Go-slow blight?

[ken]

From previous years, I'm very familiar with what late blight looks like on tomatoes. This year, where it has been fairly dry here in the SE since the end of July, my outdoor tomatoes have escaped so far. However, I'm getting used to a new, 6x6 greenhouse. Initially, I let it get too humid and saw symptoms of blight on one or two tomatoes and stalks. Normally, I'd expect the blight to then rampage through the whole lot. Instead, I keep finding the occasional fruit with typical blight markings, which I remove and destroy, but for the most part the plants continue to fruit well. Could this be a less virulent strain of blight, or is it more that I've been more successful in keeping the atmosphere dry?

[Primrose]

I'm not sure. Many of my outdoor tomatoes have been affected by blight but it has travelled more slowly this year allowing some tomatoes to survive and finish developing and ripening. Interestingly my tumbling varieties have survived much better than the upright ones. Balcony Yellow, a dwarf bush variety I've grown this year for the first time is showing no sign of blight at all. The Ferlines have survived better than some of the others. Possibly it's a case of the weather being less harsh in terms of contrasts at crucial periods of development. Or maybe just down to luck?

[Nature's Babe]

mine also did the same, the blight on the leaves dried up, still getting new growth and toms are ripening nicely only one plant succombed completely and I forgot to put rootgrow under that one, the others are doing fine.

[The Mouse]

For the last two years, I have had pretty much the same experience as you are describing - there has been blight, but it hasn't killed the plants or spread to too many fruits. Only a week ago, I was optimistic that the same was happening again this year, but unfortunately it was wishful thinking - I have just had to pull out the whole row of Sungold (outdoors), as the blight has quite sudden won the battle. Just the latest in this year's catalogue gardening disasters!

On a brighter note, the three tomato plants that are in my miniature greenhouse are untouched as yet, so there is still a ray of hope.

[Johnboy]

Hi Ken, The Mouse and NB,
You may be interested to know that the Savari Trust, of Potato fame, have a programme looking into Blight in Tomatoes. I do not quite know at what stage it has got to but they, of all people, have a very great understand of blight and I have a feeling that they will be able to help gardeners greatly in maybe the not too distant future.
JB.

[Primrose]

Any insights on this issue will be more than welcome because I'm dispirited coming downstairs every morning and finding that a few more tomatoes that I picked early to try and rescue them from blighted plants, have gone the way of their predecessors, despite washing them thoroughly immediately after picking.

[ken]

Hi Primrose. I sympathise. The following is something I've put on the forum more than once, so for people who have read it before, forgive me. It came, I think, from the original edition of Square Foot Gardening, written by an ex-US government horticultural advisor. When blight strikes, pick all the tomatoes. Mix up some Milton (or own-label equivalent), the stuff for sterilising babies' bottles, in the sink according to the instructions. Soak the tomatoes in this for five minutes to kill the blight spores. Remove the tomatoes, then rinse them in clean water, pat them dry with paper towels and put them to ripen on the windowsills, or in drawers, or whatever you prefer. It sounds a bit drastic, Milton being a dilute bleach, but it does work. You may still lose a few where the spores have already penetrated the skins, but overall it is a good technique.

[Primrose]

I don't suppose a VERY mild version of bleach would work, would it? Or a very diluted solution of TCP ? Anybody got any ideas what other sterilising agents might work? I've got some Campden wine sterilising tablets left over from our winemaking days ????? I'll remember the Milton for next year but now probably don't have enough tomatoes left to justify buying a bottle.

[ken]

...I'm not sure I want to say anything about alternatives. I can just imagine the coroner saying, 'And who exactly was it who gave the lady this advice?' What i can say is that a bottle of Milton is like a lifetime's supply. I haven't needed to use it for a couple of years, but from memory the instruction is something like a capful in a gallon of water.

Also meant to say a thankyou to Johnboy for the tip about the research on tomato blight, which I'll try to keep an eye on.

[freddy]

I too have this 'go slow' blight. On another forum, members are reporting much the same. It seems quite widespread...