nettie
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Blight!!!!OMG what a panic this afternoon.
For a couple of days some of my toms had looked a bit thirsty, which I put down to the dry spell we've had, even though I'd been good about watering them. I thought after yesterday's rain they'd be looking marvellous, but I went down today and it was carnage -over half the plants were badly affected.
They've all had a radical haircut, poor little things - I've done my best to remove all the affected leaves, and luckily only had to throw away 4 or 5 fruits. Some of the stems are affected, but of course there's nothing I can do about that. The plants are laden with unripe fruit and it would be awful to lose them.
Should i pick the fruit now and ripen as much of it up as I can with the help of a banana, or do you think it will be OK to leave it?I did do a good job with the haircuts even though I say so myself!
And can anyone tell me if green tomato chutney is nice? 
Thanks
Nettie xx
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judith
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What rotten luck. Are your spuds OK, or have you harvested already?
Green tomato chutney is pretty good. It doesn't look as pretty as red tomato, but the hard little toms give it a nice crunch.
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nettie
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I'd already dug up most of the spuds and did the rest today to be on the safe side. What a marathon it's been today!
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Bernie66
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green tom. chutney is great, amusing for kids and a damn site better than wasting any toms that won't redden. Mind you i fry green toms as well so nothing gets wasted.
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nettie
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I've just spoken to my Mum and she reckons I should get down there and pull all the toms off quick, as once the blight is in the stems it's all over **sigh**
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tahir
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I've got abpout 10kg od blight ridden plum tomatoes, in various shades of ripeness, what can I do with them? Will the green ones ripen or rot?
(Blight virgin)
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cab
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If its in the stems then yeah, you've got it now. But all is not lost.
Late blight is a strange creature; it isn't a fungus, technically its in kingdom protista, and when you look at its life cycle its really, really wierd. It doesn't travel well or very fast down the stems of a plant, or even along into the fruit, but it does splash off the leaves and onto the ground, and if the ground is wet it can swim in the soil moisture and get at roots (of cours attacking taters).
With a tomato, if you get late blight (it happens to all of us at some time) it isn't the end of the world. It doesn't even spread all that fast until its windy or rainy, then it splashes from plant to plant quite quickly. I would pluck what fruit you can from infected plants and stick them in a collander, ideally with a bunch of bananas on top. Let 'em ripen, inspect once in the morning and once in the evening to take out any ripe ones and any that look like they might be getting all blighted. If it looks like a lot of the fruit are coming down with blight then either use them green (dip in egg and polenta and fry for the classic fried green tomatoes, or chutney, etc.) or, as a last ditch attempt, I have saved green tomatoes from such rotting once picked by sterilising the surface with vodka in an atomiser spray.
For the record, I've got a wee bit of late blight on my St. Pierre, which is a surprise because I've never had it in my little walled garden before. I'm not awfully worried about it yet.
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tahir
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I've just picked a huge bowl of chillis, mainly jalaoenos, so will be using the greenest to make jalapeno/green tom sauce (with cider vinegar)
Good advice about the bananas
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cab
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| tahir wrote: |
Good advice about the bananas |
Heck, its an old enough idea  The only thing I do different to what most people do is use a collander to ripen the toms in, I think they benefit from the extra air flow.
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marigold
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Just realised that my tomatoes have also succumbed to blight  . I've rescued what fruits I can to ripen indoors. I'll bin the rest of them and the plants (best not composted, I assume), but I'm wondering if it's OK to reuse the growbag compost as soil conditioner? Or should everything go to the tip?
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tahir
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Dunno. I binned my plants but they were in the ground.
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treaclepuss
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I've joined the Blight Club too 
It's the speed of it which amazed me. I don't grow main crop potatoes as they are as cheap as chips round here, but does it affect aubergines does any one know? It's blowing a hoolie tonight as well......
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