Blasted tomato blight

[BooseysMom]

Hi,
I have lost all of my tomatoes to blight this year. It has rotted all the fruits. Variety San Marzano I think. I suspect it was already in the soil. I have thrown away as much of the plant foliage as possible but made the mistake of putting the finished plants into the compost bin, to pull them out after a few weeks when i found out they had blight.
Now I won't be able to grow potatoes and tomatoes for some years. Has anyone else had this problem? How long did you have to wait and did you treat the soil with anything?
Thank you.

I think it’s airborne and appears year on year by blowing onto your plants. I don’t think it persists in the soil. You can compost plants with blight with no problem for the next year/when you use the compost.

@Boobeedoo.. thanks for your reply. I have read mixed reports on whether to compost or not. Some say no everything has to be burned and others say it's fine! It's quite poor soil which has to be improved every year so I wondered if it was the soil rather than airborne

It’s apparently got a very short viability apart from in potato tubers. I don’t know whether it persists in tomato roots.

It's happened to me too. My first ever time growing anything this year and my tomatoes were doing fabulously! I'm absolutely gutted, so solidarity to you.

Yup. We lost all our tomatoes to late blight this year

I have had grey mould on my toms. Two years now.
I am going to clean the greenhouse more thoroughly (I use jeyes fluid and wipe inside down) by spraying as well as wiping. Removing the top layer of soils. Getting seep hose to water the plants (apparently disease is airborne and also water born but requires leaves to be wet for 4-6 hours to allow it to grow).
Four to six hours of free water on the plant surface is required for spores to germinate and infect the plant. In greenhouses, this usually happens through condensation, which occurs when the plant surfaces are colder than the surrounding air.
from agriculture.vic.gov.au/biosecurity/plant-diseases/vegetable-diseases/grey-mould-botrytis-in-greenhouse-tomato-crops

I left a sprinkler on a timer when I went away for a week adn think everything got too wet. Also we had days of very humid weather.
And lastly I'm going to lay some groundcover membrane (which allows the water through) over the soil, with just spaces for the tomato stems) in case the disease can be found in the soil. Though I will put a few inches of fresh soil on the top so it should be disease free.

According to the allotment fb groups I am on, it's been a bad year for blight. It likes cooler, wet conditions which we have had plenty of this year.

You can compost the remains of your plants if your compost bin reaches a ceetain temperature to destroy the spores. We get it every year, usually the back end of September for my poly toms, end of august for the outdoor ones.

To guarantee a crop I try and plant early. Tomatoes grow really well from seed, but the problem most people have is a lack of a heated greenhouse for the early spring frosts. I buy a couple of well grown ones from the garden centre, and set some off and do the inside at night, out in the day dance all through April.

I do sometimes question whether it's worth it. My best ones for the last 2 years have been little container trailing cherry toms, they come a lot earlier and are prolific and I can have them outside. Thirsty little buggers tho!

I had blight in some of my potatoes this year. I composted the affected plants.

@HaplessHetty

I had blight in some of my potatoes this year. I composted the affected plants.

I wondered how that advice tied in other advice I’d seen that it could persist in tubers…. tubers are living tissue, so I think you’d be safer not to compost them, just the top growth.

I've lost all of mine too. A mix of wet days and cold overnight temperatures. I don't compost the dead/diseased plants as I'm not sure the bin (it's a Dalek) gets hot enough to kill the spores.

Thanks everyone. So it's been a bad blight year then. I don't think it was bad last year but I do remember the plants turning black and they did this year although I do practice crop rotation. Now I'll have to hold off planting pots and toms for a few years. Although cherry ones in pots sound like a good idea
I've removed as much of the plants from the composter as it's a dalek one.

Yes, blight has been a problem this year, as summer has been indifferent, with plenty of humid, overcast days. I had some tom plants outside but one by one they got blight. The plants in the greenhouse fared better, but fruits have been slow to ripen this year.

Unless your dakek compost bin gets plenty of full sun I doubt the temperature would rise high enough to kill the blight spores, so you've done the right thing removing your dead tom plants from it. You could buy some fresh compost for growing toms next year, just to be sure. I grow mine in containers using shop bought compost. The plants in the greenhouse are always more productive than the ones grown outside, so next year I won't bother with outdoor toms.

This webpage has good info about potato blight
here

MereDintofPandiculation I suppose the tubers break down as long as the compost heap gets hot enough. I make sure I have a good ratio of green and brown waste for optimal conditions.

I follow no- dig gardener, Charles Dowding. He has lots of information about blight in the UK. He seems to compost everything, perennial and annual weeds, blighted plants, tubers. He grows amazing fruit and veg.

MereDintofPandiculation I suppose the tubers break down as long as the compost heap gets hot enough. I make sure I have a good ratio of green and brown waste for optimal conditions. I think you'd have to cook them, and it's hard to achieve that temperature in a domestic heap, even with a good ratio of green and brown, and compost heap dimensions such as to minimise the surface area to volume ratio.

This is from Charles Dowding, an expert gardener of over 30 years. He as had no problems composting the tubers so I am not worried about doing it either. I will just make sure I have cleared the raised bed of all tubers. I don't want any infected ones regrowing next year.

My tomatoes growing outside had blight this year; luckily my greenhouse ones avoided it.

@HaplessHetty

This is from Charles Dowding, an expert gardener of over 30 years. He as had no problems composting the tubers so I am not worried about doing it either. I will just make sure I have cleared the raised bed of all tubers. I don't want any infected ones regrowing next year.

He’s also a very good gardener, and I suspect he gets his compost hotter than most people. I guess the practical answer is - if you normally have “volunteer” potatoes appear in your heap, you might not want to compost tubers from blighted plants.