Kitchen Garden Forum

Blight free here so far, despite a blight warning, but I have sprayed as a precaution. Can anybody answer this question though, just in case it does hit me.

If I pick tomatoes from a blight affected plant early, wash them and let them ripen indoors or in my mini plastic greenhouse (away from any blight spores), do they have a better chance of surviving than if I wash them, put them on a tray outdoors in the sunshine?

I'm trying to understand whether the blight spores attack the fruit from the outside or whether they are systemic and once the plant is affected, the disease is drawn up into the fruit internally.

Last year we had blight on tomatoes in the greenhouse - as I noticed any affected leaves I removed them and it stopped it spreading sufficiently to ripen the tomatoes on the plant. No blight here yet either.

I wonder if we have ablight free year does it cut down the chances of blight next year?

I think it can be transferred by hand, eg if you pull outdoor blight affected plants and burn them be sure to wash hands thoroughly before touching those in the greenhouse.
Found this link with interesting preventive suggestions

http://www.infonet-biovision.org/defaul ... /pests#442

Further to Nature Babes comments I would suggest that if you are unlucky enough to have to pull an outdoor crop of Tomatoes due to blight I would suggest that a complete change of clothes would be very appropriate as well as washing hands, face and hair. Before you enter your greenhouse a change of footwear or clean the footwear thoroughly before doing anything.
On the other hand if you have a set of overalls and you use latex or vinyl gloves which can be washed or can be disposed of so much the better.
When disposing of plants all foliage should be immediately put into plastic bags and sealed, using the most direct route to the bag, prior to burning. In other words take the bag to the plant and not the other way round. Do not carry out this task if there is much wind about for obvious reasons.
Make sure that your bonfire is going well before putting the plastic bags on the fire and all foliage is thoroughly burnt!
JB.