Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: ruffmeister on July 10, 2007, 20:53:32
-
Hi guys was wondering what the blight situation was like near you. Our potatoes were showing the first signs of it so we whipped them out now our tomatoes appear to have it now.
Here is a picture of our Tomato Blight on plants (http://lottieblogs.co.uk/july2.aspx)
Our location is notorious for blight but this is the first year we have had any issues?
Whats your plot like? better? worse? don't grow tomatoes because of the problem? have a solution to blight?
Other news from the plot this week. 15 kilo of poataoes are liftted, shallots and onions are near ripe. First runners are seen, more fruit and the atlantic giant fruit has formed.
Regards
Lottieblogs
-
yep ,i got potato and tomato blight ..1st time in 5 yrs.ps. im in dorset
-
I think I have blight on my spuds, a couple of them are yellowing, droopy and have kind of brown spots on them. I've dug them up, and the spuds underneath are fine, but the original tuber is looking sort of flat. I'm new to this, but it can't be good. :(
-
I'm also in Dorset and have the first signs,dark leaf blotching on my Picasso main crop but not on all plants..tomatoes too..Dug two haulms of my picasso's out of interest and had 10 lb of spuds. :o
-
I think we are ok here in Upton Gloucester.
Lots of the 'experienced' guys are spraying their potatoes blue!!
One newcomer has chopped his tops off, but he had the yellowing like I have, but from discussion on here it is just that thy are old and getting ready for digging up.
Not seen or heard anything on the tomato front.
The organic veg company that I work for are based in Devon, they have got blight on their spuds.
-
No blight on the potatoes but the tomatoes going down fast. I very much doubt I shall get a single ripe tomato this year. Serves me right for buying a passata machine.
-
Me too MM - have the machine and the bottles and the San Marzano.............
Pulled up one whole plant today - blight on the main stem. On the others, I am trimming and cutting back and keeping everything crossed.
Back to the bland but blight resistant Ferline next year :'(
-
Crickey!
Been on the plot & so far so good?
Weather not good though is it?
-
at least wiv spuds you can pull greenery off and spuds will prob be ok, but wiv toms you lose the lot
-
yep, blight on potatoes in Manchester too
-
Blight in Notts as well :(
-
My tomato plants are blue, along with many others on the plot thanks to Bordeaux mix. Just hope we did it in time as there are the first signs of blight on our site. :'(
-
Blight in Notts as well :(
And in my bit of Notts. :'(
-
My spuds developed the dreaded blotches on the stems and leaves, then they stopped spreading and dried up. I don't know what it is, but it's not blight.
-
I think I have blight on my spuds, a couple of them are yellowing, droopy and have kind of brown spots on them. I've dug them up, and the spuds underneath are fine, but the original tuber is looking sort of flat. I'm new to this, but it can't be good. :(
Newbies that's normal, the original seed spud always shrivels up and sometimes turns into a mushy rotten mess. :)
Yellowing/droopy haulms might be normal too if they're earlies, just means they've finished and are ready to dig up.
If they're main crop it might be a prob tho....
-
Yes in Lincoln. The whole of our site has it. I have been removing leaves to slow it but a bit of a pointless task when my nearest neighbour has just left a vast swathe of wizened haulms on his plot (and he lives next to the site). Both toms and pots affected but pots worse. Only ever had it on Toms in October before.
-
off to the garden centre at lunch time to buy some blue. fraid the pots and toms are showing 1st signs. never had a problem so early before. Next year i shall only grow resistant varieties ::)
-
Here in France we have had as much rain as the UK this year and recently everyone's potatoes and tomatoes are going black and dying.
Here are some pics of my maincrop spuds, does this look like it's just dieback and the spuds will be ready to lift soon or is it blight?
I cannot see any white spores or mould.
My second earlies did the same thing recently too. I've had a look at the spuds in the ground and they are full size. Should I cut the tops off and burn them and lift the spuds in a few weeks?
