Jeff Layman wrote:

But what a waste of time, especially with the lousy "summer". The
outside GD got blight a couple of weeks ago and I've dumped the plants
in the compost bin. Nice lot of green tomato chutney though! One of
the plants inside the greenhouse is just starting to show blight, so
I'll cut those down in the next day or so. And the tomatoes I've had so
far? Not a patch on the GD I remember for taste, and a lot bigger too.
My neighbour had some of my spare plants, and had bought some GD
plants separately. No difference between them AFAICT. What is going on
with GD?

Yes, our Gardener's Delight seem to be bigger and less tasty this
year, in fact difficult to differentiate from other varieties.

--
Chris Green

In article ,
shazzbat wrote:
"harry" wrote in message
...

Tomato material is now being segregated for disposal away from the
garden. I'd burn it, but the guy two doors away is an arse about
smoke.

Waste of time.The spores are everywhere. It is the temperature/
humidity triggers it. I just compost mine even if blighted. Don't
have any more problems than average..

Spot on. I did the same for 20 years.

The only things that you need to burn are those with durable spores,
where the transmission is through the soil. And it doesn't help
for those, because there are always enough spores left in the soil
to restart the problem :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"harry" wrote in message
...
On Sep 11, 10:38 pm, wrote:
On Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:19:39 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:





"Pete C" wrote .

Not been to allotment for a few days. Went this morning expecting to
pick a
lot of toms. A sad sight met my eyes, all tom plants dead/dying and
fruit
rotting! A wander around the site showed similar on almost every plot.
One
lady said she thought there was a cold night last week.....but frost? Am
depressed....all that hard work wasted.

Not frost but Blight, everyone on our site has lost all their Toms except
us, again. Must really **** them off. I spray ours with Bordeaux Mixture
and
have done it twice so far and we also only grow Blight resistant
varieties.
(Ferline, Fantasio and Legend)
I noticed at RHS Wisley this week they spray all their potatoes with BM
too
but a sign beside them said " Sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture which will
shortly be taken off the market" for goodness sake is this a policy
designed
to stop us growing any food ourselves. And yes we have stocked up.

Has just kicked in here too. However, I have made two 5 kg batches of
green tomato chutney before the blight showed.

Tomato material is now being segregated for disposal away from the
garden. I'd burn it, but the guy two doors away is an arse about
smoke.

Regards
JonH
Also to the west of London.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Waste of time.The spores are everywhere. It is the temperature/
humidity triggers it. I just compost mine even if blighted. Don't
have any more problems than average..

You can always register with fight against blight/bligh****ch. You tell it
your postcode and how many acres!! of spuds you're growing, and it gives you
a warning if blight has struck your area, or if there's a near miss or full
smith period.

Telling it you're growing 0.1 acres makes it work.

Steve

shazzbat wrote:
You can always register with fight against blight/bligh****ch. You tell it
your postcode and how many acres!! of spuds you're growing, and it gives you
a warning if blight has struck your area, or if there's a near miss or full
smith period.

I found the blight watch alerts weren't very useful, they didn't come in in
my area till after everyone on the allotment had lost their tomatoes.

And, let's be fair - if you get the alert, what are you going to do?

I have been confused whether to leave the greenhouse door open for air flow,
or if that will let spores in ... both greenhouses have been decimated,
anyhow. :-(

Jeff Layman wrote:
My neighbour had some of my spare plants, and had bought some GD
plants separately. No difference between them AFAICT. What is going on
with GD?

An interesting point. My GD so far this year haven't been the delicious
little morsels that I got last year!

JonH wrote

"Bob Hobden" wrote:

"Pete C" wrote .

Not been to allotment for a few days. Went this morning expecting to pick
a
lot of toms. A sad sight met my eyes, all tom plants dead/dying and fruit
rotting! A wander around the site showed similar on almost every plot.
One
lady said she thought there was a cold night last week.....but frost? Am
depressed....all that hard work wasted.

Not frost but Blight, everyone on our site has lost all their Toms except
us, again. Must really **** them off. I spray ours with Bordeaux Mixture
and
have done it twice so far and we also only grow Blight resistant
varieties.
(Ferline, Fantasio and Legend)
I noticed at RHS Wisley this week they spray all their potatoes with BM
too
but a sign beside them said " Sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture which will
shortly be taken off the market" for goodness sake is this a policy
designed
to stop us growing any food ourselves. And yes we have stocked up.


Has just kicked in here too. However, I have made two 5 kg batches of
green tomato chutney before the blight showed.

Tomato material is now being segregated for disposal away from the
garden. I'd burn it, but the guy two doors away is an arse about
smoke.


We used to make such things and two years down the line throw it away
because we don't eat it, a bit like blackcurrant jam. That is why we have
replaced the currant bushes with cherry trees.
We just throw it all on the compost heap, green toms and all, it won't cause
any infection provided it rots.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"harry" wrote ...

, "Pete C" wrote:
Not been to allotment for a few days. Went this morning expecting to pick
a
lot of toms. A sad sight met my eyes, all tom plants dead/dying and fruit
rotting! A wander around the site showed similar on almost every plot.
One
lady said she thought there was a cold night last week.....but frost? Am
depressed....all that hard work wasted.
Pete C

Trying to grow tomatoes outdoors is a waste of time. You only get a
short season and the blight takes hold sooner than with a greenhouse.

