Oh, for crying out loud...

[ChocClare]

Earlier this year, I asked for some tomato seeds and had lots of fun swapping with lots of you.

Well, the tumbler has done brilliantly (more-or-less over now) if not that exciting a taste. The yellow millefleur is doing great, as is the marmande and the sungold.

EVERYTHING else and I mean EVERYTHING has got blight (or maybe I'm just getting paranoid but it certainly seems that way).

Please help me rescue my ivory egg, my red cluster pear, my tigerella, my san marzano et al. They are all outside. The San Marzano is in a different bed and is the least affected. The others are not exactly together, but in the same part of the garden. I had to dig up all my potatoes last week (luckily they were just about ready) because of blight so obviously it is a problem - and the 96 million gallons of rain which have fallen on them obviously didn't help either.

Can I take off the leaves of outdoor plants to give the green fruit a chance to ripen, if I'm careful to inspect every day? How many leaves should I leave ()?

More importantly, what should I be doing NEXT year to ensure this doesn't happen again? Will the spores be in the soil? Should I stick to greenhouse/container growing next year??

All advice from all you experts would be most gratefully received.

[scarey55]

Oh, bad luck - I had blight last year and didn't get a single tomato.

The only thing I can say is take off all the affected leaves and spray with Bordeaux mixture. I know some peeps don't like using it and there are loads of threads about why but I used it this year at the first whiff of blight and - well, I won't say it because I will be tempting fate.

So sorry, I know it's gutting but all part of the learning curve- steep innit?

[sewer rat]

I too suffered blight on my tomatoes last year - they were all in thr tunnel and I stripped the plants bare of leaves other than the fresh growth at the top of the plants - and I still managed a decent harvest.
Just make sure you check both the plant and the fruits on a daily basis and remove any of the new growth or fruits that show the symptoms. You will undoubtedly lose some but equally you should save more than you lose if you catch them in time.

[gojiberry]

I think if you are in a blight area it just isn't worth trying to grow tomatoes outside. Potatoes aren't to bad as you can plant earlies and they are ready before the blight hits, but tomatoes just crop to late to do the same. I even tried covering with fleece but it didn't make any difference the blight still got through. Once the plants are affected there isn't much you can do except dig the plants up and burn them. You should be able to salvage the tomatoes that have grown. Don't leave them on the plant or they will become infected as well and will soon rot.

Ian

[burnie]

There are blight resistant potatoes,but sadly I don't think there's a blight resistant tomato yet.

[Geordie]

Really hard lines with your tomato blight but there is no totally blight resistant variety, however you might like to try Ferline, Legend and Fantasio which do have some resistant.

It may also be worth looking at how blight spreads, ie its dispersed by wind and rain splash. As blight always seems to be at its wost in damp summers it may be worth considering some sort of canapy over your plants which would allow you to control how 'damp' your plants get. If your potatoes are also susceptical to blight theses are usually attacked first so that is the time to use Bordeaux spray, before you notice it on the toms. This will not stop the infection but will hopefully slow it to enable you to get a better crop.

[Jimmy]

I grew sungold (plus another) in a grow bag. I put bag next to south facing house wall. Sheltered by eaves from direct rain so I had to water a lot.
But they went bonkers, my wife complains she can't see out the window.
Jimmy

[wyrdsister]

The above was all helpful to me also as I have the same problem - I have removed 4 blight ridden plants and picked off all the toms which I have on my windowsill - is there much chance they will ripen? Or should I start making chutney?

[fwuffydragon]

wyrdsister ... wash the tomatoes in some sort of antifungal solution to get rid of the blight spores, then you will be able to dry them off and keep them.

Put them in a paper bag with a banana if you want them to go red, as the ethylene gas it gives off will help them to ripen.

[kentvegplot]

Have a look at Bob Flowerdew's book 'No work gardening' - he has a clever contraption for keeping the rain (and therefore blight spores) off tomatoes....

Has anyone out there tried it?