Is It Blight?

[Cosmo and Dibs]

My Maris Peer plants are now dying back. I have eaten around 1/4 of them so far, and they've all been fine.

I have been unsure if I should eat a few of the spuds as some have had little brown patches on them. Should I be worroed about that?

[snohare]

If the brown patches are soft and squishy, that is blight; if dry and looking like a dried up scar, that is scab. There may be other diseases that cause brown marks, I don't know all the diseases.
If your tattie tubers are blighted, you certainly cannot store them. The ones you do store, you must check carefully and frequently - if any go wrong, you will usually smell it before you see it. Blight won't do you any harm, it is nonpathogenic to humans, but I wouldn't imagine it would taste fine, as you will guess when you first smell blight ! I have seen me cut the affected parts off potatoes and eat the rest, and it seems to have done me no harm. Whether or not I am now the tattie equivalent of Typhoid Mary is an open question...

[Cosmo and Dibs]

Thanks, snohare.

The patches are dry, so they must be a scab.

I'll still cut those areas off before cooking, though.

[snohare]

Just scrape the skin off, the scab goes no deeper than that. It is the tattie equivalent of dandruff ! (Except it isn't fungal.)

[organic vic]

I signed up to blightwatch last week and on Wednesday I got a text from them saying that there was perfect weather for blight in the last 2 days! I looked on the email and the nearest confirmed case was in Perth. Can I cover the potatoes and outdoor toms with polythene sheeting to prevent the wind blown spores affecting my plants or would it not make any difference?

[GrubbyGirl]

I'm now completely paranoid. My tumbling toms were fine yesterday morning but this evening they look like they are dying. Leaves are brown over about 2/3 of the plant. If this is blight I need to act now as this has happened really quickly. One thing though I did accidentally let them dry out a few days ago and they went all droopy, but with a good water they seemed to perk up quickly. Could this be the problem?

I've attached a couple of pics - help please tell me it isn't blight

Angela

[SarzWix]

GG if it's blight, you'll be able to see whitish spores on the brown bits, and I think they'll be sort of moist... If they're crispy, I don't think it's blight (not that I'm any sort of expert ) They look too damaged to be doing the plant any good in terms of photosynthesis, so you might as well cut them off. If the fruits show any signs of brown mushy patches (aside from any on the very bottom of the fruit which might be blossom-end-rot), then that would be conclusive of blight I think.

[GrubbyGirl]

Thanks SarzWix, blight terrifies me after what everyone has said about last year. I've cut off and checked and couldn't see any white spores, though when looking intensely I swear you start seeing things. I couldn't really say if it's crispy or wet because it's raining, but I think if ot were dry the leaves would be crispy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's my negligence of not watering the other day!!!

Angela

[BB48]

I could cry!!!!

Just got back from lottie and I have BLIGHT. I had to pull up 5 tom plants that I was hoping to ues for tom sauce. No sign of it on Monday night. Another lottieman tells me that my spuds are affected too - 6 rows!!

Can I save them if I cut off plant tops and leave spuds in the ground or would it be best to dig up the rest of them and store although not sure if you can store new spuds for long. I dont think the mains are affected (yet) - help! I seem to be surrounded as the plot and the end and next ot me are affected too.

BB

[piskieinboots]

cut the tops (that is to say, all the green haulms to the ground) off the spuds asap and burn the blighters (sorry ) you may save the spuds that way

[Alice]

What a bummer BB48.
For your potatoes cut the tops off and lift the potatoes and save what you can of the crop.
Tomatoes a bit more difficult. If you can harvest the tomatoes and eat them as quickly as you can - blight still develops in them in storage.
For next year you can plant ridiculously early and hope to get your crop before Blight arrives - July is early
Or you can spray your crops against blight
Dithane is a chemical compound to spray against it
Or Bordeau mix is considered to be organic.
I'm so sorry you have had this disappointment.
I go for early planting - a lot of extra work - and a prophylactic spray of Bordeau mix.
Hope you can save something.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Me too...

Yep - I pulled all my tommies up last night too.

It's the speed it comes on - I had a slighty suspect stem on one tomato on Saturday, and this is what all the tomatoes looked like last night - despite spraying with dithane on monday.

The spuds look dodgy too, so I've chopped all the haulms off and will leave the spuds in the ground for a couple of weeks so that I don't infect the tubers with blight spores.

As long as the stems of the spuds still look good and green & firm, they should be ok.

[Burnzie]

Hi BB48, you are not alone.

I pulled a couple of very dodgy looking tomato plants tonight.

There will be lots more blight reports over the next couple of weeks, perfect conditions.

best of luck

Burnzie

[Gwyndy]

I have given up with outdoor tomatoes - the plants have always got blight. Greenhouse grown toms are always OK for me. (Fingers crossed!)

Potatoes - as advised by others - cut off the tops and burn them ASAP. Spuds will be OK if you are lucky but lift some and check.

[rustylady]

Just got back from lottie and I have BLIGHT. I had to pull up 5 tom plants that I was hoping to ues for tom sauce. No sign of it on Monday night.
BB

What a shame!! I've given up growing tomatoes outdoors for that very reason. If the green tomatoes look OK you can make green tomato chutney with them