Can I eat blighty tomatoes? [I already did...]

[October]

Advice appreciated...all the toms seemed to have blight - my daughter pulled all hers out. I pulled out all the ones my neighbour gave me, which looked worse, but left the latah ones I had grown from seed. [My babies!] They didn't look all that bad. They are still growing and while lots of the tomatoes are obviously brown, soggy and blighted, others are red and seem ok. I have already eaten several with no ill effects. [Green ones taken home to ripen just go brown.]

Do you think it's ok to eat them? Should I really have the plants out so it doesn't spread to the spuds? Have eaten all the first earlies and most of the Charlottes, but have some main crop still growing - think it was maris something...? not piper.

Also - while I'm at it - my daughter put her blighty plants on the bad compost heap - couldn't really separate them from all the grot which was probably infected anyway by that time, so have left them.. Shall we burn the lot in the autumn? Or will the infection disappear over the winter so we can use the compost in a year or two?

Thanks - sorry about all the stupid questions.

[Earthbabe]

Hi October. I cut off the brown bits and freeze any red ones and use the green ones for chutney. If it is around it may well spread to the pots but the weather we have had means that it could become airborne so pulling plants up may not help.

I know maris piper have some blight resistance but not sure about the others.

[October]

Thanks Earth babe. I haven't got any toms in pots on the allotment - only started this year. Have a couple in the yard here at home - they seem OK so far. Anyway - I'm glad it's ok to eat the red ones.

[vegnut]

If the toms look ok, then i'd eat them. It's pointless loosing everything.
Are the spuds called maris baird October.

[SarzWix]

Also - while I'm at it - my daughter put her blighty plants on the bad compost heap - couldn't really separate them from all the grot which was probably infected anyway by that time, so have left them.. Shall we burn the lot in the autumn? Or will the infection disappear over the winter so we can use the compost in a year or two?

Thanks - sorry about all the stupid questions.

I'd be a bit worried about the plants on the compost heap - the compost probably won't be fit to use next year...? I'm not sure how long it takes to disappear out of the soil. One website says:

Blight diseases are always most troublesome in cool, wet summers. Sanitation is very important. Immediately get rid of all the dead vines and fruit. The fungus can live in decayed plant refuse in the soil. Do not compost infected plants.

But HDRA says:

Good hygiene: Remove potential sources of infection. Aim to harvest all tubers, even the tiniest, so that there are none to regrow next season. Remove all volunteer plants that come up - don't be tempted to go for a harvest of volunteer potatoes. Never abandon old tubers around the garden or allotment, or try to compost them - they are best put in the dustbin, or buried deeply (over 60cm/2ft). Infected potato haulms (foliage) may be composted in a good active heap. The likelihood of resistant spores being present is very slim.

Conflicting advice really... I would borrow a 'flame gun' type weed killer and try to burn the material if you can't get it off the heap, or start a bonfire on top of it??!!

[October]

Thanks Vegnut and Sarzwiz. The potatoes might be Maris Baird - sounds familiar, but my daughter ordered them and gave me some - I was never sure of the name. We haven't dug up any yet, but it must be time soon? The others are all gone.

I like the sound of the flamethrower! Think I'll do that when bonfire night comes around - we're quite big on that sort of thing here in Sussex.

[Nicos]

Please be aware of wildlife when setting fire to stuff.
You will also be killing beneficial insects in the top layer of the soil with a flame gun
I'd have a bonfire ( checking for hedehogs and mice first) - although I'm sure it won't be quite as exciting blasting everything in site!!

[October]

Ho hum - I suppose you're right, Nicos!

[Headfry]

Bonfire.....oh yes, much better! but as Nicos said....please check for animals before you light it! you need a pokey stick... nothing like poking a bonfire with a stick. lLght it on a still evening, watch the bats and look for the first star to show.....oooooh I want a bonfire now..........

[Lavender]

I can't believe you've all got red tomaotes already! You must be cossetting them in the greenhouse. Mine are green but healthy (so far) in pots in the garden. Had blight last year and but no sign of it this year, fingers crossed, however lots of spud blight on the allotments. i also ate the blighty ones last year and lived to tell the tale.

[SueA]

I'd eat any that are o.k. looking, last year I took off all the toms when mine got blight & put all the green ones which I couldn't see any tiny spots on in a paper bag in the kitchen & they all ripened fine except for one which had a splodge of brown on. I put the others which had tiny marks on in another bag & they all turned brown. Looks like I'll have to do the same this year as blight has just struck again! I asked a gardening expert once about re-using or adding to the compost bin compost from a grow bag used to grow toms in which developed blight & she said don't compost the plants & to be on the safe side dispose of the grow bag compost somewhere else.I put it in the dustbin!

[blackcatlois]

My 42 tomato plants also have blight (as of yesterday) - or should I say, 3 have turned black (today) and the others are on the way... not sure what to do with anything as the bin men won't take grow bag soil (they know it's soil cos when they lift the bags up it's heavy) and not sure I should put out for green bagging to the Council or to the tip as our Council makes compost from it so wouldn't be very public spirited of me! Nowhere to have a bonfire either! I despair!!!! O

[Michelle]

I take lots of things to the green waste skips at the tip, that I wouldn't put in my own compost bin. I may have imagined this, but sure I heard that as their stuff is composted at a much higher temperature (due to the volumes?) it kills a lot more?

[Two_Sheds]

I got a brown tomato on the plot today. Put it in a bag and in the black bin, the other plants look ok so far... might be a diff. story in the morning tho.