Hi Everyone,
In the last few days a number of allotmenteers have noticed brown/yellow patches on outdoor tomato leaves, some leaves curling and now browning on the stems.
I understand that Toms will ofteb recover from early blight but do you think these symptoms suggest full, terminal blight?
Do you think there would be anything to be gained by chopping off most of the foliage, keeping them dry for a bit and seeing if they grow back?
I prefer to garden organically and so do not want to use Dithane, Bordeaux at a push if I have to.
Many thanks,
POW
There is blight around, even though it's early in the year. Spray now with copper fungicide. (I think it's still approved by the Soil Association, but they were reviewing the matter.) If you get in early enough, it can hold the blight at bay, at least until the weather changes. The alternative is to lose your crop. I sprayed mine early last week.
But it's a good idea anyway to strip off the lower leaves, to let air circulate. (The curling of the leaves, of course, is probably the low temperatures we've had recently. That's not a problem.)
Hi, I discovered on my 30 tom plants the same symptoms :o, it seriously distressed me for the whole day until I read your post, and I hope someone has some good advice for us before I pull them out and burn them. :-\
Yes, now it just depends on whether its full blight in which case they wont ever recover or early blight.
Hope to get some upbeat advice. :)
I could really do with a good photo of blight, I keep seein lots of things and wonder if it is or not.
And the pics on the internet arent very clear, at least not the ones I find!!
Quote from: SueSteve on July 02, 2007, 19:19:15
I could really do with a good photo of blight, I keep seein lots of things and wonder if it is or not.
And the pics on the internet arent very clear, at least not the ones I find!!
Some of my outdoor Tumblers look pretty sick at the moment aswell, and I've been looking for photos to identify if it is blight. Can't find a decent photo to compare with my plants either. Would appreciate some advice as to what it looks like. ???
I'm assuming that this is NOT blight??
It's certainly not like mine Tim.
I Googled Blight as images, and the pictures were exactly like what I had. So far it's only affected Rocket spuds & Outdoor Girl toms.
Went to the plot yesterday afternoon and the tomatoes had it (despite having sprayed them earlier!). I pulled up four plants (Harbinger & Ildi) and cut out the worst bits on the others. I daren't spray then as it was blowing a gale & kept falling down with rain, so I went up early this morning. The late potatoes (Arran Victory & Champion) were looking a bit iffey, so I sprayed them as well. I'm not the only one on our site who's got it, either.
Sorry - didn't take any photos. I was more concerned with containing the damage. If this doesn't work, I've lost 80+ plants. That's my winter supply of chutney, sauce & puree!
If you think it may be blight - SPRAY!!
Don't see much point in this weather.
I went up there at 7.00 yesterday morning to spray, when it was dry & calm. The rain didn't start till about 4.30. It says on the packet that the spray on the plants should have time to dry before any rain - well, it was more or less dry.
The alternative was doing nothing & watch them die. I'm not very good at that.
And the weather forecast this weekend is for dry, warm & sunny! But more blight weather coming in on Monday....
i have taken up all my tomato plants today and i am so sad to do it. they were looking so healthy and had loads of fruit coming, but in the space of four days or so they have all succumbed to blight. i only had about 18 plants but i was looking forward to them. i planted them some distance from my potatoes and so far my potatoes look ok but...my neighbour has blighted tomatoes (which she has removed) and they are just over the fence from my spuds. not sure what i am goign to do about them i think ishall just keep a keen eye. my mother in law who plots over in blandford says you can cut down the foliage of the potatoes and leave the spuds in the ground to avoid blight in an emergancy (i dont want to spray). what do you think of that. is it enevitable that my spuds will get it from neighbours toms? very sad about my toms.
The site I am on in SW London is also suffering badly with many lifting their outdoor tomatos.
We have cut off the affected leaves/stems and have our fingers crossed for the fruit.
OC