Tomato Blight

[CharlyPickle]

I'm pretty sure my tomatoes are showing signs of blight  - yellowy/brown dried leaves and brown patches on the plant's stems. I am growing 30 plants on my plot (got a bit carried away) and I'm really worried that I will have to get rid of them all - there is lots of fruit on each plant but none ripe yet. I have removed as much of the affected foliage as possible and dug up one plant completley. What should I do with the rest? - some plants seem unaffected at the moment. I really dont want to lose the whole crop! Help!

[CharlyPickle]

[nilly71]

I'm the same as you :(, but don't have as many plants. I picked some green tomatoes just to make sure i got something out of them, as i won't be down there for a couple of days and did not to waste the lot.

Hope yours survive long enough to get some good crops.

Neil

[ceres]

If you already have blight all you can do is slow it down and hope that the toms will ripen before the blight wipes them out completely.  If you don't want to spray, all you can do is what you've already done - every day pick off any infected leaves and remove any plants that have gone too far (and burn or bin (not compost) the infected material).  If you want to spray then either Bordeuax Mixture or Dithane will hold it back but not stop it completely.

And get the green tomato chutney recipes ready!

[Buster54]

I've lost all mine to blight  :(picked all the green toms off and made 30 jars of green tom chutney so all wasn't lost ;D,.Had to dig all my Maris Piper spuds up as well and gave 4 sacks away,hoping what I have left will store till Christmas bit of a bummer but you have to take it on the chin and move on as long as you get something for your efforts

[CharlyPickle]

Thanks for the suggestion, will definitely have a go at the chutney... just hope some of the toms might survive long enough to ripen! Sounds like lots of people are affected by blight :( I only got my plot in Feb and have been amazed how successful everything has been so far -guess it was too good to last!  :)

[Eristic]

It has been my bitter experience that once the plant has blight the tomatoes are doomed. It is best in these circumstances to harvest everything from the plant immediately and destroy the plant. The fruit will already be infected and if left will brood and rot. Best to use them up any way possible while they are still edible.

[BarriedaleNick]

The only thing you can do is to spray - they will all sucumb very quickly otherwise.
Two years ago my Roma toms were blighted and a couple of other planst showed signs.  I spayed with copper sulphate and I did get a crop - however (and it is a big however) it was late in the season - later than this and the plants did cop it in the end but not before I got a few pounds..
A lot of people will refuse to use copper sulphate (with good reasons) so really it's up to you.

[amphibian]

If a tomato is full sized but unripe it is great in a risotto. Just remove the seed mass, which may not yet be seeds as such, cut into cubes and cook in butter with the onions. Beautiful. I sacrifice some of my tomatoes this way yearly, blight or no blight.

[flossy]

  Had blite last year Charley,  stripped every plant of full but unripe toms,   ripend them on trays with a

  bought ripe tom, or a banana [ skin on ]  .....  the gas given off by ripening fruit starts the rest off.

   Had loads of toms over a period of weeks, cooking sauce like crazy  --  and roasted with garlic in a long

  slow oven,    nil desporandom !    make a judgement on how severe the infection is  --  stripp and d

  disscard the plant if infected  --   I decided to go for it and harvested all of my 15 plants  -- no

  regrets but it made a mess of the house !     ;D

  floss xxx

[STEVEB]

had a walk to plot after tea and all are wasted,can this spread to my spuds

[mummybunny]

just read this post and thought i had better check mine for signs. Well didnt have to look very hard had to destroy 3 plants. Did save most of the toms.  will wait and see what happens to the other plants !

[davyw1]

had a walk to plot after tea and all are wasted,can this spread to my spuds

Yes it can and probably will

[electric landlady]

Well all mine are toast - showed the first signs 2 weeks ago, and despite picking leaves off and spraying I have had to admit defeat. Booo.

The plants are in a heap waiting to be burned. The toms with a bit of blight are in a large bowl waiting to be turned into chutney (after the blighty bit is removed obviously). All the rest are hung up in the spare room with a bunch of bananas.

Sooooo annoying. Another week or two and they would have been ripe....but there you go.

NEXT year we will have a proper barbecue summer and they will all grow perfectly and ripen in the glorious (dry) sunshine.

[tim]

So glad that these were only an experiment outdoors.
Never again!

[tim_n]

Got blight on the potatoes - whole lot of follage just suddenly all died off, potatoes are fine if not a little small.

Tomatoes are fine (which is odd) but the maincrop of potatoes are now showing signs of going yellow and blotchy.  Hope I get a crop, I'll be moving my rhubarb out of my main boxes this year and putting them in the potato beds, I never seem to get any tuber bigger than my fist out of them.