Grow Your Own Magazine

Evening all

Due to the amount of blight that seems to have been going on this year, I just wanted to start a support thread for anyone who's lost vast amounts of tomatoes. My tomato patch had about two hundred tomatoes, and I've managed to save about ten or fifteen of them. All the rest are going in the green waste bin, plants and roots and all.

Let's all wallow...

Hi NGG, sorry to hear about the Tomatoes but it has been a very bad blight year.

I was thinking along those lines myself and thought it would be interesing if Grapes posted the varieties they had grown and noted what they did to prevent blight and which varities showed the higest resistance to blight in the hope that we all may get some Tomatoes.

I will start the ball rolling.....

Moneymaker disease resistant?
Ferline F1
Ledgend, supposed to have a good resistance to blight
Cerise (Cherry)

The first signs were on Moneymaker followed by Ledgend, Ferline and finally Cerise.

They were all grown in the open under individual perforated plastic sleeves. They were not sprayed with anything and feed with Comfrey juice. Blight struck at the end of August but once it had set in it spread very rapidly and affected all the tomatoes so I was not able to ripen any off the plants.

Blight struck my potatoes in June so the plastic sleeves must have given some protection
but next year I think that I will devise some other sort of protection from the rain etc. and possibly spray with Bordeaux mixture.

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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

I didn't get any blight on my plot, although other plot holders reckon they did. I grew Pink Fir Apple and Pentland Javelin potatoes (all fine) and Alicante toms (fine). Also Little Tom cherries, but the flavour was awful, floury and mushy tasting

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

This year has been very bad for us. We put in 6 tomato plants (sorry, not sure of the variety) and didn't get one tomato that we could eat. Last year we planted 6 and we were inundated with tomatoes, so much so that I had to devise all sorts of ways to use them up.
The idea of posting the blight resistant types is a very good one, I shall be reading with interest.
Only thing I can say is : look out blight, we're on to you

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

I'm in the north of Scotland and my tomatoes were 'gardeners delight' - they all seem fine so far, but we have only been eating them the last 2 weeks as the season is later up here. They are kept inside my greenhouse. My spuds were free of blight - 'pentland javelin', 'maris peer' and 'nicola'.

All my toms in the greenhouse were fine; I grew gardener's delight, san marzano, sweet million, loveheart (?), ailsa craig, harbinger, supersweet 100 and costoluto fiorentino. The yield hasn't been wonderful, though not abysmal; the best croppers have been the cherry toms.
i planted a few plants outside - though couldn't tell you which they were I'm afraid - and lost them all to blight in June. The potatoes were also hit.

I think I've been lucky in that I've not had any blight on either my indoor or outdoor toms (don't grow pots so no probs there either!). Was talking to a woman at the farmers market today and they told me that they've had their potatoes decimated and they're only about a mile from me - ran out and checked mine as soon as I got in just to be sure! I think I'm helped by growing in a sheltered garden, especially as the neighbours don't grow much so I can't get the spores from them. A lot of sympathy to all you that have had so much of a loss, must be very frustrating. The only thing I've had to cope with is that all my toms are about a month later this year than last.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

Only croppers have been the cherry toms here in south derbyshire - so fed up that next weekend the remaining ones are all coming out and winter veg going in.
Very very disappointed - will make an early start next year to make up for it.

Yup, tomatoes have been an absolute disaster this year, one of the worst veg to lose in some ways, used so much for puree, sauce, soup, chopped tomatoes etc so they will be much missed this winter.
All the cooking tomatoes gone but have been saved on the salad front by the small varieties, both Gartenperle and Latah (from Real Seeds) were hit by the blight, lost some of the gp, but it put out a good number of good toms and the Latah, lost all the first flush, but this bush type just flowered again and it looks as if all the second flush are blight free and at the moment it's producing around 4 oz of tiny tomatoes a day. So would heartily recommend this one, I grew it last year and it carried on producing a daily crop of tomatoes to eat with my allotment lunch right through to the first frosts.
As for the aubergines, am I growing them just for the slugs??? Either they're pole vaulting my slug pellets or they just love them so much they don't care. So all my ratatouille plans down the toilet
Sue

