Tomato Blight ? Help needed

Hi all, im new to this sight and gardening so please be gentle !

I am certain that one of my tomato plants has tomato blight, we brough them as small plants and orginally put them in grow bags in a small plastic green house and almost immediatly the leave begam to doscolour and looked like someting was eating them.

We took them out of the grow bags and potteed them and put them in our garden on gravel. They grew nicely but when the tomatoes grew they quickly became rotten and the leave kept on dying, some has white spots, one looked rusty.

We were told to use bayer bug spray which never worked to be honest and we never asctually saw any black or white fly on them.

Iv cut the one that was mostly affected right down and it has started to re grow a new shoot form the bottom which looks ok ( it about an inch at the moment), but i dont know how to care for it now or if i should bother growing it at all ? Since all the other crop rotten which im assuming is tomatoe blight ?

We have 3 other plants that are growing in pots on the gravel and dont seem affected but the tomatos are growing all mis shapen, will these ripen and are they going to be safe to eat ?

Abit long i know, but i appreciate your help xx

 

Hi Looby.
Sorry to hear of your tomato problems
If you search the forum you will find plenty of imformation re blight, But as a starting point please except this link
http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/tomato-blight-pictures-23437.html?t=23437
to a thread I posted awhile back with some blight pictures.
Bad news is if it is blight then the only real solution is to destroy all your tomatoes.
There are ways you can resist an attack but its sad news when you have it.
Plenty of forum members have lost tomatoes this year and I lost loads last.
Hope this is of some help.
There are loads of knowledge available here if you want more info
robert

 

Hi,

doesn't sound like blight as that shows itself with black spots on the leaves and stems.

If its distorted growth then I would assume it has picked up some weed killer along the way - either through spray drift or in the compost.

 

Now you mention it, I remember there has been some carry on with some manure that has been sold in garden centres, containing residue of that nasty residual herbicide that has since been banned.

 

Theres only black spots on the leaves after the white spots have turned into holes IYSWIM, theres no blackening of the branches either. The compost is what has been taken form the grow bags which they were originally in.

But its all confusing being a new time grower, its put my other half right off growing but im determined to continue.

I really appreciate any advice given.

 

There are always setbacks, be it in gardening or anything else. When a setback happens, we have a choice. We can learn from it or we can give up.

Whenever I give a pep talk to friends who are ready to give something up after a bout of bad luck, it goes like this:

Me: Were you born with the ability to walk?
Them: No of course not.
Me: I suppose the first time you tried, you fell over?
Them: I suppose so, I can't remember.
Me: I suppose the second time you tried you fell over, and the third and the fourth, and so on?
Them: Yeah I suppose.
Me: But no matter how many times you fell, you maybe cried for a minute, then you got back up for another go, and then one day you cracked it?
Them: Well yeah of course, that's how it goes.

At this point they usually see what I'm driving at. It usually works.

 

Thats great, im determined to carry on as i and my little girl loves it.

 

Your tomato problems sound a bit weird Loubylou and not at all like blight.
I would be very suspicious of the compost they are in - even if it did come from a garden centre. I know there have been problems this year with compost contaminated with weedkiller. Bad luck if it has happened to you.
We're into September now and I don't think there is much hope of you getting tomatoes now.
I would get rid of the lot. Put it in the councils compost bin and not on your own compost heap.
But don't loose heart. Start afresh next year and good luck.

 

I think Blight, untreated (Bug Killer won't do, you'd need to use a specific Blight treatment) would have finished off your plants and all their fruit turned to mush in under a month. So personally I doubt it is blight (a photo would be a big help in diagnosing the problem though)

I reckon from your description that there were several different issues. All pretty disheartening really :(

My suggestion is that you stay around here and ask (next year) as you see problems arising. Apart from the fact that asking 3 gardeners you'll get 4 opinions! it should help to get you some good advice.

"Iv cut the one that was mostly affected right down and it has started to re grow a new shoot form the bottom which looks ok ( it about an inch at the moment), but i dont know how to care for it now or if i should bother growing it at all ? "

It aint going to make it (unless it already has fruit on it that is marble size or bigger). If not then cut your losses I'm afraid. Cooler nights, and frosts in a month or two, will prevent it doing enough to ripen fruit this year.

"We have 3 other plants that are growing in pots on the gravel and dont seem affected"

You would be pretty lucky for a Blight infestation to only strike one plant. Its pretty infectious ...

"but the tomatos are growing all mis shapen"

I agree with others that it sounds like herbicide damage :(