Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: telboy on August 16, 2009, 22:07:00
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I've had enough. Stopped main crop spuds 2 yrs. ago after 30 years of trouble free growing but to loose my toms. this year AGAIN was a step too far. There are no toms. growing anywhere in range!
P*ssed off & that's it!
>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
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sorry bout your loss but i seem ok down here (dorset),did suffer last year .
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i think i have found some on my toms today but it seems quite localised on the variety ailsa craig. i've trimmed off the affected leaves we aren't due any wet weather till wednesday night so we'll see if the plant copes.
PS so sorry for your loss.
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Has anyone had success with the blight resistant tomatoes like FERLINE or LEGEND?
Duke
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i've had an odd leave or two but I use Bordeaux Mix. A plot neighbour gave me some blight tolerant Fantasio F1 which have been the first to ripen and are untouched at the moment. They look different to all the other varieties I'm growing - the foliage is more blue and the leaves are thicker and stronger.
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My neighbour to the right and myself have lots of Tom plants which at the moment are going great guns. Two other plot holders only twenty yards away have had to dig up their Tomato plants through blight. We can only think that the prevailing winds are kind to us, but who knows what we'll find tomorrow.
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Just pulled up the last of my outdoor tomato plants today! I gave them a chance but to no avail! That's it now, not going to grow them again! >:(
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Managed to avoid it last year with my outdoor plants yet a client who lives close to me got it badly on his indoor plants.
This year have so far lost 4 plants (all one variety - arrgh!) and the test have it to varying degrees. Thanks in part to good husbandry and Bordeaux mixture spraying, an still managing to get a crop off the surviving plants. That said that crop probavbly wont be eaten raw and will mostly go into soups, sauces and pickle. I have my indoor fruits (coming along nicely thanks) for that straight off the vine enjoyment!
Thank goodness the weather has changed (here at least). I dread to think what would have happened if the wet had continued much longer.
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All my toms have gone for the second year running so I wont be growing them again.
Ive managed to top the spuds so I will have a main crop but Im not sure how well PFA have done as its so early for them.
Such is life eh?
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We don't grow outdoor toms anymore cos of the blight.
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My neighbour to the right and myself have lots of Tom plants which at the moment are going great guns. Two other plot holders only twenty yards away have had to dig up their Tomato plants through blight. We can only think that the prevailing winds are kind to us, but who knows what we'll find tomorrow.
Spoke too soon, just had to pull my first one up, probably the ones beside it will have it by tomorrow. I have some growing in another area on the plot so fingers crossed for them.
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None here, but it's one of the few bonuses of only having a small garden surrounded by others who don't seem to bother to grow anything other than weeds. In all the years I've been growing Toms I've only had blight once and I remember how disappointing it was. I'm sorry so many of you are suffering.
G x
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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.
(http://downtheplot.com/images/2009/tomato_august.jpg)
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I often wish I had an allotment rather than just a garden, mostly for the company, but not when blight crops up. I don't suffer from it, there are virtually no other veg grown near me and no agriculture other than hayfields, I feel so lucky. Sorry for all of you who have lost stuff, I've had onion rot this year and it's devastating to see food rotting despite all you can do.
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Well so far I have not been hit. But I will not count my chickens as there are others with it in the area. I will of course keep a close eye on them.
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Had to remove 3 plants today. :( They were all Roma. Have some Golden Nugget and Alicante in a different area that seem unaffected. main crop Maris Piper and cara have it but haven't yet had time to remove the tops. How quickly should the tops be removed? Are all the potatoes likely to be no good? This is the first year of alootment growing. Other crops have bben very rewarding. Such a shame about these. :'(
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Two of my eight outdoor plants were binned two weeks ago. Then I removed affected leaves on a daily basis until three days ago. Since then no more leaves have been affected, although two stems appear to have an inch or so of blight on them - so I'm still at 'fingers crossed' stage and hoping...........
Tricia
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West Deeping is reporting all clear so far :)
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Sorry about your toms Telboy. Mine seem OK but they are in the green house. No one else grows veg near me, i don't have an allotment just a garden. but really tyring to be self sufficient with veg this year. Have put in large raised beds.
