tomatoes

[david71]

Is there any such thing as a blight resistant tomato and , if so, have you any experience of growing it ?

many thanks

David71

[Primrose]

Somebody on here recommended Ferline F1 last year which are supposed to be blight resistant and I'm growing them for the first time this summer. I must say, I'm impressed with their strong foliage and the number of tomatoes they're bearing and I'm waiting to see what the flavour is like. . The seeds were quite expensive (8 in a packet and only 7 germinated) but I'm spraying them with Dithane anyway, along with my other varieties just in case, as they're only recommended as blight resistant and not blight proof. (Don't think there is any such thing as a blight proof tomato. If a genetically modified variety is produced this may cause me to review my view of genetically modified crops!). Last year I found that my tumbling yellow variety and Sungold which were in a different section of the garden did get a little blight but I didn't lose any fruit. I don't know whether this was a result of spraying or just good fortune. I think it makes a big difference to be growing tomatoes in a garden where nobody around is growing them and blight spores are not so easily spread, which may provide a certain protection. I suspect that you're on a hiding to nothing if lots of people are growing them on an allotment and nobody is spraying to provide protection.

[david71]

Thank you Primrose, can you tell me who markets Ferline ? I have grown tumbling tom this year with very disappointing results. I don't think they were affected by blight but the leaves have died off and the fruits are very sparse. My other varieties, Alicante and moneymaker have done quite well.

[Primrose]

I seem to remember I got them from Thompson & Morgan, about £2.99 for eight seeds. They're an F1 variety and although I know any saved seeds will not come true, I'm going to save a few anyway, even if I grow just one plant from them next year, to see what happens, as they seem to be by far the most healthy looking and fruitful of all my tomatoes this year. I often break some of the traditional gardening rules anyway. I have two tomato plants growing from sideshoots I snapped out which I hope will be late producers, and one very healthy little plant bearing tomatoes from the top of a Gardeners Delight plant which a squirrel snapped off while climbing up its post. Nothing gets wasted in this tightly packed garden - it's always crammed in somewhere as I have a huge guilt complex about wasting food producing plants.

[Primrose]

I've since noticed that Mr. Fothergill's are selling Feline tomato seeds at £2.99 for 15 seeds which is less expensive than Thompson & Morgan, so it obviously pays to shop around, especially as prices are always going up (or the number of seeds in the packet going down) and tomato seeds store for ages if kept in cool dry conditions.

[Geoff]

Wallis £1.25 / 15 or £1.98 / 30

[david71]

Thanks to Primrose and geoff. I will try this variety next year

david71

[CatrinaRusher]

I have sadly today destroyed 12 Ferline F1 tomato plants as blight is running riot through our allotment and my back garden in Oxfordshire for the second year running. I am trying to protect the Bejbino plants as much as possible but I think they have had it too.
The Ferline F1 plants were monsters with plenty of fruit on the way so I am very disappointed. As a previous poster mentioned – they are resistant, not proof – so won’t be completely safe.
I should imagine growing Ferline F1 under glass or shelter may be more successful. I grow organically so using a fungicide spray such as Dithane is not an option for me. We are not allowed glass on the allotment either - so I think I will be making a decision this winter to invest in a small polytunnel or give up on tomatoes for a few years.
Back to the plot tonight to cut down the potato haulms - but good luck with your toms!

[Primrose]

Catrina - that's so disappointing for you as I'm really impressed with my Ferlines in the first year of growing them. They are by far the biggest fruiting and healthiest of all my varieties but I suspect that even with a blight resistant variety, if the diease is rife all around an allotment, they will go down with the rest. Like you, I prefer to grow organically but tomatoes are too big a crop in this household to be lost, and having lost two entire crops in earlier years, I now swallow my principles in this regard and spray, but wash the fruit well after I've picked it.

[Snip]

This is my first ever note on web forum and also my first ever big year with veg growing. I have tried growing tomatoes for the second year running. The first year I interspersed them in my herb bed and they all got blight. This year I had a rearrange in the garden and now have a 4 raised bed crop rotation scheme. Brand new top soil, sunny site. I have no green house so I need to grow outdoor varieties. Well they all got blight again. My question is quite simple as I am going to rotate my crops, and probably not waste the energy on trying to grow tomoatoes again, do I need to remove all the soil or because it will be 4 years before a similar crop will be grown in there again can I just carry on as if nothing has happened?

OK exam question typed can anyone help with the answer?

[Primrose]

Not sure if this will completely answer your question but I grow my tomatoes in a long border, swapping their locations with climbing beans in alternate years. The year after I lost all my tomatoes with blight I grew beans there. The year after that I grew tomatoes again and they were fine. There is probably a slight overlap in the middle of the border, where, if I grow extra tomatoes one year, a few of them will end up being in the same soil as the previous year. Others may say differently but I suspect that if you quickly remove and destroy all the blighted foliage and don't compost it so that eventually the material will be returned to your growing beds, you will probably be fine. The alternative, of course, is to spray against blight.

[Snip]

That does help thank you. I removed all the plants and took them straight to the tip so nothing at all went in the compost and I did this within 2 days of them getting it. I actually removed some healthy ones as well as I was off on my hols for 2 weeks and couldn't keep an eye on them. They won't be grown in the same spot if at all for at leats 4 years so by the sounds of it I am quite safe.

Many thanks.

[alan refail]

Hi Snip and welcome to the forum.

Whether you get blight on your outdoor tomatoes has very little to do with where you grow/rotate, I understand. Most of the spores are airborne from quite long distances - see http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profiles08 ... blight.asp

The only way to prevent it is to spray before it appears - and this is an "organic" gardener saying that

[macmac]

Welcome Snip,don't give up growing tomatoes,we've grown them for nearly 30 years and have only lost them all for 3 seasons. yes two of those were the last two years but this year we've managed quite a few and next year who knows?
There's always something every year but then there's always a glut of something unexpected,my OH has picked 139 indoor cucumbers from two plants and he's still picking a couple of years ago we got red spider mite in the greenhouse and barely picked any.I take the view that if you lose something one year you look forward to it all the more the next year
Happy growing

[Primrose]

Snip, I too would encourage you not to give up on growing tomatoes as next year may be completely different. They're such a rewarding crop to have, especially as it's often difficult to get decent tasting varieties from a supermarket. I do believe spraying is the answer here - and yes, like Alan Refail, I'm an organic gardener at heart too. When you consider all the care and attention you give you plants in the early stages, it's heartbreaking to lose them just as they start cropping. Tomato blight has just arrived in my garden on a few tomato leaves but I started spraying once a week around mid July when the weather started to look "Blighty". My first truss of tomatoes were smallish then but so far, having removed the odd affected parts of leaves, all my plants are still looking fine.