Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Beetroot queen on August 08, 2009, 07:27

Title: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: Beetroot queen on August 08, 2009, 07:27
Walked into the poly yesterday to discover blight, i knew it as soon as I saw it thanks to people's piccys on here.

We made the decision to strip out the toms as we are not great lovers and they were plants we inherited. One plant would have done us, not six.

We took of all fruit that was sound and ditched the plants but are the toms okay to use, no damage yet on these and they look ok  :mellow:
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: johnnyboy on August 08, 2009, 07:34
Make a green tomato chutney with the tomatoes and make sure you burn the plants.
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: Beetroot queen on August 08, 2009, 07:35
Make a green tomato chutney with the tomatoes and make sure you burn the plants.

I put them in the council skip, I can go and fish them out if needed  :ohmy:
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: lisa80 on August 08, 2009, 11:39
If you have a window cill that gets good sun put some on there to ripen.I did this and even the really green ones ripened (did take a good week or more) at least you wont end up with chutney glut!!!!!!
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: mickwood on August 08, 2009, 12:30
Walked into the poly yesterday to discover blight, i knew it as soon as I saw it thanks to people's piccys on here.

Do you have a link to those piccies?? I think I'm in the same position....green chutney was suggested today....  :(
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: devondave on August 08, 2009, 14:06
Ive got about 8 red toms between 6 plants in the poly tunnel, I'm keeping my eye on the rest of them, if in any doubt its green tom chutney and quite a lot of it, it does keep well, i've got one jar left from last years blighted toms, goes really well with a nice lump of strong cheese
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: GrannieAnnie on August 08, 2009, 14:43
There's a recipe on here somewhere for a chutney that is like a black mango chutney but using green toms.  It was very nice!

Ahhh, I found it!

http://www.allotment-garden.org/recipe/55/recipe-for-supersprouts-black-mango-chutney/
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: Cazzy on August 08, 2009, 20:14
How do you tell when blight has affected the tomatoes themselves.

The reason I ask is i'm sure I had blight last year and think I have it this year again but the fruits themselves look and taste fantastic.

Sorry for the blatent hijack but thought it better than another blight thread  :)
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: Jodie A on August 08, 2009, 20:25
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2865/green-tomato-chutney

All simple and readily available ingredients - bit early for the apples by about 3 weeks, but may be able to scrump a few of the riper ones ;)

The bbc good food website is fab, over 120 courgette recipes too!

Free and easy to set up your own folder to save recipes that are of interest to you.

No, I am not related to the website in anyway whatsoever, just recently discovered it and am a big fan!
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: devondave on August 08, 2009, 22:33
Hi Cazzy, you'll see if the blight has got your toms by looking at the stems, they start going black and when you look at the toms they have a kind of black sooty mark to them, its easier to go by the black marks on the stems, hope thats of some help
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: Cazzy on August 08, 2009, 23:49
Hi Cazzy, you'll see if the blight has got your toms by looking at the stems, they start going black and when you look at the toms they have a kind of black sooty mark to them, its easier to go by the black marks on the stems, hope thats of some help

Thanx devondave, i'm sure we ate blight toms last year then.......... this years toms (so far) are ruby red and taste amazing, the stems however are slimey :s
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: devondave on August 09, 2009, 21:58
If the stems are slimey id keep a very close eye on them, they should'nt be like that
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: benA*grower on August 10, 2009, 12:02
HI THERE WAS A RIGHT UP IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN ABOUT BLIGHT AND YOU CAN NOW PUT THE BLIGHT AFFECTED STEMS AND LEAFS IN THE COMPOSTER AS THERE IS NO TRACE OF THE DISEASE AS THE STEM AND LEAF DIES OFF PUT THE TOMATOES IN A BASKET AND PUT 3 BANANAS IN THERE THE ACID OF THE BANANA GIVES AN ACID THAT RIPENS THE TOMATOES

HOPE THIS HELPS :)
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: Noah'strolly on August 14, 2009, 21:12
I tried ripening them with a banana last year and the tomatoes went brown.
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: tode on August 15, 2009, 00:50
Ripening apples and bananas give off ethylene gas, which in turn can set off the ripening process of other fruits.
To ripen tomatoes that way, they must be disease-free and must have already reached the stage where the pips are properly formed (hard). If not they dont actually ripen.
Best ripening temp. this way is at 20°C
See http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Produce/ProduceFacts/Veg/tomato.shtml (http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Produce/ProduceFacts/Veg/tomato.shtml)
Title: Re: Blight and 30lb of green toms
Post by: joyce c on August 16, 2009, 07:39
we never fail to ripen tomatoes, but putting them between sheets of newspaper in a dark draw. Couple of days and they're red.