Blight - worth bothering next year?

[Kaiya]

First veg I ever grew was tomatoes, and living in suburbia I never had an issue with blight. This year we've moved to more rural Essex and got ourselves an allotment. Our garden backs onto the allotment site also.

I grew cordons this year, outside, which I know is wrong but I've only ever grown cordon tomatoes and despite growing tomatoes since childhood only realised a few days ago that bush varieties are better for outside I had 3 grafted cordons in our garden flower bed and then 20 or homegrown from seed toms on the lottie. In the last two weeks, every plant has sucumbed to blight, including the 3 grafted plants tucked away in our garden. Looking around the allotments we aren't alone - the brown withered trails of toms are everywhere. I'm assuming it's blight - it's turning foliage dry and brown (not wet rot), and fruits get mottled brown patches that are soft.

I like growing tomatoes, but I haven't been able to eat even one this year , and the handful of surviving green toms will have to become chutney (with the remnants of the massive "courgettes" we grew). Is it worth bothering to grow tomatoes outside on an allotment (or even near an allotment in the case of our garden)? Is blight almost inevitable or were we all just unlucky this year?

The potatoes by comparison are ok - ours are a bit rubbish but that's because we're not very good at growing them or preparing soil yet - still learning. Other people's potatoes have looked alright-ish.

[taff]

if you want to eat tomatoes and grow them outside, you either have to pray for sun like last year, or spray against it.

[roitelet]

A trick they use out here is to put a bit of copper wire through the stem of the plant which takes up the copper so it is 'systemic' Bordeaux mixture if you like. You also need to keep the rain off so they need some sort of 'umbrella'.

I have done both this year and I have tomatoes and everyone else growing outside has lost theirs, except those in the know!

[rustylady]

I gave up growing tomatoes outside a few years ago for this very reason. I grow them at home now, in a polycarbonate greenhouse. Usually works well, except this year a couple of the plants got botrytis (grey mould) due to the horrible weather.

[BroadRipple]

Kaiya, I feel the same...am obsessed with tom varieties and tried about 10 kinds this year and last, and this year have hardly been able to scoff a single one before the blight got 'em. It's so sad...not least b/c of my impressive tomato seed collection.
Does anyone know if the relatively blight-resistant varieties produce tomatoes that taste great, or just...tomatoes?
Roitelet, good tip, I'll try it!
How un-organic is Bordeaux Mixture? I mean, I do know it's not strictly organic, and I do understand what that means. But I'm talking realistic home organic, for those of us who are trying to grow/eat organically but live in Pollutionville and don't buy organic-everything-else (and put newsprint on the compost heap). So, tell me grapeys, is it like painting plants with insecticide, or is it reasonably person-friendly?

[HeyWayne]

I've come to the conclusion that I just can't grow toms. They don't work outside, and I don't have adequate indoor space.

[binley100]

For the first time in three years I have had outdoor toms from the lottie with no blight (I can say it now cos the potatoes are all died back and the toms have been harvested) ......I just tried a few on the off chance and this year it paid off ...The Ferline are ok .

[taff]

hang on hang on! I just remembered something....aha!!
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ess_60544.html

[zazen999]

Thanks Taff - was just about to direct the OP to my successful frame thread!

[Two_Sheds]

Looking around the allotments we aren't alone - the brown withered trails of toms are everywhere. I'm assuming it's blight - it's turning foliage dry and brown (not wet rot), and fruits get mottled brown patches that are soft.

Well, late blight is a wet rot, and the fruits get those horrible soft brown patches on them. It spreads very very quickly until the whole crop collapses. That foliage should all be gathered up and burned or binned really


I can't grow toms outside at all, they always got blight although the spuds evaded it

[Shadylane]

We're the same. Spuds have always been fine, but the outdoor toms in our first year all got blight and it spread to the ones in our makeshift, home made placcie greenhouse (it was shambolic). 2nd year we got a cheapo poly with the clear plastic. It had no ventilation and they got blight. 3rd year we managed to get (free of charge due to other one ripping in 1st week) a better cover with air vents. No blight so far this year although they're a bit windswept as the zip has bust.

We grew some outdoors last year at home in pots and they never got blight although they were rubbish. I won't even bother anymore. Our summers are just too rubbish up here, you just end up wasting time and effort.

[Alison]

I'm lucky that I have a large undercover space to grow my toms and have given up bothering with outdoor ones this year. I don't suffer too badly from blight and have always managed to get a crop but it wasn't worth the risk of it spreading to my spuds. There is no way I'd spray with copper solution, it's not good stuff and against what I want to do with my home grown. I did do it once but wished I hadn't and promised myself not to do it again.

[Kaiya]

Well, late blight is a wet rot, and the fruits get those horrible soft brown patches on them. It spreads very very quickly until the whole crop collapses. That foliage should all be gathered up and burned or binned really

That's what confused me a little - there is no physically wet leaves - they are brown and crispy as a crispy thing. The fruits are as you describe though. The foliage will be going into the council green bins as I know they can cope with spores whereas our compost doesn't get hot enough.

Intriguing tomato frame! I like the idea of copper wire too. Although I'm not specifically anti using products/sprays etc, I don't because they usually require more organisation than I'm usually capable of - nothing like spending money on it and then forgetting to apply it appropriately. Whereas I am pretty good at sticking wires in things and tying bamboo together.

I'll try the frame next year - I have some nice tall bamboos plus also should have some left over tom seeds from this year as I bought a pack of 100 seeds (cordon cherry plums - romano I think). That way all I need is to find some plastic and trying again hasn't cost me much.

Thank you very much for all the advice!

[BroadRipple]

Kaiya, mine go crispy too and the brown patches on the toms are just...brown, not soggy. i have dishes of the saved ones 'ripening' i.e. not really all over the kitchen...

[bobbin]

I had a go with a home made remedy this year. I soaked mares tail weed in water until good and mucky looking and stinky! Then sprayed my allotment tomato plants with it, diluted. I should have started spraying when the plants were much younger I think. However they were very green and healthy if a bit too vigorous. I understand the selenium content of mares tail builds up in the plants and helps protect them. They eventually succumbed to blight but very late and after everyone else had lost theirs.I am rubbish at growing toms and these were my best ever. I shall start spraying earlier next year.