Hi Buddyboy - thanks for the advice. I hadn't noticed that dark patch on the stem, so I am going out now to investigate for more. Most of the affected tomatoes seem to be half and half - straight down from the stem scar to where blossom end rot can start.
Also forgot to mention, they seem to be affected at the point where they are touching each other. I did also wonder if the recent night frosts had caused any of this.
Some of the viruses can produce that sort of damage. There are about 20 of them. Difficult one this as the damage doesn't match well with images of typical tomato diseases. It does look like late blight but I would expect lots of obvious symptoms on the leaves and stems and for the diseased areas to be near the top of the tomato.
My money is on a virus.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
I got back from hols 10 days ago and saw a couple of my 15 plants with what I was pretty sure was late blight. I (possibly wrongly!) didn't just decide to cut my losses and instead set about removing anything that looked infected on those plants and pretty much stripped the rest of the plants of their leaves too. I know I probably should have taken off any remaining green fruit too but, well, work and laziness conspired with a bit of curiosity as to what would happen...
So, fruits have continued to ripen, mostly healthily and taste nice! But the odd truss has a bad fruit or two on it, which I've been picking off. Now about half of the plants have dark lesions on the stems and some of the trusses have gone brown and fragile - to the point that unripe (but apparently unaffeced) fruit drops off them. Some trusses and whole plants look completely healthy.
I guess this is late blight? The only thing that now makes me doubt it is the fact that all the plants are still alive! Well apart from the horrible looking stem patches and the odd diseased fruit...
I suppose I should still strip all remaining fruit and bin the plants? Sigh. Maybe at the weekend. If the kids let me.
The blackened stems are a sign that it's almost certainly late blight. I'd do as you suggest, removing all remaining trusses and binning the main stems.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
The reason I wondered if it was frost was because all the affected tomatoes are at the first (bottom} truss at the moment. What type of virus could it be Bob and, if it is a virus, is it safe to eat the toms. Finally any recipes for green tomatoes guys ...
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Hi Buddyboy - thanks for the advice. I hadn't noticed that dark patch on the stem, so I am going out now to investigate for more. Most of the affected tomatoes seem to be half and half - straight down from the stem scar to where blossom end rot can start.
Also forgot to mention, they seem to be affected at the point where they are touching each other. I did also wonder if the recent night frosts had caused any of this.
It's a shame because you have a good crop there.
Pick tomatoes in good condition and put them with a banana to ripen. Bananas give off ethylene which will ripen them.
This is like Morse by proxy!
Some of the viruses can produce that sort of damage. There are about 20 of them. Difficult one this as the damage doesn't match well with images of typical tomato diseases. It does look like late blight but I would expect lots of obvious symptoms on the leaves and stems and for the diseased areas to be near the top of the tomato.
My money is on a virus.
Can I throw my plants into the mix too?!
I got back from hols 10 days ago and saw a couple of my 15 plants with what I was pretty sure was late blight. I (possibly wrongly!) didn't just decide to cut my losses and instead set about removing anything that looked infected on those plants and pretty much stripped the rest of the plants of their leaves too. I know I probably should have taken off any remaining green fruit too but, well, work and laziness conspired with a bit of curiosity as to what would happen...
So, fruits have continued to ripen, mostly healthily and taste nice! But the odd truss has a bad fruit or two on it, which I've been picking off. Now about half of the plants have dark lesions on the stems and some of the trusses have gone brown and fragile - to the point that unripe (but apparently unaffeced) fruit drops off them. Some trusses and whole plants look completely healthy.
I guess this is late blight? The only thing that now makes me doubt it is the fact that all the plants are still alive! Well apart from the horrible looking stem patches and the odd diseased fruit...
I suppose I should still strip all remaining fruit and bin the plants? Sigh. Maybe at the weekend. If the kids let me.
The blackened stems are a sign that it's almost certainly late blight. I'd do as you suggest, removing all remaining trusses and binning the main stems.
The reason I wondered if it was frost was because all the affected tomatoes are at the first (bottom} truss at the moment. What type of virus could it be Bob and, if it is a virus, is it safe to eat the toms. Finally any recipes for green tomatoes guys ...