Roy Bailey wrote:
In article , Fred
writes
Hello,

I'm in the Midlands. Has anyone suffered from blight (tomato or
potato) this year?

A friend said he lost his tomatoes. he went away for a weekend and
when he came back they had gone. Could that have been blight?

Almost certainly, if the fruit started turning brown instead of ripening.

This happened to my plants, which are growing outside, and I Googled to
find the answer. Firstly, spraying with Bordeaux mixture (copper
sulphate and lime) early on in the season may prevent it.

Secondly, if you have the blight, remove all brown leaves and browning
fruit (and burn them - don't compost them), and spray the plant each day
for a week with a solution of Epsom salts.

I followed this routine and, while some of the fruit is still turning
brown, I have saved a lot of it. The plants are of about four different
varieties, and the cherry and plum varieties seemed to fare worse than
the Alicante and Moneymaker.

I have been looking after my neighbours' greenhouse while they are on
holiday, and their crop turned brown with blight almost overnight. The
damp conditions made it worse.

My wife has removed the brown bits from a lot of the unripe fruit and
used it in a variety of ways, but green tomato chutney has not yet been
necessary.

Roy.
I live in North Staffordshire and have had blight here, almost certainly
that is what you have had. When you store your spuds throw out any
suspect, then periodically turn them out (I assume you will store them
in sacks) and remove more that have bound to have rotted. You will know
if any are going of just give the open sack a good sniff, yuck.
Subscribe to bligh****ch.co.uk they will send you periodic email telling
you if there is or likely to be blight in your area. To lated for this
year but should help next season.


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