blight advice

Just cut down my standard tom. plants because blight was spreading but have caught it early and the window sills are heaving with fruit, better than last year when I had to chuck masses. Now I'm watching the tumblers and potatoes round the other side of the house and acting like a paranoid demented chicken. (Bok bok bok)
I spent the morning squishing caterpillars on the kale and cabbages I was planting out and scooped up a few GIANT slugs.
As well as a miracle tomato like you decribed Learner it would be great if all our plants were resistant to everything. Then we could just sit back, glass of something in hand, watch them grow and eat them!
( Mind you, if they're resistant to all those things that eat them they'll probably be poisonous for US!!!!! :blink:

Quote from: Scarey Sarah on August 15, 2009, 12:53

Quote from: matt80 on August 14, 2009, 09:24

Thanks for the responses. Just one other question - do I need to do anything in particular to clean the pots that the diseased plants were in? Presumably if I use them again next year then the blight could infect next year's crop. I don't want to throw them out as they're not cheap!

I also have the same question - removed all the diseased tomato plants this morning - soul destroying!  These were grown in containers in the greenhouse.  I have left the soil in the containers, can these be reused for tomatoes next yr or do I need to throw the soil away.  If I can keep the soil is there anything I should mix into it now to try and prevent the dreaded blight next yr.  Thanks

It's pretty unusual for blight to destroy an in-door tomato crop.... sorry to hear you've had this bad luck. 

If it were me I would not use the same soil / compost again next year. I would completely clean the greenhouse with Jays fluid and consider using alternative growing containers - maybe grow-bags as a base (if you have a solid floor) and then put a ring-cluture (pot) ontop of the grow-bag and plant into this.... it gives the plant roots more room.

Was the greenhouse left very wide open?...spores must have made their way in one way or another. 

Perhaps the conditions in the greenhouse were very humid and damp? - these are just right for blight to develop.

If you had handled blight infested plant material from another source you may have carried the spores into the greenhouse.

I think you would need to consider how this years crop developed blight in order to avoid it next year....it is unusual (as far as I am aware) for indoor tomatoes to be hit badly.

By the way...did anyone notice the sneaky way they glossed over tom. blight on Gardeners World last night? Maybe they're planning on dedicating a whole prog. to it? Sure need to educate growers. I wouldn't have been sure without the help of you lovely people!!!