15 tomato plants wiped out in less than 24 hours

[jonny the plant pot]

Went to the alotment today to find all the tomato plants have misteriously died .
Me personally think they have been sprayed with some kind of weedkiller .
But the site rep is adamant that they have been struck down with blight .what do you reckon is it possible to kill that many plants in that short amount of time.

[jonny the plant pot]

This is all that's left

[Martin H]

It does look like blight. Those brown blotches on the leaves are unmistakeable. Such a shame.

[muddled]

Yes.
Blight can and does strike that hard and that fast.

It is absolutely devastating.

And when it happens, we start to get an inkling of how Irish potato famine was able to take a hold.

[Marb67]

I had a few brown spots on the some leaves on my plant in the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago but snipped them off and they have been fine. Yours look like the leaves have been cut off. Cinnamon poweder is anti fungal so could be worth a shot with any left that are ok ?

[Bigmallly]

I'd be tempted to remove the fruits Jonny & ripen them off indoors.

[jonny the plant pot]

Thanks bm I didn't know I could do that will do it tomorrow .

[Jay22]

So sorry Jonny, I can imagine how upsetting this must be for you!

[WendyC]

Blight is really rapid. i couldn't believe it first time I saw it. A few brown blotches the first day and gone the second. I have had to take all the tops off my early potatoes already this year.

[Penellype]

Take the fruit off and spread it out on some newspaper or something indoors - it doesn't need to be particularly light. Keep an eagle eye on it for any sign of fruit going brown and remove any that do immediately. If it was blight you are unlikely to ripen much at all, but if it isn't blight most of the fruit should ripen eventually.



Suspected blight, so I picked these Totem on 7/9/15.



The same tomatoes 10 days later - they have been moved around a bit but they are the same ones. This clearly wasn't blight, but better safe than sorry.

Putting a ripe banana or other fruit in with green tomatoes helps them ripen faster - the ripe fruit gives off ethylene gas which helps other fruit ripen.

[goosander]

Had a lot of bother with blight last year. Thanks to the reply's on here I discorved what it was.
Have been hosing down my peach trees which are in the same greenhouse to keep vine weevil down. Was wondering if it was wise of me to also hose the toms down.
All advice appreciated.
Bob

[Penellype]

Hosing down tomatoes will not stop blight - blight likes warm and damp conditions. It is best to keep the tomato leaves as dry as possible and water only the roots.

[maverick451]

Perosnaly Ive never found blight to be as rapid as folks make out apart from right at the end of the season in wet weather,

I have some blight in the greenhouse 2 weeks ago, those oily wet black patches on a few leaves, Ive chopped them off, kept the door open and so far no sign of a return.

[jonny the plant pot]

That was my point I didn't think it could wipe out 15 very healthy plants in less than 24 hours

[muddled]

Well Maverick has been lucky.

I PROMISE you Johnny that I have had blight devastate a large crop in under 24 hours and I have also seen it happen to others.

There are deficiencies and infections which look like blight in its very early stages but they tend to affect the leaves rather than the stem. So when someone as experienced as Penellype says she suspected blight but it turned out not to be, that's why.

But the real thing is incredibly fast acting.
Keep an eye on your stems for the brown patches and also on the fruit themselves. I can't, of course, rule out an evil so-and-so with a weedkiller spraygun...but I can promise that I've SEEN blight do that much damage and more within 24 hours so don't go accusing/fighting your neighbours just yet!