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tomato blight
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Message 1.Â
Posted by daisymay2 (U7288760) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
aftrnoon all. just to put you in the picture, on my allotment we always get tomatoe blight . but thought i would give it another go. would like to make tomato sauces. i have beefsteak, moneymaker, manmande. and sunny baby. what can i do to stop this promblem many thanks daisy
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Message 2
Posted by Oldends (U13875463) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
Pray! If that doesn't work, there are some ideas here...
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Message 3
Posted by daisymay2 (U7288760) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
thanks oldends, some good advice on the site ,i never know before
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Message 4
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
The odds are you can't actually stop fungal problems like blight. The spores travel in the air and are everywhere. There's no escaping them. There are ways to work against the damage they do:
(1) Sufficient space - more the better, but at least 3 feet - between plants to allow plenty of air circulation;
(2) Trim the plants to a couple of leaders to cut down on the amount of foliage and allow air circulation "inside" the plant;
(3) Remove the lower branches to keep a constant foot to eighteen inches between the ground and the lowest branch. Fungal spores will drop from the leaves to the ground and, when watering, can splash back up onto the plant and reinfect;
(4) Never wet the leaves (except as I describe below) more than you have to, and definitely not at night;
(4) Preventive spraying. Once the plant has a blight fungus, you can't actually kill it off except by removing affected leaves. There's no "cure", per se. The best you can do is keep the spores off the actual leaves as long as possible.
Spraying coats the leaves, meaning the fungal spores will settle on the leaf but not actually come in contact with it.
Copper spray was always the traditional anti-fungal treatment. Technically it's organic but I don't like it. It might be naturally occurring but it's a metal that's going to accumulate in your soil. Every Italian gardener still uses it. You see tomatoes with bright blue leaves all over the place here.
It's said that milk sprayed on leaves has anti-fungal properties but there's no scientific evidence to support it.
The very best preventive spray I've come across is a chemical, but so benign that many organic growers use it. For one thing, it's harmless to bees. It's marketed variously as Daconil, Bravo, and some other names. Its active constituent, the important part, is chlorothalonil. It's used as an anti-fungal on all sorts of things, including lawns, but for tomatoes you need it in a 29% solution in the container that's bought. You then dilute it. Any less than a 29% solution and it won't work.
I used to use it in Australia. It's not available here in Italy in domestic quantities, sadly, so I just take my chances with blight.
Regardless, if you go the preventive spraying route, it should be started not long after the plants are in the ground. As I said, once the spores settle on the plant, there's no getting rid of them. -
Message 5
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
Gee, I doubled up on some of the things mentioned on the site Oldends linked to. The spray they recommend is a basic copper spray. I don't like the stuff.
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Message 6
Posted by yipeekiyeah (U14278245) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
What about Bordeaux mixture? I have it but haven't used it yet...Italophile will be able to tell you more about it and whether he recommends it or not.
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Message 7
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
Well, bordeaux is a mixture of copper sulphate and hydrated lime. More expensive than the basic copper spray but no more effective.
The thing is, "blight" can be a generic term. There's early blight and late blight, but various other tomato ailments get called blight, too. There are tomato varieties available that are bred to be disease-resistant. Which doesn't mean disease-PROOF. They can get whatever disease they're resistant to but will cope a bit better than non-resistant varieties. Meaning they will live a bit longer. These varieties are usually resistant to soil-borne diseases.
Last I heard, though, there weren't any varieties resistant to early or late blight. -
Message 8
Posted by yipeekiyeah (U14278245) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
Can it only be used on dormant plants Italophile?
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Message 9
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
Bordeaux mixture? No, it can be used whenever spraying is appropriate regardless.
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Message 10
Posted by yipeekiyeah (U14278245) on Monday, 2nd May 2011
Yeah, cheers Italophile.
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Message 11
Posted by rini (U2365378) on Tuesday, 3rd May 2011
Have you considered growing them in a polytunnel? A relative in Somerset put up a tunnel last year and got a bumper crop of toms - no blight for the first time. Here in the North East we have to grow toms under cover but in a 'bad' blight year one has to be very careful regarding keeping doors closed and putting fine netting in openings. Homegrown toms are gorgeous but a lot of work, in my opinion.
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Message 12
Posted by daisymay2 (U7288760) on Tuesday, 3rd May 2011
hi all a big thank you too everyone, i know it isnt a easy problem, i had a idea what if i make a cage , we have quite a lot on our plot . i also have a walk in fruit cage covered by builders netting , or maybe i can use fleece to cover the whole tomato patch sorry to waffle on ,but once i get an idea its all sytems go. many thanks all daisy
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Message 13
Posted by 4smilingcat6 (U14338727) on Tuesday, 3rd May 2011
Not much more to add. Copper based fungicides will give a certain amount of protection but it`s preventative,not curative. That basically means spray before any blight is seen.
Italophile provided an excellent reply and I would agree that the more you can do to keep the micro climate around your plants at an optimum level the better -
Message 14
Posted by pjgolf (U2469936) on Tuesday, 3rd May 2011
Excellent reply Italophile. Really good info. Thanx.
PJ -
Message 15
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Wednesday, 4th May 2011
Yes, it's too late to start spraying once the symptoms are showing on the plant. If you're going to spray, start not long after the toms are planted out and re-spray every week or 10 days. Or after rain. Rain obviously washes the coating from the leaves.
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Message 16
Posted by daisymay2 (U7288760) on Wednesday, 4th May 2011
thanks again everyone, i didnt know this was such an interesting topic ,a bit complicated but you guys are keeping well in
formed ,is it ok to cook tomatoe if they have
got blight, i will be making lots of sauces, a keen cook of italian food
so i will go over this again i need to get funguside with bronze is that right many thanks everyone daisy -
Message 17
Posted by Italophile (U12516505) on Wednesday, 4th May 2011
Daisy, "blight" gets used as a generic term for tomato fungal problems. There are two actual blights - Early Blight and Late Blight.
Here's a photo of a leaf with Early Blight. It's much more common than Late Blight:
It will eventually spread to the tomato itself but it takes quite a while. You can cook with tomatoes from a plant that has Early Blight.
Here's Late Blight in action and it's ugly:
Food scientists say you shouldn't cook with tomatoes from a Late Blight-affected plant. But you don't often see true Late Blight in domestic gardens. I've only ever seen it once in about 25 years.
If you see fungal problems with your plants, and you're bothered, you can always harvest your toms early and ripen them inside in a warm spot. A kitchen bench is ideal. As long as they have started to turn from that dark unripe green to the lighter green in the ripening process, they will ripen to red.
The spray you're talking about is a copper-based spray. You'll find it at all garden centres.
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