Blight

[Deb P]

First signs of blight here in Derby this week.  :-\ :'(
:-
Yesterday, only some of the outdoor tomatoes had it, and it interestingly it varied from plant to plant, some totally wiped out in two days, some unaffected! Cyril's choice, Red zebra, and Aurora were totally affected and binned, Legend and some bush tomato seeds I tried outdoors last year and saved the seeds of are all at the moment completely unaffected. These are the plants I've grown with the climbing french beans so if I do lose them, I still have some productive plants in the same space: I'm glad I tried that now!

No blight on potatoes as yet (a few yellowing leaves and brown flecks same as Tim's plants), I'll have to go down again later and dig some more up for tea!

[Deb P]

[Robert_Brenchley]

I think everything depends on the variety you plant. I wonder whether we can compile a list of resistant varieties? I could start with Cara, it only had a few spots when it was all over the Charlotte next to it. Charlotte's a lovely potato but I won't be planting it again because of the susceptibility to blight.

[amphibian]

We're still blight free in Maidstone. We escaped it last year too. Maybe down to prevailing winds or something.

I've heard Brighton suffers little blight because of its prevailing winds off the channel combined with a hills behind it.

I think a list of varieties that exhibit resistance or tolerance would be a very good idea, especially as we have new strains of blight in the UK now, so old resistance may not be relevant and previously vulnerable cultivars may now be better.

[thifasmom]

I'm also in maidstone and also at the moment blight free but last year my neighbours outdoor toms were blighted i think it was early September, a week later i got it too on my toms but they survived due i think to the cover i have over my toms which kept them relatively dry. i meticulously up to 2 or 3 times a day picked off any affected leaves/ fruit (of which i only lost no more than 5 and i cleaned my blades in between each cut).

i remember binning one plant variety banana cream early October whether it is more susceptible or not is yet to be seen as my daughter grew the same variety in her little bed with no cover and it didn't get blighted at all, i think mine had the odds stacked against it as it was in a corner and i don't think it was drying out properly when it got splashed by the rain.

my last ripe fruits were taken last week of October and i finally discarded all the plants after the second frost in November any green fruit that was left was made into chutney.

[muddylou]

I have 2 allotments, on the one my neighbours crop have been completely devastated by blight, but he usually plants supermarket potatoes rather than seed potatoes. The blight passed onto ours, but only a couple of spots. I dug them up anyway. On his from first signs to no leaves took around 4 days!

At the other allotment most plots now have bad blight, leaves are gone or almost gone. Surprisingly I only have a few spots on my Bartlett potatoes next to a neighbours plot, where his blighted potatoes are only a narrow path away from mine. I am wondering if the Bartletts are know to be fairly resistant.
I have removed infected leaves and plan to go back tomorrow.

I have got photos of blight now, so I am wondering if it would be useful to post them, as I now a few weeks ago thre were lots of people thinking they had blight when it was earlies dying back or Mg deficiency.

Please do, my Tom's are going down with something, I fear it's blight so would like to know what to look for.

[chriscross1966]

Brow spots without yellowing expanding rapidly on both stems and leaves (and fruits).

I've got it on som,e tomatos... they burn tomorrow....


Add Oxford to the list :(

[tiger47]

Hi Folks , 1st post at the site - couldn't find an intro thread (yet).

Hastings East Sussex can be added to the list , my tomatoes are currently being decimated by blight , its truely awful  :'(

Potatoes have been fine thus far , just some pink fur apples and a row of non descript supermarket ones i threw in the ground to dig up .

[saddad]

Charlotte's a lovely potato but I won't be planting it again because of the susceptibility to blight.

Glad I got mine out yesterday then...  :)

Sorry Tiger, forgot to say "Welcome to A4A" I don't think there is a "Welcome"/intro thread as such...  :-\

[amphibian]

I think I may have the early signs of late blight on one of my tomatoes. I'll know for sure in a couple of days.

[STEVEB]

chrisscross
abingdons on the list too struck the cherries but beefs are ok at the moment
BURN<BABY<BURN thats if i can light a fire  ??? ???

[Digeroo]

Total wipe out of tomatoes and potatoes on east side of allotments very little on the west.

Conclusion it did not arrive by wind.  It did not come from Volunteers - there were none on pristine site.  So it must have arrived with seed potatoes.  Two batches on different allotments seem to be the source.  Unfortuneately I am down wind of both.

Think some of them came from portugal.

[chriscross1966]

chrisscross
abingdons on the list too struck the cherries but beefs are ok at the moment
BURN<BABY<BURN thats if i can light a fire  ??? ???

I half filled my incinerator with broken up pallet wood, some bbq lighter cubes, give that a squirt of lighter gel to link the cubes to a hole then fill the top with tomato foliage, put the top on and light it

chrisc   

[Robert_Brenchley]

Total wipe out of tomatoes and potatoes on east side of allotments very little on the west.

Conclusion it did not arrive by wind.  It did not come from Volunteers - there were none on pristine site.  So it must have arrived with seed potatoes.  Two batches on different allotments seem to be the source.  Unfortuneately I am down wind of both.

Think some of them came from portugal.

I think we need to be careful about this one. I don't know what the situation is here, but apparently in the States, seed is accepted as long as less than 1% of the tubers are carrying blight. The result is, it's a known source of the disease.

[123b]

Couldn't work out how to post the photos of blight, but if you want to see them I have uploaded them onto my blog
http://purplexoo.livejournal.com/

[Sparkly]

booooooo we joined the blight club today on our spuds. They were fine on Sunday, but definately have blight now. I have chopped the tops off and hope we have caught it early enough so the spuds will be okay.

[Digitalis]

Can blight affect plants other than spuds/toms?

I have some salvias nearby to my growbag toms and their leaves are showing similar signs of blight. Plus, on my allotment the French beans are close the affected toms and they too are looking dodgy.

[saddad]

Shouldn't do... salvias and French beans are probably just sulking if it's as cold and wet for you as it is for me...  :-\

[tim]

We are surrounded by Blight Alerts today.

[GRACELAND]

Mine ok Touch wood Tim  :-\

[asbean]

Just had a SMS and email from B/watch for SO22 and SO23.  First we've had this year (no full smith period till today) although there is already blight on the site.  >:( >:( >:( >:(