(http://burgundy-breaks.tripod.com/spud1.JPG)
(http://burgundy-breaks.tripod.com/spud2.JPG)
(http://burgundy-breaks.tripod.com/spud3.JPG)
(http://burgundy-breaks.tripod.com/spud5.JPG)
-
we've all had it on our site in norwich :(
my 1st earlies were mostly OK but I need to cut off the tops of my 2nd earlies
(maincrop never made it into the ground, still chitting on top of my wardrobe :-[ may try the xmas crop thing...)
it's completely wiped out lots of people's tomatoes though.
rhys: that's what my spuds looked like and I was told it was blight, but I've only been allotmenting for 6 months so I wouldn't like to say if your spuds have it or not, sorry :-\
-
That looks like blight to me too - it's the brown patches on the stems that are the give away - the foliage, when it dies off naturally, as it does, goes all kinds of blotchy colours and this can be misleading
-
at least wiv spuds you can pull greenery off and spuds will prob be ok, but wiv toms you lose the lot
I beg to differ but if you dont catch the blight soon enough it will definately ruin your potatoes too.
We have blight here too........but not on my plot yet thankfully!
-
Farmers slot on Radio 4 said that 1/3-1/2 of Peas has been lost and that 1/4 of the spud s have been lost to blight beacuse of the wet weather. Chap buying a sack of spuds this time last year was £5.50/sack, now £12.50. Hold on tight we might have some allotment prowlers later in the year.
Jack
-
Heard it on the local radio here too.It said that the price of peas would definately increase but nothing was said about potatoes.It also said that cabbage and cauliflower was suffering too.
The farmers around here have been selling them at £7:50 a bag since last year.
-
yep, on the news: the price of fish and chips and mushy peas is set to soar...
-
Chips I am worried about but even after living in Manchester for several years, mushy peas (or guacamole as Peter Mandelson thought) leaves me speechless with horror.
-
You cant beat a large dish of mushy peas with some mint sauce....yummy !
-
Dear God, just the thought! My oppo's up there used to order; Meat Pie with grazy poured over it, then mushy peas poured over that. Eating that after a gallon or so of Mild???????????????????
I can remember when spuds were so expensive peeps used to stay on their allotments to stop them getting knicked!
(Good memory, not an Old Git!)
-
that looks horribly like blight.
-
got blight here too in sutton-in-ashfield near mansfield nottinghamshire. The pentland javelin had blight on the leaves but not on the tubers, ratte as got it on the tubers and leaves, we just cut the bad bit off and eat the rest
-
hopefully next year it should be better for the toms
-
We went to the allotment today, we had a very quick look at the potatoes and all seemed ok.
As we were leaving I noticed that next doors spuds were looking a bit sad, a closer look reveled blight.
I then had a closer look at ours, and they too had blight :(, not as bad as next door, the patches on the leaves were about a penny in size or smaller, but most of the 50 plants had it :(
We have now cut all the tops off, should this save the potatoes? There is a small bit of stalk level with the ground for each plant, should I cover it with soil? Or won't the blight affect it?
Other than that I have 10 charlottes ready for digging up, they are next to the main crop, I am a little worried about digging them up as I dont want to put any fungi that might be on the soil into the ground that might affect the main crop.
Any suggestions?
I intend to dig them up tonight.
Thanks,
Sue
(Glocuester)
-
mine appear to be ok but just wondering would the fact that i am only growing in a garden on the middle of a council estate (no other gardening going on around as far as i can see) with the nearest allotments quite a long distance away make it better for me? does the close proximity of so many plants make it more likely to occur?
-
blight here in cambridgeshire, my spuds and toms took hammering.
-
So far here in Waterlooville all is well, but you never know.
Last week we went on hols to Devon and looked around RHS Rosemoor. They had rows of spuds in the veg patch that were still in the ground but had no stems at all showing above ground. I presume this was to stop the rot getting to them at all. I didn't remember to ask any of the staff about it, so I don't know if cutting off all the stems/foliage stops the tubers from maturing more - anyone know the answer to that?
-
I've sprayed the tomatoes three times. Think I've lost the lot - sort of creeping blight that gets slightly worse each day. 80-plus plants - an entire freezerful for two families.
And the spuds are getting it now; again, very slowly. Underneath they're fine, so I might save those.
But the tomatoes....
-
Trevor I know just how you feel. every day I come home to find more - first on the leaves then on the stalk of the leaves & today several patches on the main stem. I have sprayed all mine but it doesn't seem to be halting it. I've got 65 plants of which about 6 are supposed to be blight resistant varities - we shall see. :)
-
If you aint already got the blight give em a spraying of Dithane945 ..
It will help to protect them against it ...
-
We do not have it up here in Cumbria yet, but just to make sure I have erected a mesh net right across the country from Blackpool to Hull, that should stop it spreading up here :)
-
As far as I can tell, I dont have it yet.
