Is It Blight?

[avinabacca]

All done as above now - the bonfire lasted about two hours and the plot looked terribly sad after......

We've a builder's bucket-ful of green tomatoes - will be slicing, coating and frying/freezing the larger, better-condition ones, whole-pickling the smaller, better-condition ones, and making chutney with the rest.

Such a shame, though. Some were not far from ripening, on other plants trusses were still setting - dammit, there were even a few Brandywines which had set and begun to grow! - and it would have been such a lovely, big crop.

Really going to have to have a think about what we'll do tomato-wise next year.....

[Storming Norman]

I could use some advice on my maincrops, Picasso, that went in towards the end of May, when I got the first beds in my new allotment ready.

I have no experience of maincrops or blight, but I think I may have blight.

The weather has been right for this to occur, but the pots are not keeling over as I would have expected from other posts. So what would you do?

The foliage has been very lush, but now the lower leaves have begun developing brown patches surrounded by yellow - no real black patches but quite large areas affected. I have cut off every leaf branch with symptoms and a few more pop up every day - but I have now been doing this for 10 days and there has not been the complete collapse that I was expecting - there is lots of ground showing from the pruning. Today I saw some minor blackened stem patches on one or two plants - now removed.

This has me more worried now - I am due to take a short holiday this week - should I cut the lot down now and protect what I have or take a risk that its not going that fast and give the pots another week?

I had to dig around and found this in the bed - could they be ready anyway, hence the collapse [seems too early to me].

Thanks

[Sweepster]

Will be interested in the answers to these questions, as mine are about to go... any minute now...

Last year I just threw all the green tomatoes away, so if I can do 'something' with them instead it might lessen the pain. A bit

[avinabacca]

(as already posted - can anyone help?)

Sneaky, that. Was last down the plot last weekend and all seemed well; despite the wet and warm-ish weather I thought there was a decent chance we might miss out on the blight after all......

.....a week away, and returned yesterday to find the tomatoes and spuds looking like illustrations from the RHS plant disease textbook; mushy-topped toms (maybe only a week away from turning, too) and horrid, grey-edged potato-leaves beginning to topple.

If I didn't know better I'd really assume someone had been over the plot with a can of Roundup.

Damn. How'd it happen so quickly?

Have got together a load of flammables and a cheap bottle of household bleach today, and am planning to spend most of the evening pulling up, cutting down, burning the foliage and disinfecting canes and ties.

A couple of questions though, if anyone can help:
- potatoes: I'm planning to cut the haulm down to ground level and leave the spuds in the earth until the end of the month to let the spores die off - is this the best thing to do, or is there something better?
- tomatoes: Thinking of pulling up the plants, taking the (green) toms off and perhaps soaking them in a weak solution of Milton to remove the blight spores - is this necessary, or will they be alright with just the normal rinse and wipe?
- infected foliage: To be chopped up and burned - I know the risk of composting as-is, but the ash will be alright to use on the plot, right?
- canes & ties: I'm planning to disinfect these with a solution of household bleach - is this suitable? I'd have thought it would do the job, but if anyone's got better ideas, please do tell. Also, if they'd better be burned than disinfected, it would be useful to know that too.......
- afterwards: Secateurs, knives and trowels used in the operation to be disinfected in bleach solution (as above), all clothes taken home and put through a hot cycle, good scrub under a hot shower for me too. Anything I've missed?

If anyone can assist and advise I'd really appreciate - I'd heard how quickly blight attacks but really didn't think it'd be this rapid. That's about two dozen tomato plants and four 4'x12' beds of spuds hit, and although we should be able to rescue lots of green toms (which'll be good in chutney and such) and hopefully lots of the potatoes, it's really rather depressing......

[avinabacca]

Blight attack

Sneaky, that. Was last down the plot last weekend and all seemed well; despite the wet and warm-ish weather I thought there was a decent chance we might miss out on the blight after all......

.....a week away, and returned yesterday to find the tomatoes and spuds looking like illustrations from the RHS plant disease textbook; mushy-topped toms (maybe only a week away from turning, too) and horrid, grey-edged potato-leaves beginning to topple.

