The year before last we had an amazing crop of tomatoes. We used every available bowl to contain them and were giving them away by the sackload. Last year they were not good. They had blight and goodness knows what but we did get a few decent tomatoes!
This year they have started off late and then had a quick spurt of growth with the fine weather in June. They looked good but were slow to ripen and now they have blight and the foliage is dying and brown and crispy looking. 
As soon as a tomato shows any pink or red colour I am picking it. If there is a blemish then it goes in with the rubbish but otherwise it ripens slowly on its own and looks and tastes good. To date, don’t laugh, we have had seven small cherry tomatoes! 
There are loads of green tomatoes on the vines still but they are beginning to discolour with all the symptoms of blight. 
I don’t know whether to strip the plants while the tomatoes are still whole and make chutney or wait and hope that the majority will come through unscathed. It is so depressing, distressing and disastrous! We started off with such high hopes and now this! There just hasn’t been enough sun.
And yet the self sown tomatoes, 
of what origin I don’t know, are coming along fine and look healthy to boot! Each plant is different. Some of the fruits are small and round and some are long and oval shaped.
It will be interesting to see what they taste like.
Two years on the trot for a bad tomato harvest isn’t good and what is more is putting me off wanting to grow tomatoes again! I read in the paper that parts of England had had such hot weather that plants were dying for lack of water. Now which part would that be? Let me move there. I don’t mind watering daily! Oh, but I’d miss the sea!
I'm afraid to say Val, but I'm having to water mine regularly, and getting my boyfriend to do it in the mornings because by the time I get home they're flopping because they're so thirsty.
ReplyDeletemy garden is still desperate for water, I actually put the sprinkler hose on last night for them.
We're having some rain, but never enough to fully soak the garden and then it's either hot ad muggy so the water evaporates or the sun comes out and it's scorching... The soil is still cracking and coming away from the front wall, it must be well over a centimetre now.
So to see you have blight again, perhaps have a couple of years break to allow for the spores to die off? Do you have anyone growing tomatoes or Potatoes in the area that might be spreading it?
I am so sorry to hear about your blight problem, what a nightmare! Still, I hope you'll continue to grow tomatoes in the future. I'm with Liz on allowing the spores to die off, then perhaps you can give it a go again.
ReplyDeleteValeri,
ReplyDeleteWe had blight kill two heirloom plants, salvaged 3-4 tomatoes on them. Our other tomatoes are leggy as can be, but a nearly big handful of cherry toms everyday. Two of our cherry toms are 10 foot tall. Our potatoes were blighted tow, remarkably one row has recovered and is growing.
Good luck!
Liz I would willing send you our rain! We grow our tumbling cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets. I'm thinking perhaps next year to try another variety and grow in the ground or pots at ground level!
ReplyDeleteRowena thank you for your sympathy. I do appreciate it.
Randy you give me hope. I will keep my fingers crossed!
Val
Nurture the long oval self seeded ones. Those are the Italian tomatoes, and they taste the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks Diana I will do that! Val
ReplyDelete