If you have been struck by blight in 2007,2008 or both; what do you plan on doing to prevent future devastation in 2009.
Well my plan is as follows:
clean out the greenhouse this winter/autumn
repaint
replace broken/cracked panes
find the leak
decide where my outdoor toms are going and manure/compost
sow seed earlier
start feeding sooner
tie in properly
visit at least every other day from mid-June onwards
Any more suggestions? Oh btw do rabbits like tomato plants? They seem to have left mine alone.
Quote from: nastybritishgardener on September 07, 2008, 09:44:41
If you have been struck by blight in 2007,2008 or both; what do you plan on doing to prevent future devastation in 2009.
Why don,t you know what to do?.
I know what I will be doing, if you read my message on Blight on tomatoes, you will understand why!
Quote from: grawrc on September 07, 2008, 10:25:23
Well my plan is as follows:
clean out the greenhouse this winter/autumn
repaint
replace broken/cracked panes
start feeding sooner
tie in properly
I need to do all this and anything else that that comes to mind before hand. 8)
Plant more Ferline. And I've just read on the RHS site that Legend and Fantasio are resistant too.
davyw1 the reason I don't have a plan to prevent blight in 2009 is I have never been hit by blight. But I plan on researching issue so I prevent problems in future.
my cure next year is simple dont grow any tomatoes ;D
i will only grow one or two plants next year i couldnt stand all this again for the third time in a row
I am going to buy a green house ;D
pray to the sun god to shine
trinity: try freecycle and gumtree first. green houses are really expensive.
Nasty: i'm delighted to hear that like me you are blight free so far. Now I shared my strategies with you, how about reciprocating? Couple of really intersting threads you've started by the way! Thanks. :)
isbister .. fyi - I have grown Fantasio for 3 years.
2006 - sprayed 50% with copper fungicide. The 50% that I did not spray got blight in early Sept (about 2 weeks later than other plot holders who grow other varieties and who do not spray).
2007 - they all succumbed to blight.
2008 - no signs of blight (I am spraying) but the odd bit of what appears to be blossom end rot.
I do not intend to grow them again.
In 2007 Tamina produced a reasonable crop (with spraying and removing any foliage the moment that it looked dodgy). This year, the upper foliage is just starting to look dodgy (so I am removing it) but it has set a reasonable amount of fruit which I hope that I can harvest.
I also grow Tornado (bush tomato). It is currently getting more blighty bits by the day but is still producing a fair amount of fruit, albeit mostly small.
My view on growing outdoor tomatoes is that if you are unable to inspect them every 2-3 days and take any appropriate action then blight (if it is around) is likely to defeat you in the end.
I'm inclined to agree with you, my outdoor Ferline and Legend were affected just as badly this year.... :-\
I'm definitely going to try Ferline again as it has been blight-free so far this year, although I don't find the fruits all that tasty. Might also try Tamina, Fantasio and/or Legend. Thanks for the comments on those.
Will burn all the blighted plants and move my outdoor tomato growing to a completely different part of the allotment plot.
Will definitely do long-delayed repairs to the semi-derelict greenhouse on my plot and bring it into operation for tomato growing and other things.
Will continue to grow outdoor tomatoes on the patio and in the borders at home, as they are not affected by blight so far.
Potatoes have been blight free this year so I'll carry on with the rotation plan and hope for the best.
Well I got more fruit than last year where the plants failed to grow entirely. And they got completely blitzed during August, they rotted away while I was on hols. But looking around, no one got a good crop and the old timers have stripped their plants entirely of leaves!!!
So next year I will try an earlier fruiting variety, try a UK variety perhaps more suited to cooler climes and spray spray spray with bordeaux mixture.
Potatoes were blight free this year though... so can't complain about everything.
I got blight in my Tamina, then my SubArctic Plenty. None at all in Sungold.
guess what I'm growing next year!
Quote from: Bean_Queen on September 08, 2008, 11:15:30
I got blight in my Tamina, then my SubArctic Plenty. None at all in Sungold.
guess what I'm growing next year!
Last year I noticed that Sungold seemed more resistant than others
I didn't grow toms on the lottie this year, after they were wiped out with blight last year, so I've grown them in the back garden this year, still bloody green though. ;D ;D ;D
I got three ripe toms this year, all Alaskan Plenty. Then the floods hit, followed soon after by blight.
Fortunately we can,t grow tomatoes outside were our allotments are so they were blight free in the green house. The tomatoes in the Polly tunnel died of hormone weed killer before they could catch cold never mind blight.
I don,t believe you can prevent blight so i wont worry about the inevertble, its going to get me sometime or other with all this rain we keep getting.
Finally it has hit - at the moment only one side of the garden. Wind direction?
Orange Belarus and Nectar worst hit, but have taken down all except Shirley and Sungold - so far the latter looks almost unaffected
Don't think you can guarantee to prevent blight - if it's out there and the weather conditions are right (or wrong as the case may be) then it'll get you in the end. Next year I will
1. definitely keep a VERY close eye on them, pick off any dodgy looking leaves the moment they appear and take them home to put in the bin, and spray obsessively with bordeaux mixture.
2. hopefully grow more blight-resistant types, as long as they still have a good flavour that is. Marmande has proved quite blight-prone this year so will be trying a different beefsteak type.
3. maybe (in my dreams) get a polytunnel and grow them in there.
4. pray.
5. try not to take it personally and make a lot of green tomato chutney when it does happen.
Seeing loads of lovely tomato plants blighted this year has been deeply depressing. My very experienced allotment friends tell me that the only way to prevent blight on tomatoes, which seems to be endemic on our allotment site, is to spray with Dithane in July. An organic alternative is bordeaux mixture but that doesn't work. So the sad conclusion for organic gardeners seems to be "don't grow outdoor tomatoes".
I started spraying my outdoor toms with Bordeaux Mix a week after planting out and I'm still blight free and harvesting ripe toms, despite the presence of blught elsewhere on the site. It works for me.
Quote from: ceres on September 14, 2008, 19:36:28
I started spraying my outdoor toms with Bordeaux Mix a week after planting out and I'm still blight free and harvesting ripe toms, despite the presence of blught elsewhere on the site. It works for me.
Thanks. I'll give it a try, despite what my friends say..
It might be the only option left as I believe Mancozeb (which is the active ingredient in Dithane) is on the same list of so-called endocrine-disrupting substances as glyphosate that the EU is considering banning.