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(in a whisper, in case the tom fairy hears) Not here, so far. According to BlighWatch, there have only been 4 full Smith days since the start of July and none of them consecutive - so I have been talking sternly to the outdoor toms. I did snip off a few dodgy looking leaves on Saturday.
A lottie neighbour who practically had a tomato farm, has had all of theirs wiped out - could that be because they were do densly planted??
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Last year for the first time I grew some toms outdoors (as well as in the greenhouse) lost the outdoor ones to blight, indoor ones were fine. I have just stuck to indoor ones this year,, so far so good.
Really sorry to hear how some of our members have suffered.
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Sorry to hear about everyones losses. So far mine in my garden are fine, but not many people round here grow them at home. On the plot my spuds are still ok, but I know some people have lost all their outdoor toms on the plots
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Not grown any outdors on the plot this year, last year they got hit quite early...
The ones in the greenhouse are still going although they are sulking at bit at the mo. The plot above mine has lovely outdoors ones growing that seem to be unaffected for the minute.
However, the outdoors ones in my garden look as though they might be succumbing :-\
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So far here I haven't got any blight but I remember too vividly last year when I lost the lot so I'm making a careful inspection each morning.
All my toms this year are either in the greenhouse or right up against the house wall south facing where they get maximum protection. (except from the sweltering sun we've had. )
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mine seem to be ok at the moment outside in containers. the only problem seems to be a lack of ripening. they are very slow. or i am very impatient. its a race against time i think as i am sure we will succumb to blight before too much longer. the spuds in bags seem ok too. fingers crossed.
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Previous two summers I've been hit by this time, but the twenty or so outside in the garden and the three up at the allotment are so far OK - touching wood as I write.
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I've not been hit yet in Leeds but then I'm growing in my small back garden surrounded by people who only seem to be growing weeds and concrete.... although in saying that I still had to harvest them early last year after being hit late on in the summer but then last summer wasn't really a summer, more of a monsoon!
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not so far in plymouth,but the plants are in my back garden,however i have been hit really bad for the two previous summers,my mates allotment has been wiped out though. Keeping fingers crossed.
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The ones in the garden are bad. (Odd that - I didn't grow any there last year, and haven't had blight there for about 10 or 12 years,)
The allotment ones have got it, but it's "on hold" at the moment. I sprayed them last month, so that obviously helped. And yesterday, I did a mass defoliation, then sprayed again.
Interestingly, Ferline - which is supposed to be resistant - is one of the worst affected. Black Russian's the worst, so I've pulled them up, but so far the tomatoes seem OK.
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:( Had to pull out all of my sun baby plants at the weekend. First time I've ever had blight, but no doubt not the last.
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From what I can make out, the disease is often concentrated on allotment sites, when there's no blight some distance away. I'm convinced it's overwintering on the sites, which implies that it's almost certainly surviving in potato volunteers. Once it breaks out on a site, proximity dooms everything.
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I've not been hit yet in Leeds
Hello to Leeds-I used to have plots around headingley.
My avatar still shows the days when I had clay soil and we had snow!!
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I am still free of it but it is on the site! I have my tomatoes in the tunnel so am using the debris netting to stop it being too windy and blowing some spores in! Doubt that it will work for long so am picking fruit like mad at the mo!
O B
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I am picking the ones that are going a bit red and putting them on a window ledge, how to the farmers grow them, in greenhouses I presume, as it is really depressing as just as they are going red they seem to go brown and die. Lost one plant at the allotment yesterday so I expect the others will succombe. Bit bonfires needed. Nick never waters his so will ask him if his are OK, perhaps I have overwatered mine.
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I didn't plant any toms on the plot this year. Don't see the point as I will probably loose them all to blight. Ours in the greenhouse at home are going strong!
Just picked these today:
(http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/gallery/4528_18_08_09_4_50_48.jpg)
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Wonder what the ' distance ' is to get infected from another sorce ?
Been here 3yrs, had blite the last two years of growing toms, and have an allotment site
a 1/4 of a mile away, ???
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No signs here in Enfield in my back garden under a canopy, I've had no blight alerts sent to me but my next plot neighbour has a lot of his plants affected.
