Thanks for the info mate. Especially the part about not composting it. I usually pull up dead plants and compost them but if I see any mold I won't in future
2021 was ideal for blight since we had 2 weeks of constant rain in May, a wet and cold summer and not a lot of sun. Lost most of my plants. It doesn't seem to be something that you can completely get rid of.
So I grew determinate Roma tomato plants this year and of course they haven’t grown very tall and did produce a large amount of tomato’s at once. Issue was that they grew so fat and so many main stems we had to rig crazy amounts of supports so that the plant didn’t lay over. We did have support stakes and a tomato cage on. It’s just they grew so crazy. This was my husband’s little garden project and he said that we are not supposed to prune like my indeterminate tomato’s. We did end up pruining some so that we could even see the tomato’s they could breathe (we live in Southern Ga). How do you control the crazy growth of determinate plants?
Determinate plants do tend to become very messy by the end of the season, although it depends on the variety, some determinate varieties stay a bit smaller and don't get so out of hand. I usually prune them a little bit to make sure they don't become too congested and I remove the old trusses once I've picked the tomatoes off them.
Aww, a blighted crop is such a sad sight. I'm in the wet, gloomy north of England; for years I've only grown Moneymaker tomatoes in pots in my small (8') lean-to greenhouse - good yields, no problems. My neighbour gave me some ribbed and cherry tomato varieties last year. The greenhouse was already full of tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot chillies, so I had to plant the new varieties in the garden. Although they grew well and developed large crops of fruit, both varieties went all 'orrible with blight. I'd not seen it before and had no idea how to stop it, so I harvested as many of the still bright green tomatoes as possible and binned (not composted) the plants. I lost around 30 lbs of fruit to the blight. 😞 (Ironically, considering the source of the plants, I usually share my excess tomato and fruit crops with my neighbours!🤭) Anyway, the clean fruit gradually ripened on windowsills and made good eating, but I'm pretty sure my tiny (20') garden is now thoroughly contaminated with blight spores. How long will the soil be tainted? Years? Decades? Is it permanent? Meanwhile, I'll continue to grow Moneymaker in pots in my greenhouse. Is there anything I can do to clean my garden soil, or should I just grow everything outdoors in containers from now on?
It can remain for up to five years in the soil and is hard to kill, although it only usually attacks the leaves and stems and it can only infect a plant if there is water on the leaves for more than 30 minutes. One way to still grow them in the infected soil is to mulch the soil with fresh compost to prevent the spores from being released into the air and to make sure the leaves always remain dry, so use drip irrigation and make sure there is no condensation dripping onto the plants. You can also get blight outside as it can travel through the air from fields of potatoes, although with the better ventilation outdoors it's less of an issue as often any water on the leaves will dry quickly before the spores can infect the plant.
You're talking about Early Blight mate, you're spreading mis-information. Early Blight is the pain-in-the arse one that lasts for years in the same soil. Mercifully, i've never known Early Blight to be fatal to any tomatoes that i've grown, and I've grown Blight resistant and non Blight resistant varieties for years.
The Blight that you show in your video is indeed LATE Blight. But in the context of what can survive in soil or compost over the winter and into the following growing season, you're confusing Late Blight with Early Blight mate. After a 2-second Google search.... "Late blight does not overwinter in the soil because it requires live tissue to survive, but wind can carry spores up to 30 miles away from infected plants." Maybe you own a compost production company or something, that might explain your spreading of this mis-information.🤷♂️🤦🙄
That used to be true, but there are now new strains which can form oospores which can survive in the soil for several years, these strains are not yet in every country, but they are spreading and its probably only a matter of time until they are present in all parts of the world which grow Solanaceae species. Google is not a reliable source of information, your better using scientific journals, the Royal horticultural society or the USDA.
Thanks for the info mate. Especially the part about not composting it. I usually pull up dead plants and compost them but if I see any mold I won't in future
Thankyou for that very helpful straight to the point. You clarified it very well without complecateing things like some video diaries. 🙏🏻
2021 was ideal for blight since we had 2 weeks of constant rain in May, a wet and cold summer and not a lot of sun. Lost most of my plants. It doesn't seem to be something that you can completely get rid of.
