View from thep Vegetable atch
Everyone loves home-grown tomatoes. But beware pests that can ruin a delicious treat
Home-grown tomatoes are a tasty treat and with any luck your plants will be covered in healthy fruits. But tomatoes aren’t exactly trouble-free and they can fall prey to a lengthy list of pests and diseases.
If yours are looking a bit off-colour then the chances are they are suffering from one of several very common conditions that can affect the crop. Some of these are caused by faulty cultivation others can be influenced by the weather while a few are just a case of bad luck.
And there are some problems that are so similar to others that it can be hard to determine the cause.
For example, yellowing leaves can be caused by magnesium deficiency but they might also have been affected by a virus. If it’s the first, then a spray with Epsom Salts should sort things out but if it is the latter then there’s no alternative but to dig up and destroy affected plants before the problem spreads.
If the base of the stem turns brown then you could have a case of foot rot or stem rot.
The first usually appears on seedlings while the second is more often found in mature plants and in both cases, it is best to remove the plants and sterilise the greenhouse and the soil before raising any more tomatoes.
And then there are the whitefly that are almost impossible to control. Planting French marigolds around the base of the tomatoes can help but sticky cards are probably the most effective way of keeping numbers down. Blight can have a devastating impact on outdoor tomatoes, but as most of the tomatoes grown in this country are raised under glass, this shouldn’t be an issue.
Blossom end rot, on the other hand, is a frequent problem and is a sign that watering has been erratic and that the plants have been allowed to dry out.
You see it most often in tomatoes raised in growing bags and you can help to avoid it by setting the plants into large pots with their bases cut off and placing these on top of the grow bags, helping to retain a lot more soil around the roots.
But don’t let any of these issues put you off. Tasty, home-grown tomatoes are still worth the effort.