Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: ricky on July 03, 2017, 21:57
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I've been growing ferline tomatoes for a good while I have a problem here in n.Ireland with blight ,saw mountain magic this year blight resistant cherry tomatoes I thought thems the very boy's for me il grow them along side my ferline toms , well my ferline are growing strong but mountain magic my bum every plant has blight on the leaves and just waiting for it to hit the stem then it's evacuation time what a disappointment this is one side of a polytunnel your talking about 80 plants , how can these companies make these claims and charge so much for seeds that are NOT blight resistant at all another year's planning ruined what can I do.
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Is it blight, or is it Botrytis, which is more common inside a polytunnel than blight IMO.
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Definitely blight I have had it many times before 2 years running wiped out my polytunnel over 200 plants every time then I discovered blight resistant tomatoes ferline being the best ,I live in a valley blight was always high in my area I get warnings on my phone from the government agricultural people a full Smith period and all that , I'm not impressed by these supposedly new blight resistant tomato claims now I know blight can also come in different strains and it seems to getting worse every year coming from n.Ireland it's a constant battle to stay ahead of it or deter it , so today wee have heavy rain but warm and low mist so blight is in the air.
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Sounds like difficult conditions for you :(
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So that's the mountain magic dumped 80 plants absolutely disgraceful that companies can claim that certain seeds are blight resistant when clearly they are not ,a lesson learned this season stick to what you know it's ferline all the way never will I listen to the utter dodo that the seed catalogues claim
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It may be worth reporting your experience back to the seed company ricky. You could get a refund or an offer of a credit note. 80 plants is a lot of money spent on tomato seeds that have come to nothing.
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I'm growing Mountain Magic in the open on the plot, here in Worcestershire. At the moment they are thriving and producing loads of tomatoes, but we haven't, as yet, suffered the weather conditions that will cause blight.
The jury's still out at the moment, and I'll update the result at the end of the season.
Last year I grew Crimson Crush, which did appear to have the blight at one stage, but then shook it off and grew through it, with tomatoes to pick until about the beginning of November.
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Last year only my mountain magic survived the blight and I was well pleased with them. They grew outside but a fellow lotty holder grew them in his greenhouse where they caught the blight and they held on regardless and still produced a crop.
Sorry to hear of your loss Ricky, it just shows how every year is different. Do you have a photo of this years blight.
As an aside, because seed is expensive I set an early plant and use it to take side shoot cuttings to make more plants.
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Thanks for your kind words guy's I just live on a blight riddled piece of land I've had warnings everyday for the past 3 weeks from the ni. agriculture people ,now my ferline are doing just fine and I have another tunnel with sungold tomatoes in it this is about 50 yards on up the field they are doing fine , I will be writing to moles seeds to see what they say ,the blight started on the leaves and at the start of the week it was on the stems and the fruit so I ripped them out and burned the lot just put it down to experience , it's a pity I plan in the winter what I'm going to do in the spring picking seeds planning where I will put them but thank god I'm not depending on them thanks again guy's
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Not sure about MM but I have seen a quote from the breeder of Crimson Crush saying that that variety were not blight resistant, but blight tolerant. In the same article he appeared to be annoyed that they were being marketed on the basis that they were resistant.
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Even blight resistant isn't the same thing as Blight proof, though is it?
http://www.hortweek.com/suttons-defends-claims-blight-resistant-tomato/retail/article/1336697
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Mumofstig if you ever hear of a tomato that is blight proof please let me know for man I really need it thanks