Sigh, i found blight on my first gh tomato today - black russian- and so begins the annual race between blight and ripening tomatoes.
Its three weeks later than last year which is a bonus but still it would be nice one year not to have it.
Hows everyone else doing?
x sunloving
I have been pruning very strictly this year (I do not like to strip the plants almost bare as some of my neighbours do!) but I have been removing any leaves that are vaguely yellowing, wilting, or showing any type of anomaly. So far so good. They are heaving with fruit, it just needs to ripen now... luckily today there is bright sun so maybe a few new ones ready tonight!
As all our water comes from water butts now,we're trying very hard not to get any on the plants, hopefully, thatll keep it away , they're alright so far :)
Oh no!
So far so good but I'll be checking mine carefully tomorrow.
Usually my allotment neighbour's tomatoes get blight and she doesn't get rid of them, just leaves them there all black and dead, and mine go down with it shortly afterwards...however this year she isn't growing tomatoes so I'm hoping to escape it. Or at least not get it for a while yet.
I've been watering at ground level only, skulking about bent double so that the leaves don't get wet..we shall see! ;D
Now we have rain... and warmth.... it is almost inevitable... :'(
The blight might be late but so are the tomatoes. They are now covered with flowers and a few fruit, but it will take a couple of weeks to ripen them up. Did manage to pick eight lovely yellow ones yesterday. Delish.
I also have some blight resistant types losetto and koralik which are dripping in flowers. Very unruly plants.
No blight warnings here in London recently - well I should say no Full Smith periods - humidity must be low.
Toms in the plastic greenhouse really rippened up with the last few days sun - the outdoor ones are OK - Sungold are as good as ever.
I fear for my San Marzinas though as they look very late - more green tomato chutney I think..
Mine are heaving with tomatoes probably the best year yet, I've been watering at the roots and taking out the lower leaves and pruning out every leaf with spots.
My fingers are crossed but its a race , been having delicous roast tomatoes all week though reminds me that its really worth the hassle and black russians whilst being blight prone are gorgeous :)
x sunloving
Digeroo
How is the taste of your blight resitant var.losetto and koralik ?
Perhaps as they are comparatively small you could protect tomatoes from blight by throwing plastic sheeting over them when rain is forecast - after all you don't get blight in greenhouses (at least I never have). Thought about trying over potatoes but it's just too big an area and at least you can cut the tops off them and still get a crop whereas tomatoes are total disaster.
QuoteHow is the taste of your blight resitant var.losetto and koralik
No idea yet, so far only green tomatoes hoping for some signs of red soon. Growing as part of a trial with Red Alert and I added sungold to the bed to act as a taste comparison.
They are completely covered with flowers but the branches are spreading all over the place like some kind of mini triffids.
My Koralik are OK but not a patch on Sungold.
Well here in N. Lincs we have full smith periods and it is chucking rain down every so often but not so bad as further north.My toms are quite close to the PFA spuds which I think will get a complete haircut tomorrow.....I'll save the few berries and hope they don't rot. I grew Lidls cherry tomatoes this year. Very vigorous and unruly plants spreading everywhere- meant to be 3 sorts but they all look the same. Will cut back most of the foliage but to date the only ones with red tomatoes are in the poly. 2 Sungold plants are doing their stuff outdoors but it hasn't been what I call a tomato year. No glut to dry this year :( And I suspect I shall have to cull the lot before I go on holiday 1st Sept.
IMO dried home grown toms are worth every bit of trouble- delicious.
Alex
Unfortunately you do get blight in the GH. For the last two years I have had blight in the GH. However, by picking off every infected leaf / fruit daily over a period of about three weeks as soon as infection was noticed I was still harvesting tomatoes at the end of October.
The GH was open day and night but presumably infection came in on rain through the roof vents because symptoms were more severe on plants under the vents.
I am in SE Monmouthshire and so far this year no problems.
