Tomatoes with blight: safe?
 

Hi

My tomato plants have blight. I've taken off the ripe fruit which don't
seem to show any damage. Are they safe to eat? Should I burn the plants
or can I take them to the council tip (not composting as I'm moving abroad)?

Cheers,

Mark

Mark wrote:
: Hi
:
: My tomato plants have blight. I've taken off the ripe fruit which
: don't seem to show any damage. Are they safe to eat? Should I burn
: the plants
: or can I take them to the council tip (not composting as I'm moving
: abroad)?
:
: Cheers,
:
: Mark

Yes they're safe to eat and the Counci tip is the best place for them. You
shouldn't compost them just to be on the safe side

In article , Robert youcanteducatepork@sp
amex.com writes

Yes they're safe to eat and the Counci tip is the best place for them. You
shouldn't compost them just to be on the safe side

For preference burn them. If they do go to the local amenity site, put
them in with the general waste rather than the garden waste, which is
sometimes recycled into compost.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article ,
Alan Gould wrote:
In article , Robert youcanteducatepork@sp
amex.com writes

Yes they're safe to eat and the Counci tip is the best place for them. You
shouldn't compost them just to be on the safe side

For preference burn them. If they do go to the local amenity site, put
them in with the general waste rather than the garden waste, which is
sometimes recycled into compost.

I used to think that, but then I read up about how blight overwinters.
It does NOT have resistant spores, but overwinters in living plant
material. Therefore composting blighted potato and tomato haulms
will not transmit it. The statement that such material must be
burnt is an old wife's tale.

What you should do (but I usually don't) is to ensure that you burn
any discarded tubers from blighted potatoes, as those are the primary
route by which it overwinters.

However, as with the common cold, the theory that it is spread by
miasma is as good as any, as a practical guide. Because the spores
blow long distances (miles) and it overwinters in missed tubers,
you can assume that everywhere in the UK is exposed to blight, and
the only major factors in whether blight develops are the weather,
the variety and prophylactic treatment (e.g. Bordeaux mixture).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
In article , Robert
youcanteducatepork@sp
amex.com writes

Yes they're safe to eat and the Counci tip is the best place for
them. You
shouldn't compost them just to be on the safe side

For preference burn them. If they do go to the local amenity site,
put
them in with the general waste rather than the garden waste, which
is
sometimes recycled into compost.

Actually, this does raise a rather serious point. My council makes
good compost and I use lots of it. What if unthinking gardeners put
diseased plant material in the garden waste skip?
Does any urgler know what, if any, checks the councils do to try and
minimise the redistribution of diseased vegetable matter?

Franz

On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 17:53:14 +0100, Mark
wrote:

My tomato plants have blight. I've taken off the ripe fruit which don't
seem to show any damage. Are they safe to eat? Should I burn the plants
or can I take them to the council tip (not composting as I'm moving abroad)?

Where are you Mark?
This is the first year for 6 years that my outdoor toms have not got
blight, So FAR! But I have picked all the fruit to ripen at home just
in case, and have pulled up most of the plants. (They were stopped at
3 trusses.)
In my experience once blight appears on the plants the fruit may look
OK and are good to eat at first, but if you keep them a while they may
gradually go brown and have to be thrown out.
Also using Bordeaux Mixture was a messy business, and meant that the
toms had to be washed thoroughly before eating. It did not keep the
blight off. Last year was the first I tried it, but never again.
Blight came in spite of it, about early September, so watch out all
you outdoor tomato growers.

Pam in Bristol

Pam Moore wrote:
On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 17:53:14 +0100, Mark wrote:

My tomato plants have blight. I've taken off the ripe fruit which don't
seem to show any damage. Are they safe to eat? Should I burn the plants
or can I take them to the council tip (not composting as I'm moving abroad)?

Where are you Mark?
This is the first year for 6 years that my outdoor toms have not got
blight, So FAR! But I have picked all the fruit to ripen at home just
in case, and have pulled up most of the plants. (They were stopped at
3 trusses.)
In my experience once blight appears on the plants the fruit may look
OK and are good to eat at first, but if you keep them a while they may
gradually go brown and have to be thrown out.

