Tomato Growing Thread 2022

Hi Pete...it possibly is EB...heaven knows I've got just about everything else.

Would it be worth removing any brown leaves?

 

Thanks John...will make a start, though I don't think I can remove them all as there will be no leaves left on the plants.

 

Early Blight? .... it certainly looks Fungal. If Blight , removal of leaves, growing tip would delay more infection surely ? Have we got a research scientist who would recognise the many symptoms? What is good is that growers aren't waiting for diagnosis but acting immediately!!! I hope I would!

 

Hi @Sheps EB is different from late blight, it doesn't generally kill the plant but does set you back depending on how severe. Cutting off the infected leaves is a good idea. I have in the past given the worst plants affected extra nitrogen fertilizer to encourage new leaf growth but others might not agree. Just don't overdo it if you do as this can be counter productive. Hopefully some good weather they will bounce back.

 

Just had a search in 'fungal diseases in tomatoes' and got very worried! Prime worry was why I wasn't getting any diseases!! What was interesting was that there were varieties which were more susceptible. Generally, older varieties being grown to try to get the 'old' taste. This seems logical as I'm sure Tom breeders would be trying to eradicate certain diseases such as blight. Also getting rid of infected foliage was important ( saw one picture which seemed to show a flame thrower being utilised, really depressing, if not extremely dangerous and ultimately terminal!) Obviously most gardeners are using clean, new compost presumed to be totally 'clean', but what about composts containing the ubiquitous 'green waste', and how many of us mix our garden compost into our mixtures? A significant fact I read was that plants can, and are, infected from the garden soil through their roots! Thus infection in a greenhouse from which the soil has been cleared is still a possible problem? And I've been blaming the Whitefly!!! Seriously, reading the Internet is very worrying!

 

@JWK what ratio of aspirin to water are you using, John...might give this a try.

 

If you want to be appraised of conditions conducive to blight lookup hutton criteria and pop your email address into blightwatch.co.uk to get warnings. I got given a Wi-Fi weather station which helps inform on humidity. Plus keep to you're ears open for warnings across other (local) gardeners. It moves fast though across a wide area on the wind.

 

@JWK thanks very much, John...will definitely give it a go.

 

@Sheps You can also apply it as a root drench too. The way it works, as the theory goes, is the salicylic acid which aspirin breaks down into with water is supposed to invoke a response in the plants natural defence mechanism which is also a salicylic response rather than it needed on leaves to protect them. It doesn't remove or cure disease but it invokes the plant to gear up its defence mechanism to disease thereby increasing its resistance apparently. I'd be careful not to go overboard in dosage though and the difficulty is knowing how much salicylic acid is produced in the breakdown of aspirin and how much is absorbed through a root drench. You would of course also be watering the plants too :-)

 

I don't normally visit the edible sections but I started some Tamarillos last year and didn't look after them but one survived and is about 12 inches tall ...


And I found this tomato growing out of a Gazania that was given to me, but have no idea what type it is ...

 

@Victoria let's hope the tomato bears fruit then we might be able to hazard a guess of what it is :-)

 

Great gardening Victoria!