Possibly one of my outside tomato plants may, but it looks grey not brown and doesnt effect the stems.
fingers crossed
-
It's arrived in Mid Wales. Checked my outside toms last night, and found 2 plants with black blotches on stems & brown spots on leaves, so have removed them from other plants. Is it still worth spraying the remaining plants to try & save them?
-
If you aint already got the blight give em a spraying of Dithane945 ..
It will help to protect them against it ...
is it organic?
-
I've had blight on my toms before, a few years ago and remember it looking like the photos from Rhys.
Checked mine yesterday and although still lovely and green, some have one or two tightly curled leaves. Is this the early signs of blight or something else? :-\
Donna :)
-
I had got away with it until I went down the plot yesterday. Majestic -clean, King Edwards - clean, Desiree - early signs of blight. In the past I have always cut off and dug up affected plants but this year I`m going to try out picking off affected leaves and spraying with Dithane. All my earlies (Arron Pilot) are ok but are now dying back (drowned with rain), only four plants left, should use them next week or so.
-
I had a quick visit today and noticed blight on the second earlies, so I've cut that foliage off and will leave the spuds for a couple of weeks before lifting. There are a few small patches on my Desirees, so I picked those off by hand and will watch them closely.....toms seem ok at the moment (fingers crossed).....
-
Yes. Potatoes wiped out (they were a washout anyway, in more senses than one), and the toms will doubtless follow shortly.
-
(http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allpotatoes_blight_leaves.jpg)
'nuff said.
-
:( We grubbed up several tomato plants yesterday. No signs on the others yet, but I'm not hopeful.
Potatoes look OK so far.
-
Potatoes came down yesterday. Will cut and trim tonight and hope for the best.
Toms OK at the moment, but they are so pathetic this year I'm not very hopeful even without blight :'(
-
Blight on my Marmandes but not on the Ailsa Craig next to them. Bit disappointed as I covered them in Bordeaux mixture 10 days ago when there were no signs and did nothing to stop it. Have now cut out all the bad bits and sprayed with Dithane 945 in the hope I might save them. First attempt at growing outdoor toms and Marmandes and I've got some the size of the palm of my hand.
-
All of my early spuds which should have come out by now - Kestrel, have blight, so I went over today cutting back most of the foliage, picking off iffy bits. The rest of the spuds, Maxine, PFA and others which I can't remember have signs, so I went through and picked off the dodgy leaves. I will cut them back as late as I can get away with and leave them put for a few weeks before digging. Tomatos so far so good although I did notice a couple of poorly looking leaves, but it is very easy to get carried away and assume a dying leaf is a sign of blight, when it could just be a dying leaf.
-
Hello all.
could some one tell me if these poor photos show that i have blight on my greenhouse toms ???
if it is what other veg can it spread to, as i have Cucumbers and chilli's and peppers in the green house as well.
also can i keep the toms that i have on the plants or will they all succumb to the blight
(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/phillchinn/blight4.jpg)
(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/phillchinn/blight3.jpg)
(http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/phillchinn/blight1.jpg)
sorry they are such poor quality.
so far i have no signs of blight on my spuds or outdoor tom's
are my Cue's and peppers/chilli's going to be OK ??
and what of the affected toms can i save if i act now ??
-
I'm copying these here because people don't seem to be looking in the Pest & Disease Section!
-
It does look like the early stages.
-
i cut mine down when i saw it on other plots. don,t grow tomatoes up there as we always get it altho it is early this year. i noticed the first prize plot has it all over rows of toms and potatoes. trying very hard not to feel smug well not untill i have dug mine up (at least 2 weeks after chopping off i believe) if they are good
i shall take smugness to a new level you have been warned!!
toms are at home in greenhouse, got to let some air in but am keeping the door closed. have had it in there late in the season
marg
-
there is a site called blightwatch.co.uk that I believe you can track the blight. I am not sure if you can register being a private person though ???
Jitterbug
-
A much used site but, rather than wait for a warning, so much better to start the spray routine in good time?
IF the weather would let you!!
-
Staffordshire got hit a few weeks ago. My Toms were yanked out 2 wks ago, :'( :'( am still crying. There was just over 4 lbs (sorry still in imperial) of green toms which I harvested, not knowing whether they would survive I let them stand for 7-8 days, day by day a few of them succumbed, I ended up with 300g of green fruit which I turned into chutney yesterday, not a big fan of green tomato chutney but I felt the need to do something with them!
-
FRIED green tomatoes?