Hi NGG,

This year has been a terrible tomatoes growing experience for me too.
I only grew 2 plant of 1 type last year and it was a great result...this year expand my self to 6 types of heirloom tomatoes, I have some 5 to 6 plant of each ( and give away some too ) and end it up to 30 plants. They were all grown in the open ( I don't have green house ).
They were all blighted during the wettest early summer time, it starts with : Pink brandy wine tomatoes, Marmande, San marzano, Japanese black trifele, black cherry and cherry tomatoes. In within 3 weeks time like the domino effect, they were all gone beyond repair.
I didn't use any anti blight spray, and it is my very first time knowing blight... unforgetable !!!
The one and only hybrid patio tomato bought from garden centre is perfectly ok( perhaps it is a blight resistant hybrid ), and later on as a consolations, OH bought another cherry toms from the garden centre...
I am learning and it was a harsh way of learning. Will try again next year, still got the seeds.
Don't get too upset, try again next year and hope for the best.

Cheers,
Momol

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I grow, I pick, I eat ...

My blight experience has been really weird - it came in July but only really got bad on one plant, which I removed. Over the next few weeks I did a lot of defoliating every time I saw a blotch, and although a couple of tumbling Green Sausage plants succumbed, it didn't get out of control. This meant that I actually got to harvest some tomatoes!

Over the last week, unfortunately, the blight has started to romp away and is affecting most plants, though to hugely different degrees. I grew more plants than before this year, and I have still had more tomatoes than before - not as many as I should have had.

Apart from the Green Sausage, which I mentioned, the small tomatoes have been able to crop fairly normally although I think ripening is a bit slower this year. Of the medium to large tomatoes, the only one to have had no blight-affected fruit is Ferline (there was some blossom end rot, however). A few leaves showed signs of the disease, but it is still bearing fruit and they are ripening as normal.

As you may be aware, it is suggested that Ferline does have some blight resistance, and, on this occasion, it would seem to be true. It was one plant, grown next to (and therefore touching) other plants which were affected.

Just a word of caution - I would say that the taste and texture of Ferline is quite distinctive - strong flavour, firm tomato - and you would be as well to try a small number of plants before you commit yourself to a whole plot full, just in case they are not to your taste. This is my personal thought about them, of course, and they will differ according to how they are grown.

I too am one of the ignorant and cannot recall what varieties I planted - however I planted one of each plum, cherry and beef in a grow bag in my mini greenhouses in the garden, and the same on the plot. The ones in the greenhouses all have tomatoes on them (albeit green ones), but it looks like the ones on the plot have succumbed to blight.

Last week I visited The Eden Project whilst I was in Cornwall and was somewhat comforted when I saw that the tomatoes on their "plot" have also been blighted. The tomatoes in the "mediterranean biome" were romping away however!

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Minor update - 10th November

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We lost all 20-odd tom plants to blight
They were Black Cherry, Pomodoro, Roma, & Harlequinn.

They were grown in our back garden outside. We also had 2 tubs of potatoes (Charlotte & Pink Fur Apple) - i think both got it, but it didn't affect the yield or tubers, but probably spread the blight to the tom's.
We lost all the tom's about mid-July.

I lost my Mr Stripey (Tigerella) to blight eventually but I was able to hold it back by cutting off all the infected parts - we went away for 11 days and came back to find them looking abit sorry for themselves (they had been watered while we were away)

All cherry toms were fine; matts cherry, gardeners delight, ruby and the legends right beside the blighted Mr S also survived (althought not as big as expected which I think is more to do with the weather!!)

Our big disappointment has been the courgettes and drawf french beans - rubbish!! Marrows however have been plentiful!!

