Is It Blight?

[AngelaC]

Pretty sure i know the answer, but what do you think about these?



These are 2 of my trailing tom plants, i have other cordon ones at the other side of the garden which seem fine.

If the trailing ones are blighted, do i need to destroy the cordon ones too now or should i leave them and pray?

[Bramble_killer]

Hi Angela,

Yup, they look like a few of mine that was confirmed blight

I removed all the blighted plants and the branches of those that weren't so bad, OH sprayed with bordeaux mixture and we're now checking every day. Some have spread (and been promptly removed) and some have been ok.

Put all the foliage with blight into the normal bin and not into compost.

I know how you feel.

[AngelaC]

Thanks for that, i will get onto it tomorrow.

[teamladd]

I think I have blight on my tomato stems, however the fruit looks great, should I pull this off and let it ripen to see if it sorts itself out?

Thanks

[avinabacca]

Blight attack

Sneaky, that. Was last down the plot last weekend and all seemed well; despite the wet and warm-ish weather I thought there was a decent chance we might miss out on the blight after all......

.....a week away, and returned yesterday to find the tomatoes and spuds looking like illustrations from the RHS plant disease textbook; mushy-topped toms (maybe only a week away from turning, too) and horrid, grey-edged potato-leaves beginning to topple.

If I didn't know better I'd really assume someone had been over the plot with a can of Roundup.

Damn. How'd it happen so quickly?

Have got together a load of flammables and a cheap bottle of household bleach today, and am planning to spend most of the evening pulling up, cutting down, burning the foliage and disinfecting canes and ties.

A couple of questions though, if anyone can help:
- potatoes: I'm planning to cut the haulm down to ground level and leave the spuds in the earth until the end of the month to let the spores die off - is this the best thing to do, or is there something better?
- tomatoes: Thinking of pulling up the plants, taking the (green) toms off and perhaps soaking them in a weak solution of Milton to remove the blight spores - is this necessary, or will they be alright with just the normal rinse and wipe?
- infected foliage: To be chopped up and burned - I know the risk of composting as-is, but the ash will be alright to use on the plot, right?
- canes & ties: I'm planning to disinfect these with a solution of household bleach - is this suitable? I'd have thought it would do the job, but if anyone's got better ideas, please do tell. Also, if they'd better be burned than disinfected, it would be useful to know that too.......
- afterwards: Secateurs, knives and trowels used in the operation to be disinfected in bleach solution (as above), all clothes taken home and put through a hot cycle, good scrub under a hot shower for me too. Anything I've missed?

If anyone can assist and advise I'd really appreciate - I'd heard how quickly blight attacks but really didn't think it'd be this rapid. That's about two dozen tomato plants and four 4'x12' beds of spuds hit, and although we should be able to rescue lots of green toms (which'll be good in chutney and such) and hopefully lots of the potatoes, it's really rather depressing......

[avinabacca]

(as already posted - can anyone help?)

Sneaky, that. Was last down the plot last weekend and all seemed well; despite the wet and warm-ish weather I thought there was a decent chance we might miss out on the blight after all......

.....a week away, and returned yesterday to find the tomatoes and spuds looking like illustrations from the RHS plant disease textbook; mushy-topped toms (maybe only a week away from turning, too) and horrid, grey-edged potato-leaves beginning to topple.

If I didn't know better I'd really assume someone had been over the plot with a can of Roundup.

Damn. How'd it happen so quickly?

Have got together a load of flammables and a cheap bottle of household bleach today, and am planning to spend most of the evening pulling up, cutting down, burning the foliage and disinfecting canes and ties.

A couple of questions though, if anyone can help:
- potatoes: I'm planning to cut the haulm down to ground level and leave the spuds in the earth until the end of the month to let the spores die off - is this the best thing to do, or is there something better?
- tomatoes: Thinking of pulling up the plants, taking the (green) toms off and perhaps soaking them in a weak solution of Milton to remove the blight spores - is this necessary, or will they be alright with just the normal rinse and wipe?
- infected foliage: To be chopped up and burned - I know the risk of composting as-is, but the ash will be alright to use on the plot, right?
- canes & ties: I'm planning to disinfect these with a solution of household bleach - is this suitable? I'd have thought it would do the job, but if anyone's got better ideas, please do tell. Also, if they'd better be burned than disinfected, it would be useful to know that too.......
- afterwards: Secateurs, knives and trowels used in the operation to be disinfected in bleach solution (as above), all clothes taken home and put through a hot cycle, good scrub under a hot shower for me too. Anything I've missed?

If anyone can assist and advise I'd really appreciate - I'd heard how quickly blight attacks but really didn't think it'd be this rapid. That's about two dozen tomato plants and four 4'x12' beds of spuds hit, and although we should be able to rescue lots of green toms (which'll be good in chutney and such) and hopefully lots of the potatoes, it's really rather depressing......

