Topic: Help...is this blight?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Take all infected tissue and either burn it or very thoroughly compost it. Blight survives in living tissue; it's not a disease lie white rot which lasts years in the soil, so there's no need to worry about soil hygiene in this particlular context. Just be ruthless about eliminating potato accidentals next spring, and at least you won't be the one perpetuating it.

[Ellen K]

My outside Toms are OK but I suspect not for much longer.  My neighbour has overt blight in his tomato patch and is doing sweet nothing about it.

For the sake of your neighbours, if you get the blight, just rip the plant out and dispose of it.  As growers, we have this nuturing nature and think that if we cut affected bits off and give the plant some TLC, it will recover and we can salvage some of the crop.  It's a load of tosh, just cut out all the intermediate stages and pull out the plant.  Sorry OP, they are toast.

[beanie3]

don't panic - my neighbours are safe -

the same day i put the post up and had it confirmed i dumped all affected and tried to save the green toms - unfortunatly i had to dump it all.  What i have done is put the plants/toms and growsacks in black bags and taken to refuge - unfortuntly where I am fires are not permitted or the very least frowned upon so i have done my darm hardest to stop further infestation.

[betula]

I come home from my hols tofind all my beef steaks were blighted,so sad .

[elvis2003]

don't panic - my neighbours are safe -

the same day i put the post up and had it confirmed i dumped all affected and tried to save the green toms - unfortunatly i had to dump it all.  What i have done is put the plants/toms and growsacks in black bags and taken to refuge - unfortuntly where I am fires are not permitted or the very least frowned upon so i have done my darm hardest to stop further infestation.

argh indeed,you are responsible for your own plants and their disease,i am lucky i guess i can burn onsite,but if i couldnt there is no way i could live with myself by taking them to the dump/landfill,cant you find some way of burning em?

[betula]

I have the same problem,no way I can burn them,sadly in these modern times the opportunity to burn has become less and less.

[beanie3]

I wish i could Elvis 2003.  Unfortunatly my neighbours works for the council so i just can't risk having a fire.  I wish i could just burn them and get away with it.  Okay i could probably take them to some field but one i might get in trouble and two i actually think it maybe more careless as i am risk at spreading it further.  If i can do anything different i would - I don't know smother them with bleach - whatever.  I really want to be responsible but not sure what more i can do.

Betula out of curiosity what have you done?

[Ellen K]

Just came back from the plot and one of my plants had the dreaded black patches on the stems so I had to practice what I preach and pull it out.

It was a Black Cherry from T&M seed, TBH the variety has been a bit of a disappointment because, for some reason, the seeds took over a month to germinate so the plants are well behind everything else and the fruit was just starting to ripen.

So I feel your pain, Beanie and other fellow A4A growers.  And this is actually what this tomato growing malarkey is really all about.    A bit like watching England play in the World Cup.  The fact that we continue is a triumph of hope over experience.

We are not allowed bonfires on the site which is weird because the regional Fire Station is across the road and they set fire to all sorts of stuff in their yard for drills at least twice a week.  So the plant went in the site skip.

Bum :-(

[cleo]

Those photos made me shudder-I have only seen blight once and it`s something one never forgets.

It`s a bit late now but the actual compost would have been fine to re-cycle via the bin-the spores reside in living tissue not in soil as such

[beanie3]

thanks cleo that is good to know - i just wanted to do my very best to get rid of it so i panicked and dumped the lot!  Maybe a bit ott but i just didnt care and didnt want it to spread anywhere!

[betula]

The only way I can in the Brown bin. :(

[electric landlady]

Jthis is actually what this tomato growing malarkey is really all about.    A bit like watching England play in the World Cup. 

Bum :-(

That's EXACTLY what tomato growing is like!!  ;D Except far more heartbreaking!

Incidentally my neighbour has also got rampant blight in her toms and is doing nothing about it. She is rarely there but has been there this weekend (either that or someone's nicked her onions) so must know the state they're in. I was seriously thinking of going onto her plot and removing them and burning them for her if she doesn't do it in the next few days. (They are completely brown and there's no hope of saving any of the fruits so i wouldn't be depriving her of anything.) Has anyone ever done this and if so what was the reaction??

[cleo]

I never saw blight in the 16 years I had allotments so never needed to do something like that.

But were I in your shoes I would not hesitate to destroy them. Maybe it`s a matter to raise with those in charge?. Nobody ever wishes to cause trouble but that is just plain irresponsible