"jane" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:45:14 GMT, "Alan Holmes"
wrote:

~
~A number of my tomatoes have developed some sort of fungus, the leaves
have
~started to change colour and some of the fruit are covered with fine
white
~stuff, I have dug themall out and put them in the dustbin rather than on
the
~compost heap.
~
I hate to say this but that sounds like late blight... if the blighted
fruit stay in humid conditions then they rapidly go mouldy, with white
fluffy hairs.

Well it certainly has been humid around here for a while, all the rain we've
had!

We've had nine Smith periods in the last 14 days... perfect
conditions.

I wonder what a 'smith period' is?

Last year I bought some tom plants from a car boot and they suffered from
~the same problem, which spread to the plants I had grown from seed, the
toms
~in the greenhouse were fine, although when I stopped watering them the
~leaves there started to go a funny colour, which I put down to the fact
that
~they were dying off anyway.
~
~So what is the answer to this problem?
It's the weather. It gets warm and humid, the airborne spores
germinate, bye bye tomatoes and potatoes. Indoors offers a bit of
protection.

You have worried me about the potatoes, they seem to be sufferng in the same
way, but I had put that down to it being the end of the season and that they
were dying normally.

~I don't want to lose the chance of growing my own, I much prefer them to
the
~rubbish which is on sale in supermarkets.

Burn them (or bin them) and grow in another location next year. And
watch for blight warnings

I had already put them in the bin, and the dustman will be here tomorrow to
take them away.

(Register on http://www.bligh****ch.co.uk)

Spray if you're comfortable with doing so (Dithane, Bordeaux mixture)
though the latter is only preventative, not curative. Not sure about
Dithane.)

I'll have to consider those ideas.

Have you got photos?

Never thought to take photos, but then I'm a bit backward!

Alan

jane

Chiltern Hills, 140m above sea level.

Please remove onmaps from replies, thanks!