[Sweepster]

Will be interested in the answers to these questions, as mine are about to go... any minute now...

Last year I just threw all the green tomatoes away, so if I can do 'something' with them instead it might lessen the pain. A bit

[Storming Norman]

I could use some advice on my maincrops, Picasso, that went in towards the end of May, when I got the first beds in my new allotment ready.

I have no experience of maincrops or blight, but I think I may have blight.

The weather has been right for this to occur, but the pots are not keeling over as I would have expected from other posts. So what would you do?

The foliage has been very lush, but now the lower leaves have begun developing brown patches surrounded by yellow - no real black patches but quite large areas affected. I have cut off every leaf branch with symptoms and a few more pop up every day - but I have now been doing this for 10 days and there has not been the complete collapse that I was expecting - there is lots of ground showing from the pruning. Today I saw some minor blackened stem patches on one or two plants - now removed.

This has me more worried now - I am due to take a short holiday this week - should I cut the lot down now and protect what I have or take a risk that its not going that fast and give the pots another week?

I had to dig around and found this in the bed - could they be ready anyway, hence the collapse [seems too early to me].

Thanks

[avinabacca]

All done as above now - the bonfire lasted about two hours and the plot looked terribly sad after......

We've a builder's bucket-ful of green tomatoes - will be slicing, coating and frying/freezing the larger, better-condition ones, whole-pickling the smaller, better-condition ones, and making chutney with the rest.

Such a shame, though. Some were not far from ripening, on other plants trusses were still setting - dammit, there were even a few Brandywines which had set and begun to grow! - and it would have been such a lovely, big crop.

Really going to have to have a think about what we'll do tomato-wise next year.....

[Waffler]

I feel your pain!
I've recently posted moaning about the dreaded blight which took all my potato plants and my outdoor toms.
I was wiping secateurs with detol wipes, but hubby said that would kill the spores, so ended up putting them along with my gardening gloves in the sink and pooring on boiling water.
I've also been trying to kill off spores on the ground (so as to dig up potatoes sooner in case they start rotting if it gets wetter again) by using the weed gun (the gas thingy) on the soil surrounding the plants.
I've decided next year NOT to bother with outdoor toms (I'm going to Bordeux-treat my greenhouse crops tomorrow as a precaution) and to buy blight resistant varieties of potatoes; though I've no idea just how resistant these are or whether they're any cop as a potato crop: reader experiences welcomed.

[chriscross1966]

Pink Fir Apple seem to resist blight better than most and the Sarpo series are supposed to be almost immune.... I won't bother with outdoor toms again having lost the lot this year....

chrisc

[Hooky]

I have just taken a break from completely clearing my whole bed of King Edwards which showed no signs at all of blight 48 hours ago. Now they have been completely ruined. WOW, I never knew a disease could hit and run so fast

All of my outside toms, (4 varieties) went over the last 2-3 weeks.
Who was it who said gardening is a great stress buster.....

This is my first year trying to grow some veggies and reading all the posts by the wiser and more experienced Grapes, I feel as though I should be disheartened.

But the strange thing is I actually don't at this stage. It has just made me more determined to save for that Greenhouse I have had my eyes on. Oh and I feel justified going for a larger size as well

Perhaps this is the optimism of the young (I wish ) or foolishness!!!

So I am now trying to find out if its worth cooking teeny weeny King Teddies like new pots!

Alan

[coreopsis]

This is my 1st time potato growing.The foliage on 1st patch of Desiree started to go yellow from the bottom and then a bit strange-drying off.I thought the foliage was dying off naturally(a bit early to me but hmmm...wait and see).Yesterday we had a visit from OH's friend-he's a keen tattie grower and couldn't say that it's definitely blight.Today I was cutting off the foliage on 1st Desiree patch(perfect blight example)-decent size tatties but Pink Firs are the size of my finger-I'm a bit dissappointed that they are still so small and I'll have to lift them up
Where's this hot sunny summer???

[WeeGarden]

Urgh! My toms are hit. Where is the stab a knife through the heart smilie?

Only one plant affected at the moment as far as I can see, but there are 6 planted in a block. Would it be too late to spray with Bordeaux mixture now? If not, I'm speeding to the garden centre this afternoon...

My Balconi Reds in a hanging basket seem fine at the moment...

*update*
I've attached thumbnails of my toms. Can someone please please confirm that it's not blight?

Could it be botrytis? The brown bits on the toms aren't mushy and the foliage is crispy rather than rotty?

[Hooky]

I'm sorry WeeGarden, but to my novice eyes that looks like blight