My spud greenery has died back so I think my spuds will be OK.
;D ;D ;D
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The ones in my makeshift shelter are OK, but the outdoor Cuare De Bue and Moneymaker are a rotting mess. The outdoor cherry tomato (no idea what type) seems to be quite resistant, though most of the skins have split and they dont taste great! (or maybe thats just my imagination..)
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My outdoor cherry baskets are fighting it quite well... got some in the greenhouse today... under the roof vent!! :-[
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my indoor variety are ok at the moment, but my outdoors got something, not blight though.
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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.
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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.
(http://downtheplot.com/images/2009/tomato_august.jpg)
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.
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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
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what's "bordeaux" ?
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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.
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Thanks i'll have to keep an eye out for that as i've had blight on everything (or so it seems) :'(
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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.
(http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n2/neil_1_1956/DSCF7718.jpg)
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Fork, they look wonderful - what's the taste and texture like?
Might be one to try next year ;D
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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
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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!
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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.
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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
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Anything I've missed? :D
That my particular corner of Scotland is a blight free zone. :P
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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.
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w/o moving to Spain.
As an idea it has some merit... as Biscombe's crops show... ;D
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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
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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!!
:)
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Peg,
Appreciate your post.
Farmers harvesting pots.
Something to think about!!!!
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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)
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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
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I've grown mine outside against a south facing wall this year and they've done better than ever. However blightwatch have kindly informed me (and have for a few weeks now) that blight has been detected in the East Kent area and according to the maps is the worst hit part of the south east.
Despite this my plants are fine - I have the odd leaf that looks like its being threatened by blight and have for a couple of weeks but apart from that they are healthy.
My outdoor weatherstation has been reporting a relative humidity of no higher than 40% for the past fortnight (usually about 25% during the day) and its rained once in almost 3 weeks so I can only presume this is why! Fingers crossed as I've just started picking the cherry tomatoes and the larger varities (Moneymaker & Golden Sunrise I think) have just started turning.
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No blight again in Mid Wales either. :)
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I've been cutting off any suspect leaves as usual, but last week I had to remove several trusses of 'Tom Thumb' that had succombed to the dreaded malady. The last few days has seen the start of blight on the stems of my outside toms (mainly Costuluto) so I can't see them ripening on the vine now. In the greenhouse it's now a race to see if the toms ripen or the blight gets them first. Nothing like excitement!
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Blight arrived on our site (Sunningdale Berks) around 20th August. Several people have lost their tomato crops already.
Potatoes that are still actively growing are also showing signs.
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The spuds are all in and the bulk of the tomatoes are harvested-all clear in West Deeping.
Some rain would be nice though
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My plums (ooer) are showing signs of blight. Shame as we looked to be getting a useful crop. This may well be the last year of outdoor toms as they always seem to succumb. Took the worst leaves off but may have to remove toms and see if I can ripen them on the window-sill.
Spuds had tops removed as a precaution
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Spuds all hit about 6 weeks ago, only the Sarpo surviving. Strangely though, none of the toms are affected as yet.... ???
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I've just defoliated my outdoor toms. The only bits left on are the trusses and assiciated stem. I ain't afraid of no blight! :o. I only grew early spuds this year and they all seem to have survived OK.
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I lost most of my tomatoes to blight in the past 2 years. This year, following advice I found online, I watered them with a brew made from nettles soaked in a bin for 2 weeks and then diluted 1:10. Great crop and no blight. However, I'm in France and we've had a better summer than in the previous 2 years.
Roy
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I've fed my tom plants on a mix of ovipoo and nettle tea ( as I always do) and I still got blight this year! :(
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Defoliation seems to have worked with my toms. Continuing to harvest the crop as 'normal' (whats normal for tomato growing?). Only a few individual fruits have been lost completely to blight. Fruits have even been good enough to eat raw with salads etc. Seems as if we will get a decent crop after all.
That said i dont know what the current weather will do to them. After the wind and rain tonight they are forecasting a damp humid night which might encourage the blight a bit.
Whils the toms have only been slightly hit the maincrop spuds have got it bad, once lush haulms have been wiped out within days. Crop should be OK though, as i grow my potatoes through weed membrane, which i think helps stop the spores reaching the tubers. Fingers crossed!
