Can you save toms from plants with blight?

[Nik]

I feel like Harvey Keitel from Pulp Fiction. Having noticed clear signs of blight on three of my plants I yanked them out, stuffed them in a plastic bag and bundled them in the bin. I then swept the patio to clear up any remaining evidence. No one will ever know.

Anyway, before I disposed of the bodies I pulled off a few green fruits that don't show any signs of being affected. Can I keep them or should I bin them to prevent any other plants getting blighted?

[unclefudgly]

Supposedly if you can keep the fruits above 25C they will ripen normally, I think it may also depend on the variety though.

[Kittypickle]

I had loads sitting on the kitchen windowsill but they all got black patches before ripening and I had to chuck all of them apart from one.

[taff]

use them in chutney as soon as you can, they'll go like kittypickles. But they're fine to use if they havent got splotches...or if they only have a few little splotches, cut them off and use. look for earthbabes green chutney recipe.

[AntonyM]

I have just spotted the dreaded blight on one of my 4 outdoor toms (Harbinger). I have disposed of the plants and any toms showing any sign of a problem. The rest are spread on a sunny windowsill and will be watched closely for the next week or two .... previous experience suggests at least half of them will ripen OK.

[Aberdeenplotter]

If you don't try,you won't succeed. Nowt to lose so try to ripen themand bin any that need binning

[Nik]

Well 24 hours later and they almost all show brown blotches so I've chucked them. And most of the rest to my plants are now showing all the signs of blight. I think it's time to invest in a greenhouse...

[taff]

really, use them up in chutney before the blotches appear, it's safe, I'm still alive after my disaster 2 years ago

[BroadRipple]

yeah but no but yeah but can we use ones which have that pre-blighty look (bit whiter, say) and are definitely green? what do those bits taste like? (feel like a child holding out something pongy going 'smell this smell this!') I don't have many tomatoes so want to use all those I can. I suppose I'm saying if I use blighty tomatoes, will I die? Or develop strange brown patches? Or just be a Maker of Duff Chutney?
btw am terrified of chutney. am I alone in this?

AND another question, blightsters...if I have blight damn damn but not in every tomato plant yet, how long is it before others say a metre or two away are strucketh down? (oh yes it's getting very Biblical.) My stripey ones are still looking OK but I don't want to lose them, so am wondering if I should cull them now...

[taff]

don't be terrified of chutney, get a heavy pan and make it, you'll be wondering am I doing it right, then you'll pot it up, eat it, and realise, yes, I did do it right
you can use any tomatoes that aren't red, at any stage of greeness, or whiteness, if you see small brown blotches, cut them off.

I found the first signs of infection at the joints of the plants last time, black sooty patches etc. it's possible they won't get it, the spores may not have reached those plants yet, just keep an eagle eye out, and at the first sign, take them up.

[BroadRipple]

making it RIGHT NOW! thanks for encouragement taff. One question - if I'm tasting as I go as I played a bit fast and loose with my recipe, how sweet/sour do you reckon it should be at this stage i.e. before it's mellowed in the jars? defo on sour side now...

[BroadRipple]

oh and p.s. do I really need to simmer until have reduced my frankly silagey chutney by half? am doing my usual trick of combining two recipes and so don't really have a clue what to do...

[taff]

oh dear, I was trying to enocurage you to make it using a tested recipe...never mind ....I wouldn't bother tasting it as you go, it'll be not nice and not a patch on the finished, set aside for a month, product
simmer until when you scrape a wooden spoon along the bottom you can see the bottom before the chutney sludges back over it. There should still be a little bit of liquid bubbling at the top, it won't be completely 'dry'.

[Nik]

AND another question, blightsters...if I have blight damn damn but not in every tomato plant yet, how long is it before others say a metre or two away are strucketh down? (oh yes it's getting very Biblical.) My stripey ones are still looking OK but I don't want to lose them, so am wondering if I should cull them now...

Hours.

It is relentless, unstoppable and evil.

I have several plants all a foot or two apart and they are succumbing one by one. I do have some others at the other end of the garden which look ok so next year I think I will dot plants around the garden rather than putting them all in one place.