-
Blightwatch has it's uses ( and it is free to register) but you only get a warming after a Smith period, and when I check the website, I usually find there have been several before the warning went out. I always seem to start getting warnings before blight hits though.
-
Noticed blight on my Marmande toms. I've cut off the affected leaves and stems and will look into spraying. The potatoes are showing early signs of blight too. I cut down the haulms of the 2nd earlies and early maincrops, but am hesitant to cut down the Pink Fir Apple :-\.
-
I took a chance and was lucky - I put my potatoes into the ground really early because I was going to be away a lot (some in Feb, rest early March). When I got back to them on 7th July, all the wonderful vigorous foliage and flowers I had seen a month before had vanished leaving a few dry sticks. Yet the potatoes themselves are large and 99% healthy as I dig them.
I wonder if they had had such a long growing season that they reached full size before the blight wiped out the foliage. The ones I have looked at so far are Red King Edward, Charlotte and Desiree. They are the most successful and beautiful potatoes I have ever grown!
I also wonder, as I cannot dig them all at once, if they will succumb to the blight after all, underground, as the weeks go by. Does anyone know?
-
Our site in North Surrey has been hit. not a healthy potato or tomato to be seen. Also mildew on our onions.
-
Clear on Blight so far. Downey mildew has had all the Onions. Cotswolds.
-
It's struck in Nottingham :'(
One of my neighbours, Dario, lost 160 outdoor tomato plants.
Ahmed lost his potatoes a couple of weeks ago and now one of my tomato greenhouses has been struck :'(
I'm really upset. This is the first year I'd grown different types of toms and planned to be a bit adventurous.
The other tomato house looks ok so far. Bit of a loss what to do really?
I really don't know how to recognise potato blight. A couple of rows of mine have died back but I'm not sure whether it's natural dying back or the dreaded blight ::)
ARRRGGGGHHHH!
-
Also in Nottingham...my tomatoes have had it, but spuds are OK so far.
I'm so disappointed about the tomatoes, this was my first attempt to grow them outdoors, and now I'm wondering if I should bother next year.
-
Noticed blight on maincrop potato haulms a couple of weeks ago. I cut them off and destroyed them promptly. Remaining early crop haulms have since also showed signs and have been cut down too.
Thought tomatoes were OK, albeit s bit sick looking from too much rain and not enough sun and warmth. However i looked closely again today and saw what could be the first signs of blight on them, even on supposedly resistant ferlines.
As it is eary days (and have recently fed them with a general fertiliser), I will have a go at spaying with Bordeaux Mixture to try and save them, although I fear that will not be enough.
-
Blight here in Harrogate too. Cut all the potato haulms off and left the potatoes in the ground where I strongly suspect they are rotting away.
Tomatoes don't look too bad - I've removed a few leaves and will keep an eye on them but won't hold my breath.
Shallots have very sappy necks - neck rot?
Lillypad
-
My indoor tomatoes had a few affected leaves when I checked last night! Yet strangely, my outdoor ones are still unaffected....? higher humidity in the greenhouse? Am I going to get any toms at all this year...? :-\
-
Don't give up hopes on outdoor toms just on one bad year... in the mid 90's I remember having a currant tom in full flower and fruit on Bonfire night... I blame global warming myself!
;D
-
Strange to get it inside the greenhouse. I have always believed blight was carried by rain on the southwesterly winds, so any tomatoes in the firing line of this weather would likely as not get blighted. I suppose there are ways blight can get in the greenhouse, but this is far less likely to happen (unless you happened to move outdoor plants inside which already had the spores on them). The only time i got it in the greenhouse was when i did this one year at the end of the season.
-
well not feeling smug after cutting all my potatoes down! just dug up 2 rows of earlys (which were put in a bit late) and i row of 2nds . the earlys had 1 or 2 blighted ones on each plant the 2nds had app6 in the whole row so i suppose it is only a matter of time before it appears on the clean ones i,v dug up as well
happened when i tried maincrop once, those not eaten all turned eventually
OH is a bit put off eating the clean ones but i am sure it is all right
any wise words of advise? (and comfort)
marg
-
The fruit on the Marmande toms was starting to rot. I cut down the 4 plants and took the healthy looking fruits home to ripen. I sprayed the other varieties (no sign of blight yet) today, but it started to rain 10 minutes later ::).
-
checked our lottie toms and they defintly look like they have had it, oh well for next year hey?
