Blight!

I pulled up all the tomato plants today as blight is raging through them. We had a very wet start to the summer, which I think was the cause of the problem. I also had all the plants in the same area of the garden, unlike my normal practice of spreading them around.

Our refuse collectors have been on strike so the garden waste bin has not been emptied for some weeks. Fortunately there was still some space so I cut up the tomato plants and put them in the bin.

Tomato seed sown

The growing season starts here! Sowed the tomato seed today - 5 each of Ferline and Legend (varieties that are supposed to be blight resistant to some extent - we'll see) and 6 Gardener's Delight.

Tomatoes ripening

Some of the Gardeners Delight and Moneymaker toms are beginning to ripen.

I have pulled out 4 plants which appeared to be showing signs of tomato blight. I think all the plants I pulled out were Marmande, so maybe I won't bother with those next year.

Tomato blight again?

It's looking like some of the tomato plants are affected by blight. I'm reluctant to pull them up, although I know I really should. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomatoes pulled up

I was reluctant to pull out the tomato plants, as I'd been so looking forward to a good harvest. I found that the Gardener's Delight tomatoes were least susceptible to going bad if I picked them as soon as they showed the first sign of ripening, then allowed them to fully ripen indoors. The Marmande were badly affected and virtually all the fruit had to be thrown away, the same with Moneymaker.

But today I pulled all the plants up, after saving all the unmarked green tomatoes. I didn't put any tomato plants or fruit in the compost.

Tomato trouble

Not looking good...

Maybe it wasn't tomato blight...

My fears of tomato blight appear to have been unfounded, as the fruit has been fine. Maybe the leaves became discoloured due to natural die-back. Some gardeners actually recommend removing the leaves once the fruit starts ripening.

Tomato blight?

I think my 'main' tomato plants may now have blight. Not sure what to do. The fruit is unaffected so far, but I don't have room to pick and store all the fruit - I'm overrun with tomatoes indoors as it is. Will wait and see how things develop.

Tomato blight?

It's always prudent to sow more tomato seed than are actually required in case some seed fails to germinate. This means I'm usually left with more tomato plants than I actually want. However I can never bear to dispose of my spare plants, so I plant them out at the bottom of the garden in an area which is not ideal. I don't give these spare plants as much attention as my 'main' plants.

I noticed today that one of my spare plants is looking a bit ill. I was worried that this might be tomato blight, which can spread rapidly and also infect potato plants, so I pulled up two of my spare tomato plants which seemed to be affected. The fruit looks ok, although not yet ripe, so I kept the tomatoes and put them on a sunny windowsill. I put the affected tomato plants in the recycling wheely bin, not in my compost (I'm sure the council ensure their compost is sterilised).