Ahh it's very frustrating blighty mam! Especially when you've grown everything from seed!
Well I've got to the bottom of the problem! It wasn't tomato blight after all, it was Timber Rot! Which I'd never heard of until now!
After moving the plants out of the greenhouse and giving them a little extra TLC the Leaves where fine, fruit was fine starting to ripen, just the manky bits on the stems! After a few days I noticed the part of the stems going blacker where they where affected and nothing much else was happening and the leaves started wilting.
So made the executive decision to hack them down, save what fruit I could (its sat in a paper bag on the kitchen window sill). Did an 'autopsy' (as you do) on the affected bits of the stems and they where complete dried out and hollow. Had a chat with our neighbor and showed him what was left of the plants and he pointed out it was Timber Rot not Blight. He said in 46 years he's lived here and grown toms he's never had blight and it's not something we usually get 'Up ere!' but he'd had Timber Rot before, which is just as bad as blight!
Auntiemand, unless it's Late Blight, which will kill an entire plant within a few days, the plant will go on producing. Most fungal diseases aren't a death sentence. Just looks a bit ugly.
I'm picking off affected leaves and fruit daily in the hope I can salvage something approaching a crop.
One of my neighbours has dumped her plants!
In less good news the animals I believed to be water voles that live by the pond turn out to be rats. And I've been feeding them delighting in the fact we'd have lots of babies. No doubt we will! I'm moving.
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Well I've got to the bottom of the problem! It wasn't tomato blight after all, it was Timber Rot! Which I'd never heard of until now!
After moving the plants out of the greenhouse and giving them a little extra TLC the Leaves where fine, fruit was fine starting to ripen, just the manky bits on the stems! After a few days I noticed the part of the stems going blacker where they where affected and nothing much else was happening and the leaves started wilting.
So made the executive decision to hack them down, save what fruit I could (its sat in a paper bag on the kitchen window sill). Did an 'autopsy' (as you do) on the affected bits of the stems and they where complete dried out and hollow. Had a chat with our neighbor and showed him what was left of the plants and he pointed out it was Timber Rot not Blight. He said in 46 years he's lived here and grown toms he's never had blight and it's not something we usually get 'Up ere!' but he'd had Timber Rot before, which is just as bad as blight!
Could be Timber Rot, could also be a bacterial stem rot. I've had it a couple of times after botching the removal of a branch leaving an open wound.
Has anyone else got blight in Kent?
My two immediate neighbours and I have it. So upsetting as I've only have half a dozen ripe Sungold toms this year.
We all grow outdoors as no space for greenhouses but don't usually suffer blight until much later in the year.
I've hundreds of tiny toms on my Sungold, Rossella plants and a fair few on the Black Russian.
Hey ho.
Oh dear, commiserations to you and your neighbours Auntiemand
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
OH has had to find a recipe for spicy tomato soup as he's already made about 20 jars of chutney.
We can't cope.
Sorry.
Auntiemand, unless it's Late Blight, which will kill an entire plant within a few days, the plant will go on producing. Most fungal diseases aren't a death sentence. Just looks a bit ugly.
Thanks for the feedback.
I'm picking off affected leaves and fruit daily in the hope I can salvage something approaching a crop.
One of my neighbours has dumped her plants!
In less good news the animals I believed to be water voles that live by the pond turn out to be rats. And I've been feeding them delighting in the fact we'd have lots of babies. No doubt we will! I'm moving.