Tomato blight - what to do?

Hi

i've just noticed that two of my (too many) tomato plants look like they have blight (like the v helpful pictures posted - thank you). The fruit look quite healthy (still green). What do I do? Do i destroy all the infected plants and spray the others or can I spray the infected plants and will they get better? What do I spray them with (ie what's best/organic etc) where do I find it and do I need a special sprayer type thing or is a plant mister good enough.

Thank you

K

 

JWK's post from when he had blight on his Tomatoes last year may be helpful. He managed to control it, and get a crop.

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/blight-tomatoes-15863.html?p=217586#post217586

 

hi
ive just found out ive got blight in my pots and now in my toms as well. some of my pots are blotche i dont know what to do eather. i think i will dig them all up tomorow and try to store the good ones. im gutted so much work and it all goes wrong so fast.:(

 

It's soul destroying, isn't it! last year I had no idea what I was doing and got a great crop, this year I've tried to do everything right, and look what happens!

Kristen - thank you, that's a really useful thread and I'll go and strip down my affected plants right now. Interestingly (to me, anyhow) the potatoes in tubs nearby seem unaffected.

Here's hoping for some dry hot weather.

K

 

" Interestingly (to me, anyhow) the potatoes in tubs nearby seem unaffected."

Are your Toms indoors, or outside?

JWK reckoned it was the rainwater he used from his water butt [on his greenhouse Toms]

 

my toms are outside we have to walk past them every time we go into or out of the garden so mabe this is how it was pased on! my potatoes have got it bad i didnt relise what it was i think we have lost most of them

 

I've indoor and outdoor tomatoes, the outdoor ones are in two areas of the garden and the potatoes are in another - they form a triangle. Only one 'set' of the outdoor toms are affected at the moment and the indoor ones look OK, so hopefully will get something from them. Off to try and find some bordeaux solution today.

 

It looks like my greenhouse has been attacked, for about a week I've been taking off suspicious looking leaves & today I've found a black lesion on one of my branches. I really didn't want to resort to chemicals of any kind so I might have to admit defeat, it's awful because the tomatoes still look so healthy :( I wonder if it is directly due to my potatoes taking blight when they are quite near by? I thought the greenhouse would have a slight amount of protection due to it being an kind of artificial environment, unaffected by rain etc. Has anyone got any close up pics of blight affected leaves? I want to be sure before I take drastic action.

 

"Has anyone got any close up pics of blight affected leaves?"

This may help:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/tomato-blight-pictures-p355445.html#post355445

 

I've removed the leaves showing signs of blight & the rest of the plants look quite green & healthy. I'm unsure what to do next, although I was completely against using chemicals of any kind the copper & lime solution called - bordeaux is sometimes referred to as organic, anyone know if this is the case?

 

"bordeaux is sometimes referred to as organic, anyone know if this is the case?"

yes, I think it is allowed as "organic", although it is pretty toxic to quite a lot of things ...

" I was completely against using chemicals of any kind"

I think most people here are of a similar mindset.

FWIW the way that I see it is that I know the exact providence of what comes out of my garden. I have no pretensions of being Organic but, as it happens, I have not used any chemicals at all this year (so far [knock-on-wood]) on my veg.

Dare I say it that you have a choice between no tomatoes :( and some tomatoes plus a known chemical.

I don't know what the recommended delay between spraying and picking is for blight-prevention chemicals, but whenever I have used a chemical I have allowed a significant extra time delay before picking (or picked and thrown-away anything within that period) to provide some extra safety for my family.

 

Thanks Kristen, you've been very helpful. The fact that it is toxic to quite a lot of things has completely put me off! I think I'll just continue to remove any signs of blight I see & hope that I manage to get a few tomatoes before it takes over completely :(

I don't intend to use chemicals in my garden and I'm quite prepared to lose some plants for various reasons. The tomato situation however, has completely annoyed me mostly because I had no idea that they were prone to blight, when I found out I thought they were safe in the greenhouse. I was also so proud of growing them from seed in my first year of gardening.

Off topic slightly: do you leave a delay between feeding fruit & picking?

Thanks again

 

OK, that begs the question:

If you lose your tomato crop (and I sincerely hop you don't :thumb will you buy any instead?

What is the providence of the ones you buy? If they are labelled Organic then like as not they will have been sprayed with Bordeaux mixture.

If they aren't organic they will probably have been sprayed with all sorts. And perhaps irradiated. And travelled lots of miles - maybe even from abroad. By comparison your food-miles are however far you travel from your veg garden to your kitchen :thumb:

I am sceptical you will protect your crop from infection by removing infected leaves - but I'll hope that I am proved wrong on that one.

" I had no idea that they were prone to blight, when I found out I thought they were safe in the greenhouse"

Blight is supposed to be very uncommon in greenhouses :( so you were definitely on the right track. No consolation though :(

"do you leave a delay between feeding fruit & picking?"

No. Its a good, and thought provoking, question though ... how "safe" is man-made fertilizer? or even fertilizer made from Comfrey etc?

I take the view that I water the fertilizer onto the soil, and the roots assimilate the chemicals they need, and that process is no different to them getting those chemicals from the ground "normally" - I ahve just created a higher concentration than normal, and made it easier for them. I could be completely wrong in that view though ...

 

You make very good points! I will buy tomatoes & of course they could have been sprayed with every chemical under the sun :( However, I'm not going to go down that route in my own garden & maybe one day I'll get a good harvest of chemical free crops, I'll live in hope :D

Thanks again for being so helpful, I'll keep you posted! Sadly however, I predict a tomato plant bonfire in the near future!