-
All my outdoor toms have had it. First time for me too. Felt sick at first, but now I just feel I've put this year behind me as far as my small garden is concerned. Was so proud of my celeriac, but now the woodlice have made such a mess of them I feel quite disheartened.
Tricia
-
I rekon mine had signs of blight today so seeing as I had a HUGE fire going I pulled the lot up and burned the haulms (I sound like a real allotmenteer now, don't I!??) . The spuds look really nice and had no signs of rotting at all!
looking forward to eating them all now ;D
-
I will check the produce as soon as I can find Jacques Cousteau to lend a hand.
My shed has been rechristened as Kon Tiki.
Can anyone lend me an Irish Water Spaniel?
Marine Boy
-
Had to go through all my plants yesterday in an attempt to limit the damage done by the blight. Except for one plant once all the infected leaves were removed, the situation wasnt as bad as I thought. Some plants are hardly affected -yet, and a couple arent showing much sign at all!
Hopefully by good husbandry (leaf removal and feeding) i can slow down the progress of the disease long enough to save some of the fruit and get something out of this bad year.
-
I lost all of my toms the very first year on my allotment and I was so sad. Have gotten away with no blight for the last 4 or 5. So far so good on the plot with the toms, but half of them are grown under a cover so they tend to withstand the blight for long than those grown in the open. It is a horrid year. I have 4 tomato plants at home which I will grow on in the greenhouse to provide me with a late harvest, and some toms! The spuds are odd also. Kestrel had plenty of blight, and after hanging it out for as long as I could, I finally removed all the top growth at the weekend. Maxine and Pink Fur Apple were still okay. Everyones spuds on the allotment have blight in various degrees, but so far nobody seems to have lost any toms. I will see on Friday when I go up.
-
My (resistant) Sarpo Mira now have it - no hassle, because there will be spuds under - but also PFA, not due till October. Dammit!!
-
An update from my earlier post. After spraying with Dithane (Bordeaux didn't work) outdoor Marmandes still hanging on. More rain today has meant the ends of a couple of branches were blighted (including the tomatoes on them) and have been removed. I shall spray again tomorrow if it stops raining. I too got the beginnings of blight on the greenhouse crop about a week ago, despite precaution of disinfecting tools, so infected leaves were carefully removed and binned and Dithane applied to the crop. They seem to be fine at the moment. Mind you I sowed some runner bean seeds in a large tub about 3 weeks ago and the leading shoots have almost reached the top of the 8 foot wigwam - growing about 4 inches a day in this rain.
-
I think it stoo late for Bordeaux to help my toms, especialy whilst the weather continues to be wet. As soon as it is applies it will be washed off without doing any good at all.
My first experience of blight was 5 years ago in 2002, when my entire outdoor crop was devastated. The following year was of course hot and dry so no blight risk. The next time was in 2004, but I only got it on some bush types planted in the ground far too close together (i realised too late - a lesson learnt there). My pot grown cordons escaped somehow. Since then If the weather has been even slightly damp around late july/early august (the USUAL danger time for blight to hit) then i would give them a preventative spray of bordeaux, which seemed to work.
This year of course the blight has hit much earlier than expected and has caught me out somewhat (and many of you as well i guess). I did not realise what was happening untll it was too late.
-
Between blight and the floods, my toms have now definitely had it.
-
I thought I would check under diseases to see what I could get for the blight which has affected my tomatoes, all of which I planted in my back garden against a sunny wall in pots.
But seeing as there is such a huge thread on this horrible attack on us all this year, will add mine to this.
Today I spent ages cutting loads of the plants and they were all doing so well too, it is definitely heartbreaking... because of the early good start to the weather I started with an excellent crop and now virtually nothing.
But looking at all the replies will go out and buy Dithane 945 tomorrow and hope it helps the few I have left. Sad year ...
Lin
-
I should have added that what has not helped is that I could not put most of my plants in the place i normaly grow them. They normaly are grown along a warm south/southwest facing fence sheltered also by autumn raspberries there I guess they are protected a bit from the worst of the weather. I put a few plants down ther and they seem the least affected. I could not put them all there because the fence was badly damaged in a winter storm and has still not been replaced (neighbour problem - another story), thus the tomatoes would not have had the protection they normaly have (from cold northerly winds).
Putting them elsewhere in more sheltered positions, albeit expsed to all the rain this summer, has i am sure contributed to the blight problem
-
yep we had it here on ours in Kempston,last year we had a great crop,this year not great though.Have loads of green tomatoes,but plants starting to blacken.