[mumofstig]

I've got a couple of rooted armpits that I'm hoping keep going over winter.

At the mo, it looks as if they'll living on the bathroom window ledge  - the only one that's spare 

[Lardman]

They have all succumbed bar CC and these plants have produced a huge crops of very tasty tomatoes.

I wasn't impressed with the yield or the taste of the greenhouse crop perhaps outside might be better.

I was impressed to see my plants outside were perfectly healthy and still in flower, no sign of blight or anything else. I haven't been up the patch for ages, whilst all the greenhouse plants including the CC were binned nearly a month ago.

I've potted up some armpits  today and will be saving and sowing seed from the last of the fruit.

[sunshineband]

They have all succumbed bar CC and these plants have produced a huge crops of very tasty tomatoes.

I wasn't impressed with the yield or the taste of the greenhouse crop perhaps outside might be better.

I was impressed to see my plants outside were perfectly healthy and still in flower, no sign of blight or anything else. I haven't been up the patch for ages, whilst all the greenhouse plants including the CC were binned nearly a month ago.

I've potted up some armpits  today and will be saving and sowing seed from the last of the fruit.

I'll be interested to see the results of your home saved seed re blight resistance Lardman, as F1s can throw up all sorts of outcomes can't they?

[Growster...]

I've got a couple of side-shoots still going in the greenhouse, and I've just seen a few more, and also some very small toms...

Why not keep 'em going - nothing to lose is there (except some window sill space)!

[surbie100]

Errrrrmmm....help!

I have 4 rooted Crimson Crush armpits for overwintering. However 2-3 of them are showing dark areas on their stems - my neighbour's plot is festering with blight spores.

My main plant on the plot is nearly unaffected, and I'm sure the armpits will be fine.

What's niggling me is - am I happily keeping blight spores alive over winter on the Crimson Crush, ready to spread onto my other (not blight-resistant) tomato seedlings and chitting potatoes early next year?

I live in a small flat - I don't have anywhere else to grow things.

[sunshineband]

Keep a careful eye on them Surbie... if it is blight then the whole plants will collapse and you can dispose of them. It is unlikely they would harbour blight all winter and not die off imho, long before you have any seedlings to worry about.

Blight spores can only survive on living tissue, so there would not be any lurking on your windowsill if your CC plants succumb.

Dark areas on stems does sound a bit suspicious though

[Lardman]

What's niggling me is - am I happily keeping blight spores alive over winter on the Crimson Crush, ready to spread onto my other (not blight-resistant) tomato seedlings and chitting potatoes early next year?

I'd put your spuds as far away as possible, but realistically the spores are already floating about anyway, you don't completely strip the plot of all living material do you. If you don't provided conditions for it to multiply and spread it shouldn't.

The question of the CC being a carrier for the entire winter without turning to mush is a very interesting one, if it doesn't during the summer I can't see why it would during the winter, I  think we need to know about the life cycle of the spores.

[surbie100]

I don't know nearly enough about blight (cue internet research this evening!), but if the CC shoots have blight on them, being a carrier for spores is exactly what I am worried about. I'll be growing 16 other varieties next year, raised in the flat, and none of them are particularly blight resistant. Plus the spuds.

I'll give it another few weeks before deciding whether to ditch them or try it. I guess it'll show whether or not the dark areas develop further. They have got bigger over the last week or so, but currently there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the leaves.

[TheLoneRoger]

Looks like one of the two Crimson Crush tomatoes I got from the Dobies offer back in April has finally succumbed to blight 

The Moneymaker and even the Sungold in the same greenhouse had started showing signs maybe three or four weeks ago, and are pretty well finished now, but the Crimson Crush were doing fine until a couple of days ago. They were closest to the (open) door, so should have been the best ventilated and apart from being quite thirsty and slow ripening, I was pretty pleased with them.

They've still done pretty well, and I'd probably grow them again (lovely flavour!) but I thought the description of "fully blight resistant"  was a bit hopeful!

[Growster...]

I'm not entirely sure that is late blight, Roger, you may just have a case of a few mould patches, but you'd soon know if it was blight, as there's normally a huge dark ugly patch on the tomato skin!

Fingers crossed for you anyway!

[Anton]

My sister in England reports that her crimson crush tomatoes resisted much longer than the common-and-garden variety and there are still some green tomatoes on the plant although the plants have caught some lurgy. However, as it started raining a lot last month, she started taking them inside, to put on the windowsill to ripen, as soon as they started to turn a bit yellow on the plant. This worked fine for several weeks but in the end some of them started turning brown indoors, and she obviously chucked them away (in the bin). 

I wonder is it safe to eat tomatoes that have a tiny bit of infection, if you cut away the rotten part?

Anton

[mumofstig]

I wonder is it safe to eat tomatoes that have a tiny bit of infection, if you cut away the rotten part?

Yes, I do.

[Growster...]

I wonder is it safe to eat tomatoes that have a tiny bit of infection, if you cut away the rotten part?

Yes, I do.

Absolutely!

Our Black Krim look awful up by the stem, so we just chop off all the bad bits until they're clearly perfect for use!

You'd do the same on an apple, so why not a tom!

[Anton]

Thanks for the replies.

Anton

[TheWhiteRabbit]

I don't know of it's of interest, but my Koralik cherry toms are still soldiering on outside despite all other toms having completely succumbed to blight. I picked a huge bag of Koralik toms at the weekend, the plants were just starting to show some signs of blight.

They are very productive and flourished in the cool conditions we had this year.