Blight Already

Tomato blight is always a question of when not if, but late June is a bit early. I've been stripping off the infected leaves almost daily, but today the blight hit the stems so I've chopped the plants off to below that point, but don't hold out much hope of harvesting very much. There are a few trusses, but one pineapple now has one truss and no leaves at all!!

The infected plants are marmande, bradywine & pineapple and are the first ones I planted out. Interestingly they are also the ones that stick out beneath the roof of the tomato shelter so have been rained on a little. The ground is mulched to avoid spash back - this is photo is last year's frame before planting with a straw mulch; I've gone back to grass clippings this year.     


Today I sprayed with Bordeaux mixture in the hope of saving the rest, but it is probably too late.

Awww I'm so sorry to hear that PP

I am really amazed at my tomatoes after their brush with pretty bad blight way back in late June - most plants had to have almost all their leaves removed and many the stems as well to within a set of leaves of the ground. We lost almost all of the first flush of flowers & fruit, just managng to keep a few brandywine, pineapple & marmande which ripened, were tiny and blight-marked. I sprayed just the once.
I now have no blight, the plants have reached the top of the frame, re-growing from side shoots. We've been picking cherry roma and sungold for a week or so and in another few days of this heat the first of the plums should be ready. It is an incredible turn around.
Moral of the story is don't give up as I was close to grubbing out the plants and using the space for something else!

I have late blight on in my large greenhouse, I’ve just cut off all the infected leaves I can see there are about 4-5 plants which have brown lesions on the stems. So there will be no watering this evening. The watering cans will not be crossing over greenhouses and tomorrow morning I will be spraying with a a solution of Bicarbonate of soda, vegetable oil. Water and a little household detergent. I’m hoping I’ve caught it, as I don’t particularly want to lose all the plants in there as that’s about 20 really decent looking plants and most have yet to show any signs of infection. Fingers crossed.

I have late blight on in my large greenhouse, I’ve just cut off all the infected leaves I can see there are about 4-5 plants which have brown lesions on the stems. So there will be no watering this evening. The watering cans will not be crossing over greenhouses and tomorrow morning I will be spraying with a a solution of Bicarbonate of soda, vegetable oil. Water and a little household detergent. I’m hoping I’ve caught it, as I don’t particularly want to lose all the plants in there as that’s about 20 really decent looking plants and most have yet to show any signs of infection. Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed for you mate

    click to open this one, it has animation

   

Blight has arrived with the rain
In the two or three days of rain and not going outside, the blight has ravaged my outdoor toms. Usually I'm fairly lucky and it doesn't arrive before most of the toms are ripening well, this year not so. I've harvested what I can and put the fruit in the shed rather than contaminate the GHs, dont hold out much hope of them ripening though. Is green tomato chutney worth doing?

Blight has arrived with the rain
In the two or three days of rain and not going outside, the blight has ravaged my outdoor toms.  Usually I'm fairly lucky and it doesn't arrive before most of the toms are ripening well, this year not so.  I've harvested what I can and put the fruit in the shed rather than contaminate the GHs, dont hold out much hope of them ripening though.  Is green tomato chutney worth doing?

They will ripen better at room temperature but if the blight has got into the fruit they aren't really worth keeping. When our outdoor plants got blight in early August I only kept fruit with no visual indicators of blight, checked them regularly and within a week they started showing signs of infection. Even if they ripen I find tomatoes at this time of the year aren't very tasty due to lack of sun, especially if harvested before first blush. Chutney is a good way of using green tomatoes but we're still slogging through the 2018 batch

Might it be worth growing earlier fruiting varieties? I only grow early determinates outside now and they're usually finished by September.

Blight has arrived with the rain
In the two or three days of rain and not going outside, the blight has ravaged my outdoor toms.  Usually I'm fairly lucky and it doesn't arrive before most of the toms are ripening well, this year not so.  I've harvested what I can and put the fruit in the shed rather than contaminate the GHs, dont hold out much hope of them ripening though.  Is green tomato chutney worth doing?

They will ripen better at room temperature but if the blight has got into the fruit they aren't really worth keeping. When our outdoor plants got blight in early August I only kept fruit with no visual indicators of blight, checked them regularly and within a week they started showing signs of infection. Even if they ripen I find tomatoes at this time of the year aren't very tasty due to lack of sun, especially if harvested before first blush. Chutney is a good way of using green tomatoes but we're still slogging through the 2018 batch

Might it be worth growing earlier fruiting varieties? I only grow early determinates outside now and they're usually finished by September.

Sound advice TMTT, thanks.  What outdoor varieties do you choose to grow?  It might help  my next year's list choices

Sound advice TMTT, thanks.  What outdoor varieties do you choose to grow?  It might help  my next year's list choices

If you want vines I'd stick with cherries or go for medium-sized fruit like Stupice, Matina and Bloody Butcher. My preference now is for determinates as outdoor vines get battered by summer storms every year. I've tried Latah, Urbikany, Clear Pink Early, Maglia Rosa, Sibirsky Skorospelyi, Dwarf Arctic Rose and Maskotka. Out of those Latah and Maskotka (incredible production on such a small plant) are probably my favourites, but I'd try them all again. Not entirely decided yet but next year Maskotka is a definite and I'll be trying some new varieties out of EM Champion, Sophie's Choice, Utyonok, Sasha's Altai, Dwarf Pink Passion, Cherry Falls and Geranium Kiss. If any of these varieties interest you and I can send you some seed.

Sound advice TMTT, thanks.  What outdoor varieties do you choose to grow?  It might help  my next year's list choices

If you want vines I'd stick with cherries or go for medium-sized fruit like Stupice, Matina and Bloody Butcher. My preference now is for determinates as outdoor vines get battered by summer storms every year. I've tried Latah, Urbikany, Clear Pink Early, Maglia Rosa, Sibirsky Skorospelyi, Dwarf Arctic Rose and Maskotka. Out of those Latah and Maskotka (incredible production on such a small plant) are probably my favourites, but I'd try them all again. Not entirely decided yet but next year Maskotka is a definite and I'll be trying some new varieties out of EM Champion, Sophie's Choice, Utyonok, Sasha's Altai, Dwarf Pink Passion, Cherry Falls and Geranium Kiss. If any of these varieties interest you and I can send you some seed.

I think I'll stick with indeterminates, a) it's what I'm used to and b)  I find the  sprawling space needed for determinates overwhelms me and the slugs get more fruit than I do. I'll follow your advice on choosing early or mid varieties.  I did have maskotka, tumbling Tom red and terenzo in pots in the GH and was very pleased with all of them.  I will source  some Bloody Butcher seeds to give it a try next year, I see premier seeds have them for 99p so not expensive, and I've put my name down for some stupice seeds in the seed swap.  So that's two sorted.  Thanks for the advice.