Actually blight can be worse in the greenhouse.. blight loves moist and warm so if your greenhouse is humid or has any condensation the blight will take hold even faster then in the ground..if on the other hand you have great airflow and never get moisture on the plants you do stand a better chance.
There is blight all around me right now, I am in a greenhouse, actually the only real greenhouse on site, the others are just plastic covers, my plants are in Global buckets so they are watered through a pipe and never get ant moisture on the leaves at all. There are two open windows door is a stable door so the top is open too. I should feel safe but..
It is a good test, but there is so much around me I am very very nervous'..........................
XX Jeannine
Jeannine..how's your blight resistant varieties holding on? Mine look really good..loads of flowers, healthy green colour and not a single leaf look 'tired'...plants are big and bushy.. too bushy.. ::) Only trouble is they don't seem to want to set the fruit >:(
We'll we've had a bit of rain now..blight season has started..so time will tell. I wanted to grow couple of plants of each resistant sort to 'test the water'..so I suppose any fruit would be bonus.
I just have to put note for myself for next year..'plant further apart next year'.. :-X Live and learn... ;D
I'll get photo later on to show my 'sea' tomato plants..not a crumble of soil to be seen.. :-X
Quote'plant further apart next year'
I have to agree with this big time. I have two each of Losetto and Koralik and the plants have a spread of a 1.5 metres plus. They are not supposed to need much support but I have had to tied them up to prevent them smoothering other crops. I think that the normal types are more efficient on space.
Mine have so many flowers that I think it is putting too much energy into flower production and not enough into ripening fruit. A plot neighbour has a miniture tomato which is tiny but is covered in fruit.
But sun gold looking good as well at the moment. But I am worried about tonight we have rain forecast this afternoon and then a very dry still night so they will remain damp all night.
I suppose that with greenhouse growing it is important not to produce an artificial Smith Cycle by having damp humid conditions two days running. Is it possible to minimuse humidity by keeping the soil well covered?
Re the blight in greenhouses - my glass one is quite old-fashioned and doesn't have any vents, just windows which I close when it rains. Also it's airy rather than humid. Tomato plants grown against house wall also don't tend to get blight. The one year I tried growing in open part of garden blight attacked plants very quickly. That's why I thought throwing plastic sheeting over might be worth trying.
Just as a thought which may help you all.
Blight is very tough here on the coast, we get the rains lot followed by hot days blight paradise you might say.
Growing tomatoes uncovered is asking for trouble but few people have real greenhouses, I can't figure out why. On our gardens we are not allowed glass . The greenhouse I use as part of the garden system and I am "" the greenhouse supervisor"" posh title for the person who has chosen to raise transplants to share, so I get to use it how I like. This is why I am the only person with a greenhouse..anyway I digress..
It is suggested in our area that plants are covered, not totally under plasitic as that would not help.
Folks make an overhead tunnel by sticking rebar in the ground then putting plastic water pipe over and bending it over meet another rebar forming a hoop...they make a row of hoops along a bed then cover the hoop with plastic but not right to the ground and the ends are left open . I would then cover the soil and plant through the covering, many folk don't do this and I think it is much needed, this prevents splash up of soil.
As far as I have seen I am the only person on site growing tomatoes in pots.
Goodlife, there are tons of the blight resistant toms around the gardens, I am waiting for info on that, but for me oh eck.. after everyone had got their transplants and only mine were in the greenhouse I was sick for a week or so and left John to water...not enough, when I went back all my plants were toast. I managed to fine 6 that had a bit of green at the top otherwise they were leafless, they turned out to be 3 Sungolds and 3 Juliet, they bounced back and doing fine but I got not one blight resistant tom for myself. My dwarfs were fine as they were still at home. So I have to wait and see what other folks find out.
Oh and some people spray with copper well before the blight hits, most of the season actually.
