Tomato blight

[Barbara]

I have had to chuck out lots of the tom. plants as they have the dreaded blight, I assume it's in the soil, as they are in the GH, would you dig out the soil and replace it, or is it possible to steralise it in some way ?.

[Rosefriend]

Oh noooo Barbara - I am sorry.

I have never had it (touch wood) but you must change the soil - the same tom/potato soil should never be used. You won't of course know what your previous owner planted...difficult one isn't it !!


RF

[Ladygardener]

Yes I agree Barbara, you'll need to replace the soil. What a pain, it's such a disappointment for you. I'm pretty sure you can use the soil to grow something other than Tomatoes and Potatoes or anything from the Solanacae or Nightshade family.
Here is a link to some info.
www.ehow.com/info_8747687_soil-affected-potato-blight.html

[Barbara]

Thanks for that info LG, I was awake early on today thinking how to get rid of the soil, now I know I dont have to thanks.

[prunella]

That is a real bummer!
I (also touching wood) have never been unlucky enough to get blight on the GH toms. And this, despite blight being a yearly occurrence at the allotments and local gardens.
Do you water from a water butt or use tap water?
Perhaps, if using rain water, blight spores are being taken into the GH in that way.

[Missredhead]

I dont bother growing toms anymore as they always get blight....

[andy]

Think this will be the last year for me with toms due to blight

[Barbara]

We water with both Pru, depending on the weather, what is surprising is the toms outside are unaffected, so it has to be the soil inside the GH. I'll get rid of that and scrub with a good disinfectant before next year, and then see what happens.

[Rosefriend]

I can honestly say that (touch wood) I have never had blight in all the 30 odd years that I have been growing tomatoes etc...

I have certainty had leaf problem etc and occasionally an early blight that could be controlled but never the devastating late blight...

I have for the first time in many years also got three toms outside this year - beef toms that normally shouldn't stand a chance in this summer - they are doing very well indeed as are the GH toms, although I did lose a cuc plant...

The only thing that I can think of is that a) I never use tom/spud soil again except for beans/onions and flowers - remember I grow everything in tubs... and b) my garden is pure south so once the sun has come around it dries off leaves etc very quickly...

This year is terrible for more or less everything and the "Weather God" has certainly thrown us some lousy stuff and especially the last winter for us where I lost a quarter of the garden...however we gardeners are a seldom breed and I shall keep trying no matter what.

It's a shame on your first year Barbara but I reckon as you say, good new soil and a good GH scrub and hopefully you will be making tons of tom sauces next year because you have so many...

RF

[Barbara]

Thanks RF.

[Jilly]

When I discovered my blight a couple of weeks ago I cut off the worst affected parts & sprayed with a fruit & veg fungicide that I got at the GC (without a lot of hope). So far it's stopped it enough to allow for some of the fruit that had already formed to ripen & quite a lot of the fruit that was just setting looks OK.

Jillyx

[Spruance]

My aunt has terrible blight on several tomato plants which I gave her and yet the ones I kept are so far looking ok although they are much later (fruiting) than usual. So far we have had around a dozen toms from a shade under 60 plants so that's about £10 each tomato at the moment so I don't think Morrisons need worry yet. i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd161/GWDAdmin1/Smilies/Default/grin.gif

[MamIDdau]

It's been a full smith period here for a few weeks now so I've been waiting for something to go wrong... so far, nothing. Our toms are in compost in pots, tatws are in the soil and also seem to be OK.

However, the spores can survive in the soil for years so it's best to do crop rotation and replace the soil/grow in bags or pots with compost if you can.

As a fungicide, I use soapnut liquid and bicarb and it seems to work OK.

[bagpuss]

Touch wood my toms haven't got blight as yet, but unfortunately all the potatoes at the allotment got it, the King Edward's particularly. I reported it to the Potato Council - www.potato.org.uk/publications/gardeners-advice-potato-blight

I received a really helpful response and I am now going to be a Blight Monitor!

[Rosefriend]

Blimey - a famous person - well done BG......have read through the link and it is certainly informative and interesting andIi have printed out the pdf info....thanks a lot for the links..

RF

[pdblake]

I always get blight in the GH eventually, but not before I get a decent crop usually. I've never bothered to change the soil though.