Kitchen Garden Forum

To ad to my gardening woes this year, my lovely Sungold tomatoes have not fared so well . . . I can live with that . . . however, all OK yesterday, went in the garden this evening after a shower and:



To say I'm dismayed will be putting it mildly, over 36 hour? Whats gone wrong, a solution, and what of next year? I grow in fresh grow bags each year, I water and feed regularly . . .

Enough to put any one off?

CJS

Bordeaux mixture.

No one got any suggestions . . . My best guess is tomato blight, though never seen it before, have Googled it, seems like the pics are similar, nothing can be don?

Looks like blight to me but it has struck very quickly. There doesn't seem to be that much about your way but I can't think of anything else.
http://www.potato.org.uk/department/kno ... d=04&em=09

Hi CJS.

As said, it's blight. I've suffered every year with this, until now. Bordeaux mixture should certainly help, as it did with me this year.

CJS there are some blight resistent varieties you could try. There is also a blight early warning system but it didn't work for Westi this year.

Thanks for the replies, this will be my 5th year growing Sungold outside, first time with any problems . . . I have a problem with tomatoes, flavour, even grown at home, I struggle with the flavour of other varieties? Its the sharp/sweet flavour that does it for me.

Mmm . . . the web says, blight is not so much of a problem in a green house, it works like a screen? . . . I have the green house, I have tried toms in there, they dont do as well as the same plants outside in my suntrap corner . . .

Sounds like 50-50 next year, half in the GH and half outside . . . I cant give up on Sungold, it was this variety that got me into gardening in the first place, along with listening to an enthusiastic Bob Flowerdew.

Its strange, I have a a couple of tomato plants right beside the affected Sungolds, they are an old variety called 'Pineapple', large beef type, I grow them for the fun of it. I had single fruits to 2lb in weight last year, looks like a couple are going that way again . . . No sign of blight? I tried them in the greenhouse both last year and this . . . they put on loads of height growth, but the fruit is small by comparison to the outside ones?

Ho-hum, not been a good year, for garden, my Hazel is not so good, big day at the Hospital tomorrow . . . and my old bones are screaming 'enough' sometimes . . . Still we go on, harvested the onions the other day, I'm not sure how to treat them? so I put them in seed trays on the bench in the GH to dry out . . . seemed right?

Given up on the Kevedon Stringless runner beans, they go tough very quickly, grow curly, so are difficult to prepare!!! Moonlight are great, eating and freezing . . . wont be doing so many beans next year, 12 sticks is enough for us, free up some space for other things.

See how things pan out over winter for us both???????

CJS

Best wishes for Hazel's day at the hospital tomorrow, hoping next year is better for you both and your Tom's

Morning CJS, my best wishes to Hazel also.

Gardening is a funny old thing, you just think you are getting to grips with it, then you get a bad year come along.
But the good bits always seem to outweigh the bad bits.

Hi again CJS.

I too grow Sungold, and find it the most flavoursome tomato I've ever tasted. The first time I grew them was last year, in the greenhouse. So, this year I thought I'd try some outdoors as well. I've found that the outdoor ones don't taste as good. Strange, as many folks say that outdoor ones taste better

Cheers...Freddy.

We used to grow tomatoes on the plot outside and get a great crop but now all plots on the site are cultivated we are no longer able to succeed with tomatoes outside and blight does manage to affect the tomatoes in our plot greenhouse too. We have to leave the door closed which isn't ideal.

We stick to growing our tomatoes in our garden or garden greenhouse.

As for the blight warning - it does seem a bit like trying to bolt the door after the horse has bolted.

. . . ? once you have blight in the garden, is that it, there for ever, cant get rid?

CJS

My advice would be don't compost the diseased plants and don't plant them in the same place for a while CJS, lots of damp and humidity tends to bring it on. Plant them earlly and hope for lots of sunshine to ripen them before the weather changes.

Burn every bit of diseased tomatoes and all potato haulm.
Use Bordeaux mixture, diluted, as a preventative spray next year, it gets washed off by rain, which also brings in windblown spores, so respray to keep that blue-gray dusty blush.

Funny enough my Sungold haven't been blighted. They were put in away from the rest as I ran out of room. They are beside the neighbours compost bin which has lots of stuff growing in it which I am thinking may have sheltered them from the spores maybe. I was going to cut it back to let more light through to ripen them but am just going to leave them get on with it. (Fingers crossed)

Westi