Is It Blight?

[teakdesk]

While I have had experiences in previous years that would echo Penellype's post I have had some success in rescuing (or at least using) fruit from blighted plants.

In fact, I am hoping to do the same this year as three "spares" that were planted late on at the allotment have had evidence of blight on leaves (which were removed when seen) and the stem (can't remove!!!) for a week now.

I have had a few ripe fruit off the plants but there were lots of green fruit about to ripen and lots of fruit still to swell to full size. I hoped that picking off the leaves daily would be enough for more fruit to be harvested.

However, today I saw three fruit infected with blight and have now cleared the plants of fruit and put them to dry in a cool room. I'll be checking daily to see if any are going to succumb to blight and most will probably end up as chutney or green tomato cake next weekend.

Fingers crossed!!!

[Scarlet]

In my experience if I haven't used the toms as soon as I've seen the blight (green chutney!) they soon turn brown and taste pretty disgusting.

[CurlyGreen]

On Tuesday eve (26th Aug) spotted that my potato foliage looks just like halfPlot's. And a few brown blotches on the stems. Looks like my first experience with blight on potatoes in 6 years. That probably makes me lucky. Also pleased Solanceae described as early stages of blight so maybe I have caught it in time to save my harvest.

Have chopped the foliage back and will see how the potatoes look at the weekend. A bit worried as I read somewhere that the rain washes the blight spores down to the tubers and we had such a lot of rain here on Monday and Tuesday. Should I use my maincrops before my earlies and second earlies? They've all been harvested and stored away in dark boxes for later in the year and imagine they will store better than tubers that have been exposed to blight.

[Thelma Sanders]

If you earthed them up, then they should be ok underground.

You're supposed to leave them 2 weeks for the blight spores on the surface to die off, before you harvest them.

They should still keep longer than the earlies and seconds, check the stored spuds every week or so - you'll soon know if the odd tuber is affected, cos they stink to high heaven OMG

[solanaceae]

If the blight has spread down the main stem into the ground then they could already be infected, but if it's just the odd patch on the stem like you said, then they are probably going to be ok.

As for blight spores go, I agree with all what Thelma said. If your tubers have enough earth covering them, then they are probably going to be fine. The spores can't germinate on the skins of potatoes anyway, (as far as I'm aware). However they can germinate on the inside of the potato, where any skin has been lost due to things like erosion, slug damage, worm holes that kind of thing. (This sort of scenario is unlikely to happen though IMO).

[Noosner]

All the tomato plants in my greenhouse (plastic) have got blight now - it seemed to happen very quickly over the weekend when I was away and couldn't open the door to air it. The tomatoes themselves seem okay, strangely, so I am picking and using them as normal. I'm assuming this is an okay thing to do? The blight is too widespread to really remove it.

[CurlyGreen]

Thanks Thelma and Solanceae. Sounds like there is hope The stems weren't too bad.

Unfortunately I don't earth up so I'll have to hope my mulch is still deep. Half were in a new bed covered in manure, then double cardboard and then manky old hay and the other half just had manure and manky old hay which might not be much protection.

I will wait a couple of weeks as you've suggested and keep my fingers crossed. And take extra care to separate out the damaged ones and shallow ones, interesting that the blight needs to get inside the potato to infect it.

I haven't got anywhere out of the way to store the spuds, they'll be in my living space which makes it easy to check and notice any horrendous omg smells!

[CurlyGreen]

Noosner, I think my greenhouse tomatoes got blight too, very late last year. I ate them and it was fine. But they didn't keep at all. So it was a waste of time bringing them all in and waiting for the green ones to ripen, they just went brown and had to be thrown away. So eat them all now!

I also chopped off lots of leaves, whether affected or not. Might have helped though it seemed to carry on attacking the stems and fruit anyway.

[solanaceae]

Sorry to hear that Noosner.

If the blight is as widespread as you are saying it is (entire leaf stems and leaves turned black/brown and a black/brown colour that covers most of the stem), then your tomatoes could be at risk/already infected, even if it doesn't look like the blight has spread to them yet.

If it was me I would harvest all the tomatoes and let them ripen inside and then throw away the plant.

On the other hand if you want to risk it and keep the plant going you should remove any infected leaf stems as soon as you spot them. As for any blight that shows up on the main stem you could try treating it with an organic fungicide found here Fresh Organic Gardening – Tomato Blight. (Though you might want to use potassium bicarbonate instead of sodium bicarbonate as the latter is thought to be slightly toxic to the plants/environment.) I've been using this fungicide all summer long and it's worked wonders for me. Mostly been using it for cucumbers/pumpkins to stop powdery mildew dead in its tracks. Recently blight has become a bit of an issue on the main stems of a couple of my tomato plants, so I sprayed the stems and went to check back later in the day to find it had stop sporulating and the patches had turned a light brown from a dark brown. The patches hadn't advanced any further days later either.

If you have any outdoor toms that are ok at the moment, keep a close eye on them. At the start of the slightest infection of blight on the leaves, cut off the whole leaf stem to stop the spread to the rest of the plant and to other nearby plants from spores. In my experience, most tomato plants that I've heard/seen have got blight could have been kept going for a long while longer if only infected material was removed a lot earlier, (of course couldn't be helped in your case as you were away).

[teakdesk]

My outdoor tomatoes had small amounts of blight on leaves and stem a fortnight ago. I stripped off affected leaves daily for a week until three fruit showed brown. Then I stipped all fruit and put to dry in a cool room. I've lost another three fruit over the last week but the rest seem stable.

However I'm not going to leave them to see if they ripen... I'm going to make Green Tomato Cake!

I've not made it before but is was recommended to me. There are plenty of recipes on the net.

[Scarlet]

I've lost another three fruit over the last week but the rest seem stable.

However I'm not going to leave them to see if they ripen... I'm going to make Green Tomato Cake!

If a few have already gone brown you need to cook them ASAP it doesn't take long for them to taste bad and don't save any seeds....

[Mark Hardie]

Hello,

I'm brand new to gardening and decided to grow 3 varieties of tomato this year, with great success. However, in the last few days, things have gone rapidly down hill and I suspect it is blight, judging by the responses and photographs in this thread. Luckily I had a good crop before this happened, but I did want to rescue some seeds to grow more next year. Is that possible, and if so, how?

If it is blight, what should I do with the plants?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Nicos]

Hi there Mark.
According to this....



Q. Can I save seeds from my tomatoes?

A. The pathogen is not carried on seeds, but if infected fruits rot before seeds are mature, there won’t be any viable seeds to harvest.
- See more at: Late Blight FAQ's | University of Maryland Extension

[Scarlet]

If it is blight, what should I do with the plants?

Dig up, bag and bin them.

Luckily I had a good crop before this happened, but I did want to rescue some seeds to grow more next year. Is that possible, and if so, how?

You can't save seed from fruit that isn't ripe. Did you eat all the ripe ones? If you have a few remaining, use the fermentation method to save seeds - pop in a jar of water, let ferment for three days so that all the flesh is removed from the seed, the seeds will drop to the bottom of the jar. Pour away the mould and remaining water, rinse the seeds in fresh water and dry on a plate. I always save seed earlier in the season just incase I get a problem like this.

[Mark Hardie]

Hello Scarlet,

Thanks very much for the advice - that's great. I do have a couple of ripe toms which I saved before the blight, which I'll drain the seeds from in hope of them growing next year. I'll aim to do this earlier next year I think. Will I be able to use the same soil in their pots again or is it advisable to chuck that too?