I'm in Southampton. I grew a few plants last year and they were okay,
but blight seems to come quickly (in a couple of days) so perhaps I'd
eaten them before they caught it.

Cheers,

Mark

In article , Franz Heymann
writes
Actually, this does raise a rather serious point. My council makes
good compost and I use lots of it. What if unthinking gardeners put
diseased plant material in the garden waste skip?
Does any urgler know what, if any, checks the councils do to try and
minimise the redistribution of diseased vegetable matter?


Do your local council offer a description or a quality standard for
their compost? What I see at our amenity site suggests that almost
anything and everything goes into the 'garden waste' skip, but AFAIK
they do not recycle it into horticultural compost.
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
In article , Franz Heymann
writes
Actually, this does raise a rather serious point. My council makes
good compost and I use lots of it. What if unthinking gardeners
put
diseased plant material in the garden waste skip?
Does any urgler know what, if any, checks the councils do to try
and
minimise the redistribution of diseased vegetable matter?


Do your local council offer a description or a quality standard for
their compost?

I don't know. I will make some gentle enquiries tomorrow.

What I see at our amenity site suggests that almost
anything and everything goes into the 'garden waste' skip, but AFAIK
they do not recycle it into horticultural compost.

Yes, I have noticed that the "garden waste" skip contains a lot of
*very* heavy prunings, which surely have to be sorted out before
composting, unless they just shred the lot very fine first. I must
repeat that the compost looks, feels and smells very wholesome, and it
has worked wonders in my garden this year. (No veggies, only
ornamentals of all sorts) The roses, in particular, have done better
than for many years past.

Franz

In article ,
Franz Heymann wrote:

"Alan Gould" wrote in message
...
In article , Robert
youcanteducatepork@sp
amex.com writes

Yes they're safe to eat and the Counci tip is the best place for
them. You
shouldn't compost them just to be on the safe side

For preference burn them. If they do go to the local amenity site,
put
them in with the general waste rather than the garden waste, which
is
sometimes recycled into compost.

Actually, this does raise a rather serious point. My council makes
good compost and I use lots of it. What if unthinking gardeners put
diseased plant material in the garden waste skip?
Does any urgler know what, if any, checks the councils do to try and
minimise the redistribution of diseased vegetable matter?

I don't believe they bother. The main reason, of course, is that they
aren't required to, but there is also the major point I mentioned.

Would anyone like to tell me any common plant diseases that are likely
to get through the composting process? And why?

Please let's stick to the science, and leave suburban myths out of
this. I am not saying that there are none, but I am saying that there
are few, they are not normally major problems, and most of those are
universal throughout the UK anyway. While I am no expert, I am good
enough to be able to read the scientific references, and I have so
far found no candidates.

This is very comparable to the claim that the only thing to do with
honey fungus to stop it speading like something out of a 1950s B
movie is to pollute the top metre of soil to sterility. Well, if
that were the case, why are there are woodlands left in the south
of England?

Nobody is denying that plant diseases can't be transmitted that way;
what I am saying is that you are MORE likely to have them introduced
by the increasing domination of the road network. Yes, really.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

This article from HDRA I have posted here before. It is dated 1999'
---------------------------------------------------------------------
POTATO & TOMATO BLIGHT
Article from HDRA Summer 1999 (Issue 156)

Caused by fungus Phytophthora infestans; thrives best in warm & damp.

SYMPTOMS
Potatoes
Dark brown or blackish, round patches on leaves and later on stems.
The underside of theses patches develops a downy white coating of
spores. May spread rapidly.
Tubers develop dark, sunken areas which may cover whole tuber in a
dry, firm rot. Other fungi and bacteria may invade producing a foul
smelling soft rot. Tubers may develop this while in store.

TOMATOES
Foliage symptoms similar. Fruits develop brown leathery patches which
may appear several days after picking.