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??? whats ovipoo ???
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??? whats ovipoo ???
Equipoo is oss muck
Bovipoo is cow muck
ovipoo is sheep muck
canipoo.. you don't want to use that ! ;D
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??? whats ovipoo ???
Equipoo is oss muck
Bovipoo is cow muck
ovipoo is sheep muck
canipoo.. you don't want to use that ! ;D
thanks for clearing that one up for me :)
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??? whats ovipoo ???
Equipoo is oss muck
Bovipoo is cow muck
ovipoo is sheep muck
canipoo.. you don't want to use that ! ;D
Very good ;-) Not heard of that before.
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Has anyone tried humipoo?
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Has anyone tried humipoo?
You have GOT to be joking! No need for translation to know what THAT is.
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Has anyone tried humipoo?
You have GOT to be joking! No need for translation to know what THAT is.
;D
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Defoliation seems to have worked with my toms. Continuing to harvest the crop as 'normal' (whats normal for tomato growing?). Only a few individual fruits have been lost completely to blight. Fruits have even been good enough to eat raw with salads etc. Seems as if we will get a decent crop after all.
That said i dont know what the current weather will do to them. After the wind and rain tonight they are forecasting a damp humid night which might encourage the blight a bit.
Whils the toms have only been slightly hit the maincrop spuds have got it bad, once lush haulms have been wiped out within days. Crop should be OK though, as i grow my potatoes through weed membrane, which i think helps stop the spores reaching the tubers. Fingers crossed!
Did you take off ALL the leaves or just the brown ones?
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Defoliation seems to have worked with my toms. Continuing to harvest the crop as 'normal' (whats normal for tomato growing?). Only a few individual fruits have been lost completely to blight. Fruits have even been good enough to eat raw with salads etc. Seems as if we will get a decent crop after all.
That said i dont know what the current weather will do to them. After the wind and rain tonight they are forecasting a damp humid night which might encourage the blight a bit.
Whils the toms have only been slightly hit the maincrop spuds have got it bad, once lush haulms have been wiped out within days. Crop should be OK though, as i grow my potatoes through weed membrane, which i think helps stop the spores reaching the tubers. Fingers crossed!
Did you take off ALL the leaves or just the brown ones?
grannieannie i also defoliate and only remove the brown leaves or ones with suspected starting blight spots on them. also remove the low leaves which might get splashed with rain or when I'm watering the plants.
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Some observations.
Black Cherry have superb tolerance, they have some leaf infection but no stem or fruit, their growth has not been checked and are still pumping out flawless fruit.
Japanese Black Trifel has no infection at all. I swear potato leaved cultivars are naturally resistant.
Orange Banana is very susceptible to fruit infection.
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I find Orange Banana susceptible but only on the foliage... my black cherry get it on the foliage too but laugh it off... :)
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my black cherry get it on the foliage too but laugh it off... :)
Quite heroic performance really. Tough buggers, I snapped one of mine in half and stuck it back together with gaffer tape. It's still growing and producing despite the damage AND blight.
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I broke one of my Black Cherry seedlings in half while it was still in the pot. Stuck the stem of the top half into the pot beside the stump and got 2 healthy plants!
I also broke the stem of a Jack Be Little pumpkin almost all the way through when planting out so I put an elastoplast around the break and covered it with a cloche to stop the wind moving it around until it 'healed'. I've got pumpkins on it!
It's hard to kill them, isn't it!
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who manages to break things, this year it's been tomato and pumpkin plants! And all survived - amazing :D .
The Black Cherry variety does sound tempting....
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If you want to try them pm me I've got plenty of seeds... :)
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ooooo tempting!!!
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Black cherry are my all time favourite. Nicer than gardeners delight..and just as easy to grow. I dont think you get as many toms though.
cj :)
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Harvest home and no blight-one can get fed up of tomatoes, I was making another batch of soup at 07.00hrs this morning :)
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Black cherry are my all time favourite. Nicer than gardeners delight..and just as easy to grow. I dont think you get as many toms though.
cj :)
Slightly less prolific that Gardener's delight, but they split less and taste so much better.