[MichelleC]

Anyone know whether Blight has hit Yorkshire yet? I notice a black patch on one of my outdoor tomato plants and some of the leaves are looking dodgy too. Could this be anything else other than blight? I've tried to register with blight watch but having difficulty.

[DD.]

I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to register at the mo. I don't think it's you.

If you go directly to where the map should be:

http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/fight_against_blight/blight_incidents.html

it says "Zend Optimizer not installed".

I'm none the wiser, but it says it's the site's fault!

Off the top of my head, I can't recall seeing any red spots on the map in Yorkshire.

[MichelleC]

If it is blight does it usually kill the plant within a couple of days?

[DD.]

Given the right conditions, (warm and humid), it can. I suspect at the moment, it would be a little slower!

[MoreWhisky]

last week a fellow lotty owner got me to look at his toms and yes they had blight!

He didnt use any anti blight spray  like i do(dithane, yes some of us still have some) , but i think yesterday i might have seen the first on mine! ive not been today but i will know tomorrow im sure.

[JayG]

I sometimes wonder whether some people panic about blighted tomatoes when they (the tomatoes!  ) are merely showing signs of old age and the challenge of living outdoors in the British summer (I am one of those people!)

My outdoor Red Alert toms look as knackered and unhappy as a very knackered and unhappy person who has just been told he looks much too lively and cheerful! 

The stems developed streaky black marking weeks ago but haven't rotted, the few leaves I haven't removed are pock-marked and yellowing, but as far as I can tell they haven't got blight yet.

I am however taking the precaution of removing the toms as soon as they show signs of yellowing and ripening them indoors, which works very well with this variety.

[MichelleC]

Can you show me a picture of your streaky black markings so to speak? I wasn't sure whether anything else could cause this. I have tons of ripening toms and don't want to make a drama out of a crisis unless I have to.

[JayG]

Can you show me a picture of your streaky black markings so to speak? I wasn't sure whether anything else could cause this. I have tons of ripening toms and don't want to make a drama out of a crisis unless I have to.

Don't get many offers like that these days so happy to oblige! 

The stem on the left is black from top to bottom, the one in the middle half black, half green (actually it's more a dark grey than black!)

You might be able to see brown spots all over some of the leaves (but they are not blight infections.)

I should also mention that these are outdoor Red Alert toms and they have done this for each of the 4 years I have grown them. The 3 other varieties I have in the greenhouse still have green stems!

Until I grow Red Alert in the greenhouse I won't know whether it's something peculiar to this variety or something to do with growing it outdoors!

Perhaps someone else knows?

[MichelleC]

Thanks for the pic. The black patch on my Mini Plum Toms seems more distinctive on a very green stem. Will try and take a pic tonight and post it. That is of course if I don't go into a total panic and rip it out anyway. 

[MichelleC]

Here's the black patch so I whipped these ripe toms from all the plants just in case it is blight. Any ideas?

[JayG]

It certainly looks suspicious but if it is blight it's too late to do anything about it anyway.

Some of the fruit have a yellow tinge to them so I'd take them off as well and ripen indoors (seems to me you have done much better than many others this year in any case.) 

[MichelleC]

Thanks Jay. The yellow fruit are Sungold and Tomato Venus. Think I'll be making lots of sundried toms and pasta sauce. Think I'll pull the plant tomorrow. Shame it still has lots of fruit on it.

[JayG]

If it's just one plant with these black patches then it's probably safer to pull it and try to ripen the fruits on it, but if all your plants are like that you might as well leave them for a while (after rescuing the fruits) to see whether they really do collapse and die (as long as you remove and destroy the plants afterwards there is no risk of carrying it over to next year.)

The picture I posted of my Red Alert doesn't really show just how ropey they look, but they ain't dead yet! 

[MichelleC]

On another plant I did notice Grey Mould. I hoping that's what this is. Anyway I'll keep a look out and will pull this plant.