LIFE CYCLE
Disease suvives the winter in infected potato tubers in the soil or on
compost heaps. The foliage which grows from these develops spores
which spread on the wind. Can come from many miles away.
Spores develop at temps of 10 degrees C with humidity of 75% for 2
days or more.

NEW STRAINS
Until the 1970s there was only one type of blight in UK which was
unable to produce spores which could overwinter. Now there are 2
types which can mate and produce resistant spores.

PREVENTION & CONTROL
A HEALTHY START
Plant good quality seed from a reliable source.
Most Early vars are very prone. Plant and harvest early.
Good maincrops are Cara, Stirling, Teena, Torridon, Remarka and
Romano.
No blight resistant tomatoes as such.

GOOD HYGIENE
Remove potential sources of infection, especially ALL tubers.
Burn, dustbin, or bury at least 2 ft deep.
Same for tomato fruits.
A good active compost heap will deal with potato and tomato haulms.
Increase ventilation; space widely to avoid too much humidity among
plants.
Greenhouses should be well ventilated and waterproof. Water from
below.

IF BLIGHT STRIKES
In warm damp conditions remove all blighted leaves, even all foliage
to prevent spread to the tubers. Don't harvest the crop for at least
3 weeks to allow thicker skins to develop and soil-surface spores to
die.

Check stored tubers regularly.




Pam in Bristol

In article ,
Pam Moore wrote:
This article from HDRA I have posted here before. It is dated 1999'

Yes, but there are a couple of modifications for the soft of composting
that is done by councils.

Disease suvives the winter in infected potato tubers in the soil or on
compost heaps. The foliage which grows from these develops spores
which spread on the wind. Can come from many miles away.

As I said. This wasn't my source, incidentally.

GOOD HYGIENE
Remove potential sources of infection, especially ALL tubers.
Burn, dustbin, or bury at least 2 ft deep.
Same for tomato fruits.
A good active compost heap will deal with potato and tomato haulms.

As the commercial composters will shred the input, no foliage will
develop from the potato tubers, and none of the flesh of the tomatoes
will survive intact. As far as I know, blight can't be transmitted
through tomato seeds. Commercial composting is therefore an extremely
efficient blight filter.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Disease suvives the winter in infected potato tubers in the soil or on
compost heaps. The foliage which grows from these develops spores
which spread on the wind. Can come from many miles away.

As I said. This wasn't my source, incidentally.

Was your initial source a reliable one, i.e was it reliable enough to
negate the HDRA statement which is based on Govt. recognised guidance?
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.

In article ,
Alan Gould wrote:
In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

Disease suvives the winter in infected potato tubers in the soil or on
compost heaps. The foliage which grows from these develops spores
which spread on the wind. Can come from many miles away.

As I said. This wasn't my source, incidentally.

Was your initial source a reliable one, i.e was it reliable enough to
negate the HDRA statement which is based on Govt. recognised guidance?

Wake up in the back there! You haven't been attending!

My posting AND THE POSTING YOU QUOTED made it quite clear that I was
saying the SAME thing, based on a different source.

Please engage brain before posting - as I frequently tell myself after
the event :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes

My posting AND THE POSTING YOU QUOTED made it quite clear that I was
saying the SAME thing, based on a different source.

You wrote:
It does NOT have resistant spores, but overwinters in living plant
material. Therefore composting blighted potato and tomato haulms
will not transmit it. The statement that such material must be
burnt is an old wife's tale.

HDRA advise:
LIFE CYCLE
Disease suvives the winter in infected potato tubers in the soil or on
compost heaps. The foliage which grows from these develops spores
which spread on the wind.
and
GOOD HYGIENE
Remove potential sources of infection, especially ALL tubers.
Burn, dustbin, or bury at least 2 ft deep.
Same for tomato fruits.

Additionally, I cannot find any reference to Old Wives in the HDRA
statement. Now are you prepared to reveal your original source, and to
say if the author of it would support your conclusions of their work?
--
Alan & Joan Gould - North Lincs.