to Spain.

Anything I've missed? :D

[Sholls]

Anything I've missed? :D

That my particular corner of Scotland is a blight free zone. :P

[Fork]

Fork, they look wonderful - what's the taste and texture like?

Might be one to try next year ;D

They are firm and very sweet and juicy.I will grow them again next year thats for sure.

[saddad]

w/o moving to Spain.

As an idea it has some merit... as Biscombe's crops show...  ;D

[Pegmumm]

I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Our weather is similar to Britain's in many ways. But... this year has been exceptional. Since early May we have had very little rain at all. A half inch compared to 4 inches total for the time. Amazingly no blight thus far when usually the plants would be stunted and diseased by now.

Our biggest problem comes when commercial potato growers start to defoliate and dig up their potatoes. The spores in the ground and the defoliant get into the August fogs and spread round the valley like a curse. But this year has been so dry, no sign of it yet though I have noticed much of the potato crop has been killed off. As an experiment last year I covered the cherry toms in plastic. By coincidence any leaves hit by the rain through holes in the plastic had clear streaks of blight first. And we are miles from the potato fields, no gardens nearby to infect us. Next year I am going for poly tunnels to keep the rain off and the fogs out.

This has been an exceptional year. No rain to speak of.
The webs between our toes have disappeared... the moss is even dead.
Extraordinary.

peg

[saddad]

The webs between our toes have disappeared...

Coming from the Pennines with 6' of rain a year I can asure you they've only retracted they'll come back as soon as the rain starts!!
 :)

[telboy]

Peg,
Appreciate your post.
Farmers harvesting pots.
Something to think about!!!!

[electric landlady]

I gave up on my outdoor plants last week and pulled them all up - I did my usual Bordeaux-and-deleafing routine, and it hasn't even been that wet, but this year the blight was unstoppable - it only took 10 days from onset to total wipeout despite all my attempts to halt it.

The green toms are hanging up at home ripening nicely and luckily not too many of them have been infected. I also have a large quantity of green tomato chutney in the cupboard and am about to try green tomato and vanilla jam.

Next year it will be different! The sun will shine and healthy fully ripened toms will be mine!  8) 8)

[Pegmumm]

This year we planted Siletz and Stupice tomatoes. Ultra Early fruit set. My cherry toms are just getting red but have gotten over 60 lbs of toms off 1 Siletz and 2 Stupice plants. I have over a gallon of dried tomatoes on the shelf. The Stupice aren't as sweet as the later varieties but they certainly have paid for themselves in fruit. Planted on weedblock and watered with soaker hose... and put a great deal of well composted chicken manure in the bed. It has scared the poor things out of the ground. It's amazing how much things have grown due to the lack of rain and constant muck.

I'll grieve my toms going when the blight comes. The potato farmers are set to begin digging any day now.
peg