tomatoes blight

[Greenthumb18]

I, and i'm sure others can say that they have been hit hard by this late blight fungus this year. I've had a lot of tomatoes go from fine one day to rotten and destroyed the next day. Dont get me wrong i've harvested a nice crop that wasn't bothered by the fungus. I also have some cherry tomatoes that should ripen soon. I do have some green tomatoes left on the plants, do you think i should remove these green tomatoes and bring them inside to ripen? I had so many nice ones that were rotten but i understand this kind of thing happens sometimes, i just wanted your opinion if this fungus could happen again next year, will it survive in the soil over the winter, you think?
I know that rainy cool humid conditions is what favors this disease. I just hope we wont have to go through this again next year.

 

[HiDelight]

OH I am so sorry!!! I have had this happened and cried over it! it is awful one moment all is well the next ..bam done

I rotate my beds every year ..keep all plants pruned up way off the soil ..when I pull them I pick up ever last leaf ..and whle growing I put cover sideless transparant cover over them.. do not let them get wet from over head ...so far I have avoided the blight for a long time now ..I have no idea if it is these efforts but I hope they help

again I am sorry!


stupid blight

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

From what I understand it will not over winter in the ground as long as you remove all dead plant debris from you tomato area. If you have plants that are showing the least little sign of having blight you need to bag that plant and pull it out of the ground immediately. The reason you bag it first is to keep blight spores from floating around onto disease-free plants. Any fruits on it can be harvested but don't hold your breath for them to be good. A green tomato can have the blight but not show it until it starts to ripen. From what I understand you can NOT eat infected fruit. Once you get all the dead/diseased plant debris out of there you turn the dirt over or give it a good tilling. And this they say will keep it from your soil.

There is another forum I visit that is just about tomatoes. I hope it's OK to post a link to them here - on their forum you are not allowed to link to other forums....

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/tomato/?24955

 

[patandchickens]

I am not aware of any reason not to eat tomatoes off plants with blight, although if things have proceeded considerably and the tomatoes look or feel kind of odd then they may not be *worth* eating.

Yes, the best thing is to clean ALL plant debris, of any description, off your garden and dispose of it as you would any diseased material (do not compost, nor dump in a pile on your property).

Next year it would be worth a) if you want to try new cultivars, choose ones that claim some resistance to late blight; b) try to keep the soil from getting soggy and don't water in a way that wets the foliage (and hope it's not an excessively rainy year ); and c) make extra sure to plant the tomatoes with a comfortable distance between them and stake/cage them early and well, as having them crowded or lying on the ground increases your chances of late blight problems.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat, who's had the blight too this year, but it was such a CRUMMY year for growing tomatoes up here -- cold and wet -- that I do not think it really cost me that much crop

 

[Lavender2]

My tomato plants are hit by Septoria (leaf spot) every year. I control it the best I can, but wet conditions can take the plant just as fast as any blight. Fruit are not affected by leaf spot and are fine to eat or can. It's good to always follow the advice of the experts and avoid canning any produce with lesions or other sign of disease.

I guess what I'm suggesting is, be sure of which disease your plants are infected with so you know the proper way to treat the problem.

As far as I am aware there is no proof that tomatoes from blight infected plants are not safe to eat. At this point, with the info I have been able to gather about this, I think it's a matter of personal choice.
Great to have all this food for thought!

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/aganswers/story.asp?storyID=5496

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

When I said not to eat the infected fruit, I mean fruit that is already showing signs of blight. But, this is just what I have read - I have not had to deal with it....

 

[Ridgerunner]

I managed to escape the blight this year and still have tomatoes producing today. I pruned and trellised mine for better air circulation so they would dry out faster. I also mulched well. I think the mulch did more than anything else to keep the blight from being knocked up on the plant by rain. I only watered once and that was by soaker hose. I also grew them in a different spot in the garden from where I grew them last year, but last year was the first year for a garden here at all and I had what I think was blight last year. It could have been leaf spot though. It has been a strange, wet, mostly cool year for me.

 

[curly_kate]

Mine seem to get blight every year, but by the time they die back, I'm actually kind of tired of tomatoes (sacrilege, I know!). Right now, I have my second crop of tomatoes coming from volunteer plants in the compost pile! This is the first time I've actually had some ripen!

 

[Greenthumb18]

Thanks everyone for posting!!

Its ok, i just hope this problem wont happen next year, all my tomato plants and every speck of tomato debris will be burned or thrown away.

Ok so i'm going to try to get all the green tomatoes off the plants and maybe store them in a cool dark place. Then when I need tomatoes i could just put a few green ones in a brown bag with a banana or apples and they should turn red.

Thanks guys i couldnt of done it without all your help!! I appreciate it

 

[bills]

I never had any luck with the green tomato's after my plants got blight, a few years ago. As they ripened they all showed signs of the blight, and I had to toss them. You may get lucky though, so give it a shot.