A short rant about blight
How dare this weather turn to rain. How dare it spell the beginning of a warm wet period. Doesn't the weather know we have tomatoes setting now? I can't stand to see another year's crop blighted. I WANT tomatoes. I'm seriously considering spending the rest of the day sewing some giant plastic bell jar together to keep them safe. I HATE this. Though I have to admit it is good weather for river swimming. Perhaps I'll console myself with a dip instead.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~42~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Please do NOT tell me we are going to have another blight disaster!!! Last year the farmers around me built huge pires of blighted potatoes, all crops were turned to ashes, including mine.
I have TENS of tomato plants including 8 for seed trials and some varieties I am testing for flavour and "sex appeal" and I WANT TO EAT MY TOMATOES! I am Italian and for me not having tomatoes rocket and basil in summer is simply not on. I have bought the fungicide and have been restraining from using it so far, but there are so many flowers and already some small fruits and I do not want to lose them, I'll have to spray them.
I think my rant is somewhat longer, apologies, but it comes from the heart (and the stomach!!)
Complain about this comment
Oh I understand! I stand over my tomatoes giving them motivation speeches. 'You must brace yourself for the next few weeks, you must be strong and ripen quickly. You must not be weak' Of course I look like an idiot, but still. So far, so good. But this muggy weather does not bode well. I think if we get blight again I'll consider moving to another country where I can be guaranteed a tomatoe crop.
Complain about this comment
I AM abroad and this does not help, although Belgium probably has the same rainfall as southern England (sometimes it feels worse, actually).
Actually last year I compared notes with my mum, who still lives in northern Italy, and she told me that even there the tomatoes were blighted and that's something. This year they are getting either scorched to tinders by the sun or devastated by horrid storms in consequence of the high temperatures so I do not know what's worse!!
Today here it's sunny and warm, so I'll prepare the fungicide solution and will decide later on - one of my dehlias has some powdery mildew on and I fear it's the prelude of worse things to come.
Complain about this comment
This is only my second year of growing tomatoes but I already have nightmares about turning up at the allotment to find that all has turned brown and rotten. It's a shame to see that you don't get used to it over time; perhaps in a couple of years I too will be giving the tomato plants stern lectures on how they must stand up to the blight better than their cowardly potato cousins...
I'm trying an experiment with one of the plants though- a local farmer recommended stripping every single leaf off once a few truces of fruit have begun to set, insisting that there is enough photosynthesis going on in the stem to allow the fruit to develop. The poor plant looks pathetic next to its verdant neighbours but the tomatoes seem to be developing just as well for now.
A quick question- I'm growing the heritage variety 'Cyril's Choice' and would love to save some seed for next year. Do tomatoes stay true to type or is it likely that theyl cross with other varieties on the same plot??
Complain about this comment
Sambo_bry,
what you suggest is a practice I follow every year, handed down by my mother's family, who were farmers, but I must warn you that it will not save the plant if blight is rampant in your area, because it attacks the stem as well as the leaves and the fruit. Last year I did this on all my plants (as usual) but I had to put them all in dusbin sacks to be taken away and incinerated.
What my great-uncle told me to do was actually to remove all the secondary leaves (the ones that grow in the nook of another leaf) and the big leaves whioch obviously do not have flowers on, because they only use nutrients without contributing to the fruit. I do not remember him telling me that I should strip all leaves. This is supposed to improve areation and stop any further growth of the plant once the flowers are out.
Regarding saving seeds, I honestly don't know. Last year I saved some S Marzano seeds from shop-bought tomatoes and grew them together with the seeds bought from the catalogue but since they were all blighted I could not test if there is a difference or not. They grew all right though, so they are not sterile like some claim. There's no harm in trying, is there?
Alys should be able to give us some words of wisdom on this!!
Complain about this comment
Hi Alys
It looks like our tomatoes and potatoes have the first signs of the dreaded blight this weekend. At least we have some tomatoes in the greenhouse which I hope will be okay.
Complain about this comment
Hi Alys
Remember those potatoes in the contaminated manure. Well I left them to grow on to see what would happen and in any case delay the should we, should we not eat them. Initially only some of the potatoes were affected but gradually all were affected. Things seem to improve and the potatoes tried to grow and produced lots of top growth although never looked quite as they should. A few people have looked at them, photographed them, taken video of them and the general opinion now is that they should be safe to eat. Well eating is one thing enjoying them something totally different. Anyhow all have now succumbed to blight. What a season!
Complain about this comment
I've got blight, both at home on my Sebastopol and on the Millefleur at work. I got so angry I actually kicked a wall and my lovely neighbour Sue had to come out to find out what all the bother was. She was far more philosophical about the whole thing, reminded me I had a bumper crop of apples and more radishes than her and went inside. Still smarting from the whole injustice of though. I HAD lots of toms on those plants. Hmmph, am moving somewhere hot (as at least if you get blight you'd get some ripe toms first). Have a plan for next year though . . . .
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS