Protect your tomato crop from blight
TOMATO blight is a frustrating disease. After months growing and nurturing these beauties that telltale brown stalk appears, spreads like wildfire until all the tomatoes become inedible.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
DARK spots or brown patches appear on leaves, which curl and wither, followed by fast-spreading brown patches on the stems.
The tomatoes will develop a brown discolouration and may shrink and drop off. Potatoes may also be attacked, although they succumb slightly earlier.
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH IT?
SPRAY every two weeks with
Bordeaux Mixture – a combination of copper sulphate, lime and water – available from garden centres, bu it’s likely to be effective only if you spray early as a preventative measure, not once the blight has taken hold.
Cut off affected foliage and stems to prevent spores spreading and harvest the tomatoes early – some will still suffer blight symptoms after picking.
Look out for blight-resistant varieties including ‘Crimson
Crush’, ‘Early Cascade’, ‘Latah, ‘Ferline’ and ‘Legend’, although no tomato plant can be said to be totally blight-immune. Newer F1 (hybrid) varieties which claim to have some resistance include ‘Summerlast’, a dwarf patio variety, and ‘Crimson Blush’, a beefsteak type.
CAN YOU PREVENT IT?
KEEP plants well ventilated in the greenhouse and outside, prevent large temperature fluctuations, particularly at night in early summer.
Keep the leaves dry, watering only at the base of the plant, and stake plants to keep the leaves off the soil. Keep the plants sheltered from heavy rainfall and feed with tomato feeds high in potassium.
Cut off leaves at the top and the bottom of the plants to improve ventilation, and let in more sun to ripen the fruits.
Remove and destroy all affected parts as soon as you see them. And don’t plant tomatoes or potatoes in that soil the following year.