XX Jeannine
The Italians on our site spray with a bright blue copper spray, it almost glows in the dark, I would not eat any of them Tommies, even if I liked them, I went to the lottie today and old Sid told me his Tommies were wiped out with blight and John next to him picked all his green ones to ripen at home.
This is why I grow mine under cover at home. ;D ;D ;D
The Italians do the same on our site- one tells me it is organic. ???
I guess it must be bordeaux mixture but as I've never used it i am not sure :-\
Bordeaux is blue - brightness varies depending on how strong it is mixed. It leaves a chalky pale blue residue on leaves and fruits - you have to wash this off before eating. I sprayed for the first time this year yesterday - no blight yet but it's been warm/wet enough this week for me not to want to take a chance.
My main problem so far is that my toms this year (grown outside) are rubbish - very weedy plants with not many flowers, and just not growing much. I think this might be down to temperature fluctuations that we have had - very hot in May/June, then very cold then very hot in July, and now pretty cool in Aug so far...they've had lots of feeding and watering but they're just not happy! :( :( :(
The one they use here is organic , we are not allowed to use others XX Jeannine
I thought bordeaux mixture was allowed under organic principles but only as a sort of last resort, minimal usage being acceptable. Your comment seems to imply there is an organic and a non organic type Jeannine.
by the way I often worry my questions could sound challenging- that is not my intention- it is just that you have so much knowledge and I love to learn :)
I don't know if there is,, I just know they say we have to use everything organic so I buy one that states that..
XX Jeannine
Quote from: cornykev on August 07, 2011, 16:54:52
The Italians on our site spray with a bright blue copper spray, it almost glows in the dark, I would not eat any of them Tommies, even if I liked them
I couldn't agree more that in a year like this, airy open shelters are a better option, but in a bad year, or if it gets worse (or for people who have their plants scattered about their plot) preventative spraying is the only sensible option.
Copper salts are blue - fact. Sorry to say this but that's almost totally irrelevant - except it means you can see what's been sprayed and what's not.
Copper has been used against blight since the 1840s and a huge amount of information on its safety and effectiveness has built up - by contrast no 'modern' pesticide/fungicide or herbicide based on complex synthesised molecules has yet lasted much more than 25 years without being banned. Most only last 5 years and they weren't any safer before they were banned either (you can believe some were removed for 'commercial reasons' if you like).
Copper salts are bitter to taste - fact, but they don't penetrate the fruit - unlike 'modern' (ie. untested) sprays which taste of rotten cabbage even if washed, scrubbed, scoured.
You can prove this by giving a 'blued' tomato a good polish on your trousers and then tasting it - the bitterness will have disappeared.
Copper salts are poisonous - but only in the kind of quantities that would be guaranteed to make you puke. You'd be more likely to die by choking than poisoning.
Copper salts are essential to the health of all mammals - in the kind of tiny quantities you'd get from polished fruit - that includes badly polished ones that are still detectably bitter.
According to the Potato Council webpage the fungicides available to amateurs do work (as preventatives) but are much of a muchness - that includes both copper and stinky dithane.
It's your choice of course, but for me copper wins hands down and dithane doesn't even merit second place.
Cheers.
Sorry to repeat, I should have posted here.
c
I just got back from our plots and spoke to a man who had been spraying his potaoes and tomatoes with copper spray sine May, he was shocked to find he had blight and has pulled out the lot.
XX Jeannine
That's a shame - I find cutting the tops off and leaving for a couple of weeks before digging up can give a reasonable crop.
Thanks for replies, interesting that he still got blight. The italians who use copper spray on thier toms seem to get away with it even in the last few bad years.
Well i have to say i never spray becuase I dont want my toms tainted by anything. Its copper sulphate thats blue (other salts are black, white and green) .
I take away every leaf thats infected and this gives me a few weeks longer to ripen up the tomatoes. Some years they all do, some years i use a lot of green ones.
Its late this year so lets hope we get a full crop :)
x sunloving