Blight & whitefly

[Michelle]

We've been told we've got blight on our potatoes, so cut off the haulms as suggested. Then I noticed it had got to the tomatoes, so I've cut of the affected areas (seem to have got to it very early) and bought something to spray on it.

Down the allotment tonight and it looks like everything has yellow and brown patches and holes - even the dreaded bindweed is suffering. Can everything else have blight too? And what does this mean?!

It's not just our plot, lots of them look the same. I'm so paranoid!!

Also do whitefly do a lot of damage? We've got stacks of them everywhere!!

[SueA]

Hi Michelle, sorry to hear about your allotment problems, if it is blight then it will quickly spread from plot to plot in the air. The fact that even your bindweed is suffering suggests though that some of the damage could be due to someone spraying weedkiller around which has drifted onto nearby plots, this would cause brown spots & withering so ask around. Whitefly do attack almost anything & cause leaves to pucker & wilt so you could spray with something like liquid Derris ( accepted as organic by some) but be careful not to spray when beneficial insects such as bees, ladybirds etc. are around as it will kill them also.