We have nowhere else to grow them than out on our plot and we always get a
decent crop, goodness knows how many pounds we picked yesterday.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

Thank you all for a lot of interesting replies. I've grown toms for years
and had no trouble, so TBH I don't know what blight looks like. But, from
healthy plants to dead and rotting in 4 days? Can I still use undamaged
green toms? Can I treat the soil to kill spores?
Thanks
Pete C

Bob Hobden wrote:
We used to make such things and two years down the line throw it away
because we don't eat it, a bit like blackcurrant jam.

Post me your jam!

In message , Bob Hobden
writes
JonH wrote

"Bob Hobden" wrote:

"Pete C" wrote .

Not been to allotment for a few days. Went this morning expecting to
pick a
lot of toms. A sad sight met my eyes, all tom plants dead/dying and fruit
rotting! A wander around the site showed similar on almost every
plot. One
lady said she thought there was a cold night last week.....but frost? Am
depressed....all that hard work wasted.

Not frost but Blight, everyone on our site has lost all their Toms except
us, again. Must really **** them off. I spray ours with Bordeaux
Mixture and
have done it twice so far and we also only grow Blight resistant
varieties.
(Ferline, Fantasio and Legend)
I noticed at RHS Wisley this week they spray all their potatoes with
BM too
but a sign beside them said " Sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture which will
shortly be taken off the market" for goodness sake is this a policy
designed
to stop us growing any food ourselves. And yes we have stocked up.


Has just kicked in here too. However, I have made two 5 kg batches of
green tomato chutney before the blight showed.

Tomato material is now being segregated for disposal away from the
garden. I'd burn it, but the guy two doors away is an arse about
smoke.


We used to make such things and two years down the line throw it away
because we don't eat it, a bit like blackcurrant jam. That is why we
have replaced the currant bushes with cherry trees.
We just throw it all on the compost heap, green toms and all, it won't
cause any infection provided it rots.


When we have green toms, we make pickled green tomatoes, they are yummy
:-)
--
Chris French

On Sep 12, 10:39*am, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 12/09/2011 08:10, harry wrote:

On Sep 11, 9:21 pm, "Pete *wrote:
Not been to allotment for a few days. Went this morning expecting to pick a
lot of toms. A sad sight met my eyes, all tom plants dead/dying and fruit
rotting! A wander around the site showed similar on almost every plot. One
lady said she thought there was a cold night last week.....but frost? Am
depressed....all that hard work wasted.
Pete C

Trying to grow tomatoes outdoors is a waste of time. You only get a
short season *and the blight takes hold sooner than with a greenhouse..

Indeed it does. *For the first time in over 15 years I thought I might
try growing some tomatoes (and sweet peppers) again as the greenhouse is
more-or-less empty in summer.

So I got some Gardener's Delight and Sweet Romano pepper seeds and
germinated those months ago. *No problems. *I even had enough plants so
that some of the GD went outside the greenhouse, and some in.

But what a waste of time, especially with the lousy "summer". *The
outside GD got blight a couple of weeks ago and I've dumped the plants
in the compost bin. *Nice lot of green tomato chutney though! *One of
the plants inside the greenhouse is just starting to show blight, so
I'll cut those down in the next day or so. *And the tomatoes I've had so
far? *Not a patch on the GD I remember for taste, and a lot bigger too.
* My neighbour had some of my spare plants, and had bought some GD
plants separately. No difference between them AFAICT. *What is going on
with GD?

The peppers are just ripening in the greenhouse, and I haven't tasted
them yet. *I don't have high hopes after the tomato experience. :-(

--

Jeff

The trick I fancy is to keep the humidity low in the greenhouse with
plenty of ventilation. The blight loves humidity.
Also to avoid open soil beds, also adds to humidity. I have gravel and
rings.

On Sep 12, 11:57*am, Martin wrote:
On Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:46:48 +0100, "shazzbat"





wrote:

"harry" wrote in message
....
On Sep 11, 10:38 pm, wrote:
On Sun, 11 Sep 2011 22:19:39 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:

"Pete C" wrote .

Not been to allotment for a few days. Went this morning expecting to
pick a
lot of toms. A sad sight met my eyes, all tom plants dead/dying and
fruit
rotting! A wander around the site showed similar on almost every plot.

On Sep 12, 12:19*pm, wrote:
Jeff Layman wrote:
*My neighbour had some of my spare plants, and had bought some GD
plants separately. No difference between them AFAICT. *What is going on
with GD?

An interesting point. *My GD so far this year haven't been the delicious
little morsels that I got last year!

They might not be GD. I have noticed variation in varieties. I
suspect I have been swindled with the seed I bought.

harry wrote:
An interesting point. ?My GD so far this year haven't been the delicious
little morsels that I got last year!

They might not be GD. I have noticed variation in varieties. I
suspect I have been swindled with the seed I bought.

But mine definitely are, cos they are the end of the packet I sowed last
year! (Seems unlikely someone would replace GD with something else, anyhow
- GD are one of the ones you normally get free on every single gardening
magazine from Feb to May!!)

harry wrote:
The trick I fancy is to keep the humidity low in the greenhouse with
plenty of ventilation. The blight loves humidity.
Also to avoid open soil beds, also adds to humidity. I have gravel and
rings.

Humidity low to counter blight, humidity high to counter red spider mite.
:-(

Not really going to win, are we?