The Cottage Smallholder


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Fighting the dreaded blight

Photo: Greenhouse green tomatoes

Photo: Greenhouse green tomatoes

It’s that tomato blight time of year again. I put on my strongest spectacles and carefully examine all my tomato plants morning and evening. This can take some time as we are growing over forty plants in the green house and various corners of the garden. If ignored the blight will spread rapidly, given the right conditions.

But if you have time on your hands and are diligent it is possible to keep blight at bay if it’s discovered in the early stages.

The greenhouse plants have suffered more than the outdoor ones this year. Mainly my fault as the planned cordons raced away to become bushes and created a superb rainforest environment. The peppers, chillies and cucumbers are loving it. But the tomatoes are struggling.

The greenhouse is well ventilated and I’m keeping the door open all the time at the moment to increase the circulation of air. But each morning the tomato plants are dripping wet with condensation.

I cut off any infected leaves and fruits and burn them. This does give the plants a bit more air and a better chance of not succumbing to the dreaded tomato blight. I managed to keep blight at bay the summer before last using this method on outdoor toms but it’s very laborious. This morning I spent an hour in the greenhouse battling the blight and filled the dustbin burner with iffy leaves.

Until last year Bordeaux Mixture was considered a good organic solution for tomato blight, I am wondering whether to go down this route. For potatoes it is used as a preventative and as a treatment for tomatoes.

Editing the photo above I spotted some blighty foliage in another part of the photo so I’m off down the garden in my pyjamas to snip it off the offending leaf.


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23 Comments

  1. Fiona Nevile

    Hello Barney

    Sorry to have missed your comment.

    What a shame that you lost so much of your harvest. Better luck next year.

    Hi Suzanne

    Yes you can apply BM at 2 week intervals. I treated some of my plants this year and it certainly slowed down the process.

  2. hello again
    after posting a message in august about treating blight with bordeaux mixture i smathered my tomatoes with the mixture. i must say it worked a treat. how ever i have noticed today that blight is lurking again. i was wondering would it be ok to re spay.
    thansk for any help in advance

    p. has any body ever grown cape goosberrys from seed?

  3. i have never experienced blight until this year and did’nt know what was wrong with the toms until reading about it here. i have just lost an entire basket of tumbling toms but the one seed planted by my 3yr old grandson is healthy and thriving!! maybe he knows more than he’s letting on about this gardening lark!

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