My toms are dying....

Can anybody tell my what has happened to my toms? This seems to have happened overnight.

 

Ive read up on blight and it seems to be that , what do I do guys , burn them? I have two other unaffected plants in a trough, how can I protect these?
Gutted, my toms were looking really good as well.

 

I work in a garden for a guy who has a greenhouse and is very much into growing fruit and vegetables ... he even has grape vines growing in large pots

from what I have seen this year, if I were to grow tomatoes, I would definately go for the small cherry tomatoes that grow in hanging pots ... he has several of the species called 'hundreds and thousands' and they look very healthy with loads of tomatoes .... very tasty aswell, especially if you let them ripen fully before harvesting

he also has the normal tomatoes, but they look like too much hard work ... worked there last saturday morning and he was phaffing and cursing in his greenhouse complaining that the tomatoes leaves were curling and was spraying all sorts of stuff

these are the ones that he has that seem to produce loads and always look good:

Tomato Hundreds and Thousands Seeds, The most prolific tomato Vegetable Seeds

 

To add to the excellent advice given by Shiney, I'd suggest that you subscribe to the free Blight Watch service this will provide automated emails when blight has been spotted or is likely in your local area. You can then spray the plants with a protective fungicide. Too late for this year's crop though

Blightwatch.co.uk - the essential service for professional potato growers

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I've chopped the plants and put them into the compost, they will be OK in the compost wont they?

 

No, no, no! burn them! A home compost heap will NEVER produce the heat required to kill the blight spores and I have my doubts about commercial composting too!

If I detect blight in either my toms or spuds, it's the incinerator time!

 

Don`t even burn them or put them out in the council green bin. Bag them up and put them out as general waste.

 

Do as Vince and Shiney says and get them out of the compost asap and burm everything.Composting will not kill the spores as have been said.We had the same problem two years straight running the other year and lost all our plants plus all the fruit.Even the green ones which we thought were ok turned out to be blighted as well so for all that effort we got zilch

Last year at home we grew two of the new blight resistant ones}Ferline,can't remember the other variety} and had a fantastic crop so this year we are trying them back at the allotment and touch wood they are ok up to yet so whatever you do please don't get too disheartened and try again next year with blight resistant seeds...

 

Spray your unaffected plants with a copper spray.
Something like bordeaux mixture

It does work against blight, but a lot of people these days dont like using it.

 

Burning the plants does NOT get rid of all the spores, the hot air created will only carry them further afield.:wallbang:

 

Hi robgil.

I hate to say this, but you're probably now going to need to get rid of all your compost in the same manner. It's probably infected with blight spores. I would also advise disinfecting your compost bin (assuming that's where the compost is).

Cheers...Freddy.

 

I don`t think it will be that bad Freddy, blight can only survive on green material. HOWEVER, if it is not bagged and disposed of, it could still do lots of damage this season.:(

 

Hi there Dai.

I bow to your expertise, but, I did hear that blight spores can survive in the ground, not so? With this in mind, it seemed prudent to disinfect his (assumed) compost bin.

Cheers...Freddy.

 

No Freddy, they will not overwinter in the ground, they can only survive on green tissue. However, other diseases can overwinter in the soil, so it doesn`t hurt to disinfect from time to time.