[BabyStar]

We have found the majority of tomato plants in our greenhouses are infected with what appears to be late blight. The stems have brown patches, the leaves are starting to shrivel and the fruit is rotting.

This year we planted early potatoes (Foremost) alongside a main crop (Maris Piper). The earlies seemed to do well but all of a sudden the main crop leaves all dried up and we were left what looked like twigs. We cut these down and it left hollow, woody stalks. We have dug up most of the ground and there weren't many potatoes at all. Last year we had Maris Pipers and I know we didn't harvest them till at least mid-September. I assumed something was wrong but credited it to the extra wet weather we've been having along with the lack of heat.

Now the tomatoes seem to have this late blight I'm wondering if this could be what affected the potatoes? I've checked the blight map but there is nothing for our post code at all. The potatoes that we've dug up do not show any signs of damage, at least none that we didn't have last year (small holes created by a garden pest of some description). Is it still okay to eat them if this is what has happened?

I read that it's not as common for tomato plants in greenhouses to get this but our outside plants look okay at the moment. I think we're going to lose all the plants we had in the greenhouses, we'll be putting them in our green bin for disposal. Can blight be transferred to chillis and cucumbers, which are also in the greenhouse? Do we need to treat the greenhouse with anything before putting anything else in there next year, or treat it with something now?

If anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated.

[mumofstig]

brown patches

this sounds more like botrytis pictures here

Pick off all the infected leaves, if it's on stems then you'll have to cut it all off from below the infected bit, so you may lose some whole plants The rest should carry on ok as long as you give the greenhouse full ventilation.  Botrytis will spread to the other plants if they get damp, that's why you need max ventilation. Wash down with Jeyes in winter should do the trick

I'm not sure what happened to your potatoes though!

[GrannieAnnie]

The potatoes don't sound like blight to me though.  tough woody stems?  nah, blight makes them go brown, squishy and evil smelling!

Not much help as to what it actually was though! sorry....

[shoozie]

We've had botrytis on the greenhouse toms for quite a few weeks - started as a mottle effect on the leaves.  Been clipping leaves off almost daily.  Last few days had an upper part of a stem with staining and have lost 3 fruit.  The plants behind the door are suffering most (door opens inwards).  If you can keep trimming off the affected leaves and ventilate as much as you can, you might be lucky.  My greenhouse has been constantly damp and leaking all summer (old wood doesn't help) - perfect conditions sadly

Edit: Oops, I've just repeated more or less what MoS said - sorry!

[BabyStar]

The brown patches on the stems doesn't look mouldy as in the botrytis pics, they're just brown in some places. Because it's all over the place we can't trim affected areas off as most have an occurrence near the bottom.  The fruit that has been affected has split and got the white mouldy-foamy look about it. I think the other half has pulled them out and bin-bagged most of them now but he is most disheartened