That's nice to know that the plants might be saved from the blight with some intervention.
My whole crop was decimated by tomato blight. Thanks for the great information. Next spring I will try again!
So I grew determinate Roma tomato plants this year and of course they haven’t grown very tall and did produce a large amount of tomato’s at once. Issue was that they grew so fat and so many main stems we had to rig crazy amounts of supports so that the plant didn’t lay over. We did have support stakes and a tomato cage on. It’s just they grew so crazy. This was my husband’s little garden project and he said that we are not supposed to prune like my indeterminate tomato’s. We did end up pruining some so that we could even see the tomato’s they could breathe (we live in Southern Ga). How do you control the crazy growth of determinate plants?
Determinate plants do tend to become very messy by the end of the season, although it depends on the variety, some determinate varieties stay a bit smaller and don't get so out of hand. I usually prune them a little bit to make sure they don't become too congested and I remove the old trusses once I've picked the tomatoes off them.
You say tomahto, I say tomayto!
🎵Let's call the whole thing rot. ☹️
Thanks for the info
Aww, a blighted crop is such a sad sight. I'm in the wet, gloomy north of England; for years I've only grown Moneymaker tomatoes in pots in my small (8') lean-to greenhouse - good yields, no problems.
My neighbour gave me some ribbed and cherry tomato varieties last year. The greenhouse was already full of tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot chillies, so I had to plant the new varieties in the garden. Although they grew well and developed large crops of fruit, both varieties went all 'orrible with blight.
I'd not seen it before and had no idea how to stop it, so I harvested as many of the still bright green tomatoes as possible and binned (not composted) the plants. I lost around 30 lbs of fruit to the blight. 😞
(Ironically, considering the source of the plants, I usually share my excess tomato and fruit crops with my neighbours!🤭)
Anyway, the clean fruit gradually ripened on windowsills and made good eating, but I'm pretty sure my tiny (20') garden is now thoroughly contaminated with blight spores.
How long will the soil be tainted? Years? Decades? Is it permanent?
Meanwhile, I'll continue to grow Moneymaker in pots in my greenhouse. Is there anything I can do to clean my garden soil, or should I just grow everything outdoors in containers from now on?
It can remain for up to five years in the soil and is hard to kill, although it only usually attacks the leaves and stems and it can only infect a plant if there is water on the leaves for more than 30 minutes. One way to still grow them in the infected soil is to mulch the soil with fresh compost to prevent the spores from being released into the air and to make sure the leaves always remain dry, so use drip irrigation and make sure there is no condensation dripping onto the plants. You can also get blight outside as it can travel through the air from fields of potatoes, although with the better ventilation outdoors it's less of an issue as often any water on the leaves will dry quickly before the spores can infect the plant.
You're talking about Early Blight mate, you're spreading mis-information. Early Blight is the pain-in-the arse one that lasts for years in the same soil. Mercifully, i've never known Early Blight to be fatal to any tomatoes that i've grown, and I've grown Blight resistant and non Blight resistant varieties for years.
I really hate growing tomatoes...blight. Wat a waste of material- time- energy 😞
The Blight that you show in your video is indeed LATE Blight. But in the context of what can survive in soil or compost over the winter and into the following growing season, you're confusing Late Blight with Early Blight mate. After a 2-second Google search....
"Late blight does not overwinter in the soil because it requires live tissue to survive, but wind can carry spores up to 30 miles away from infected plants."
Maybe you own a compost production company or something, that might explain your spreading of this mis-information.🤷♂️🤦🙄
That used to be true, but there are now new strains which can form oospores which can survive in the soil for several years, these strains are not yet in every country, but they are spreading and its probably only a matter of time until they are present in all parts of the world which grow Solanaceae species. Google is not a reliable source of information, your better using scientific journals, the Royal horticultural society or the USDA.