If I didn't know better I'd really assume someone had been over the plot with a can of Roundup.

Damn. How'd it happen so quickly?

Have got together a load of flammables and a cheap bottle of household bleach today, and am planning to spend most of the evening pulling up, cutting down, burning the foliage and disinfecting canes and ties.

A couple of questions though, if anyone can help:
- potatoes: I'm planning to cut the haulm down to ground level and leave the spuds in the earth until the end of the month to let the spores die off - is this the best thing to do, or is there something better?
- tomatoes: Thinking of pulling up the plants, taking the (green) toms off and perhaps soaking them in a weak solution of Milton to remove the blight spores - is this necessary, or will they be alright with just the normal rinse and wipe?
- infected foliage: To be chopped up and burned - I know the risk of composting as-is, but the ash will be alright to use on the plot, right?
- canes & ties: I'm planning to disinfect these with a solution of household bleach - is this suitable? I'd have thought it would do the job, but if anyone's got better ideas, please do tell. Also, if they'd better be burned than disinfected, it would be useful to know that too.......
- afterwards: Secateurs, knives and trowels used in the operation to be disinfected in bleach solution (as above), all clothes taken home and put through a hot cycle, good scrub under a hot shower for me too. Anything I've missed?

If anyone can assist and advise I'd really appreciate - I'd heard how quickly blight attacks but really didn't think it'd be this rapid. That's about two dozen tomato plants and four 4'x12' beds of spuds hit, and although we should be able to rescue lots of green toms (which'll be good in chutney and such) and hopefully lots of the potatoes, it's really rather depressing......

[teamladd]

I think I have blight on my tomato stems, however the fruit looks great, should I pull this off and let it ripen to see if it sorts itself out?

Thanks

[AngelaC]

Thanks for that, i will get onto it tomorrow.

[Bramble_killer]

Hi Angela,

Yup, they look like a few of mine that was confirmed blight

I removed all the blighted plants and the branches of those that weren't so bad, OH sprayed with bordeaux mixture and we're now checking every day. Some have spread (and been promptly removed) and some have been ok.

Put all the foliage with blight into the normal bin and not into compost.

I know how you feel.

[AngelaC]

Pretty sure i know the answer, but what do you think about these?



These are 2 of my trailing tom plants, i have other cordon ones at the other side of the garden which seem fine.

If the trailing ones are blighted, do i need to destroy the cordon ones too now or should i leave them and pray?

[Kittypickle]

I'm soaking wet having been out in the garden for ages trying to prune blight affected leaves of the tomatoes. A couple have patches on the stem and I'm not hopeful. Will see what tomorrow brings. Luckily we sowed bush tomatoes first then some cordon ones which are randomly dotted around but mostly in a plastic greenhouse. Am hoping they will be OK if we lose the bush ones. Combined with my lack of aubergines on my aubergines and the slugs having munched my spring onions, it's not the best of gardening days.

[jonohanson]

The stems on 2 of my toms in the greenhouse have gone black (one almost all the stem and the other just a patch) they have been under a dripping roof the others are fine, they have been like this for over a week and dont seem to have got worse, is it blight?

[Sunflower86400]

Thanks Grapes for the bad news.

Not nice for you to be telling me I know. I'm so upset and disappointed. There isn't a 'smiley' with tears on it. There should be one. I had no idea that I would get so attached to my plants. Chutney it is then.

They all look so healthy apart from those bits. What shall I do now? Pick what's there or leave until it's gets worse and pick before it's gets too bad. Do I need only get rid of the plants that are infected or will the others go the same since they are sharing growbags.

What would you suggest?

PS: And the sun has been out today.

[zazen999]

Is it blight?

Yes. Sorry.

[Sunflower86400]

Well that's good HeyWayne.

I keep looking on the blight side and hopefully it will blighten up a bit more down here.

[HeyWayne]

It was blight here earlier - but it's just clouded over and looks very much like rain.