tomatoes and blight

[carolineholding]

So first time poster and grower, also I have to mention I'm in SW France otherwise you're going to find this question quite confusing.

Growing tomatoes organically and outside so far its gone brilliantly (because it hasn't actually rained here continuously for the whole summer). But next week its forecast to rain basically non-stop until the forecast runs out so I'm worrying about my tomatoes getting blight. In the short term I've already had a great crop, I've dried some etc so if they all got blight and died now it wouldn't be the end of the world but what concerns me is I get blight on my plot does that make it more likely to come back the following year? Because if it does I'll just take them out, but if it doesn't I'd like to chance it because there is potentially a few more weeks of cropping to go if it stops raining after the week.

Anyway my apologies for posting the sort of 'problem' that i'm sure you'd all love to have.

Caroline

[solway cropper]

First of all, is blight common where you are? If it's not then I wouldn't worry about it. Blight develops from air-borne spores and requires specific conditions in order to thrive so if these are not met you won't get it.

On the off chance that you do get it just keep harvesting the clean fruit and ripen any green ones under cover. The pathogen survives on infected plant material so if you clear your plot thoroughly and dispose of the plants there should be nothing for it to grow from next year.

[sally fran]

Hi Caroline

A few years ago there was a very blighty year here and I covered all mine with a makeshift "tent" to keep the rain off. It was just a thin polythene dustsheet draped over them and secured with stones and clothes pegs. When the sun came out I pulled it back - it worked for me so it could be worth a go.

This year the forecast was for sunny weather here when we went down to our house in SW France for a little over a month. By the time we got back it had been raining for weeks and my toms had blight - I lost them all. It was the first time I'd had it after many years of successful tomato growing and I surprised myself by how gutted I was!

I hope you don't get it - good luck!

[carolineholding]

Thanks for your replies, blight does happen here, but its hard to say because my neighbours aren't remotely organic and spray lots anyway, also my french isn't brilliant and my garden french although improving very quickly isn't great either.

I'm really glad to hear it doesn't hang around in the soil, I haven't got any clear plastic but will keep an eye out for some for future late summer rainy spells.

Anyway the update is that the rain that was forecast out so my blight worries were in vain. There has been some rain but not the week long down pour that was being predicted. I'm in the foot hills of the Pyrenees so this changeability is common.

Thanks again for your advice, I have lots more questions...

[rustylady]

Caroline, can you go to your profile and add your location there please. Then it will show up on your posts and save you keep having to tell us where you are. Glad your weather is due to be better.

[PyreneesPlot]

Hi Caroline.
I'm also Pyrenees foothills and cleared my tomatoes today because of the blight. All the foliage is cleared (toms & spuds) but we've had it 3 years running on a plot that was a field. I use Bordeaux mixture if a prolonged wet & warm period is forecast. Lots of folks do seem to put plastic tents over their tomatoes but I don't simply because of the heat.
Have you found a solution for flea beetle yet?
Looks like its going to be a nice week in 65.

[carolineholding]

ok, I've updated my profile, sorry I really am very new here. I'm in a place called the Gers (region 32), but I am very near the boarders of the Hautes Pyrenees and also Hautes Garonne and no, I haven't found a solution for the bloody flea beetle! that really came as quite a shock when i got home after a weekend away and found my kale had been eaten to shreds! (far more voracious in these warmer climes) I do vaguely recall reading something about a companion plant I'll have a look and see if I can find it. I think next year I'll keep my brassicas covered with horticultural fleece and somekind of water permiable mulch(?) I hope that worlds, as I've not really had much of a crop to speak of so far from that family.

Yeah the blight, lots of my toms do have dead leaves on the lower branches, but so far the fruit is fine, and I'm so new to gardening that I don't know it might be blight, but I always assumed the disease just swept through your crop and killed everything quick quickly.

anyway thanks again all for your help!