Hi there
New girl on the block, chickens are my usual concern but may I be allowed to wallow also in the loss of tomatoes. My mother in law makes the best tomato sauce in the world!!! But blight struck and there is no home grown tomato sauce to pour onto fresh pasta. Will life ever be the same?
Well, it saves me from having to make it or buying it from a super market.
Joking aside, she was gutted as she works very hard in her garden and to lose those was quite a blow.She's coming up to 70 and she has more energy than I have at 40. She has everything from potatoes to sweetcorn, blackberries to blackcurrants, rockett to chives though lost a lot in the floods. Not a good year for gardeners. I can hardly do my little bit, she has a huge garden. She makes wine, jam from all her fruits and they are certainly very flavoursome and can make you feel good a little too quickly.
I would love her to come onto the vine, but she's a little terrified of computers and would just want to to sit in front of it once she got the gist. So I'm going to be her typing fingers and get help from all you lovelies. Rule the Roost people have been great and I feel that you are going to be the same.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading more from you all.
P.S Marrows on the compost have been huge and plentiful too! Courgettes grown on the compost heap have all been fantastic. It's all the rain I suppose!!

My affected tomatoes were plum, cherry and moneymaker

Welcome Dotty Chick (and Mum, by association) !
Gardeners delight first to go
Money maker - next
Marmande, in GH are fine but just starting to loose outdoors ones

If we had blight this year, will we get it next year?????

It all depends on the weather conditions, Headfry.

You can be lucky... and you can be unlucky.

I had blight a few years ago, then none for a few years.

Don't let one bad year put you off.

I have now lost all my tomatoes. For weeks the italian mini plum (cherry really) and Big Boy held their own and gave me a few tasty toms while the rest stayed green and struggled bravely but succummed. Last weekend I gave up on the rest as well, the fruits going mushy and mouldy before ripening. Very sad. I'm concerned about growing any next year in case the spores are still around, should I leave it for a year to be on the safe side?

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

Morning folk's
Started early this morning, up at 6am... chicken trouble.
Anyway, saw that you Headfry likes to make wine.Any particular sort? Mum in Law makes Elderflower and Elderberry wine all the time. One of my favourite quotes from her (as you all seem to like quotes) is;
"Must make some more wine, down to my last 48 gallon!"
She has made thousands of bottles over the years as she used to make it professionally, now she makes it for friends and for herself.
Hope you all have had a good day or just about to start a good day
Dotty

Hi Dotty Chick, Sorry you have hen problems, I love chickens too!
I would love a good Elderflower recipe, Mine has gone wrong....I was my first attempt at elderflower. It reminds me of my lovely Aunt Pat, she made gallons of wine. Its stopped working but is still very sweet, someone said put a handful of raisins in, I did...still nothing but has a darker colour now
I would just love to be able to make this wine! Can Mummy in law offer any help. tips, etc.
We made some fab grape our very first attempt at wine making, It came third in village produce show. It tastes like real wine! ??? dead chuffed.
Are chicks all ok?

Hi,

Can I join in some self pity too please. Lost all 18 tomato plants outdoors and down to my last 2 in the greenhouse, they have blight but also a few toms that might rippen so I am holding on a few more days.......

Potatoes also had blight but still got a reasonable harvest, with more in for Christmas. Keeping a very close eye on them.

Sorry to all who have lost and better luck/weather next year. I have just registered with www.blightwatch.co.uk and it look like another smith period on the way for me

Mandy

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No mater when time you set out, you always get there at the same time

i brought blight back from my allotment and spread it into my greenhouse in the front garden. i can only think it must have been me that brought it! i cut the affected parts off at first but then i used bordeaux mixture because the plants in the greenhouse were started in january and it would have been awful to lose them completely after all that time! none of the varieties in there were any more affected than others. they are rose de bearne, some italian beefstake, snow white cherry and tiny tim cherry. i also had a plant in there called matt's wild which is completely blight resistant. they are tiny cherrys but the plant is a bit all over the place and has taken over the back of the greenhouse. il post a pic later.
the blight then spread to the outisde plants and the most affected is sungold. red alert is ok and also harelquin (which is yummy by the way!).
eventually it got to the back garden and my back up gardeners delight plants. i sprayed them too and they seem ok now. i had potted up some side shoots from rose de bearne and snow white and they are in the back garden greenhouse seeminly free from blight.
i wouldnt ever spray usually but im glad i did, have had loads of toms and its been very worth while.