Is this blight?

[Penny Lane]

Hi guys, I looked at google images etc but I can't figure out if my toms have blight or m. def. or other!
They were all greenhoused and I've now brought them outside into the garden as the greenhouse was getting very humid. Here's some photos (taken with my phone so excuse the quality)...











Thanks for looking :)

[Millymollymandy]

Not sure, the brown mark on the last photo is a bit suspect but could be other things - does it look mouldy looking on the other side? I'd pick it off just to to be on the safe side (and don't put it in your compost). The yellowing leaves isn't blight - I've always assumed it was just old leaves going a bit off like most plants do but it could be a deficiency of something or other. Mine are all curled up and mottled brown/yellow which I am assuming is mag. deficiency which is why I got the epsom salts!

[Odsox]

No, I don't think it's blight.
The last leaf looks like it was burnt by a droplet of water in the sun, also the tom fruits look like they've been water spotted.
You don't water (spray) them during daylight hours do you ? Although it looks like they are outside, so was probably raindrops.

[Penny Lane]

I can't see any mould on the back of the leaves and their usually kept in the plastic greenhouse. I usually water them in the evening so by your reasoning odsox, it's the condensation.

Think I'll check out this deficiency idea too, thank you both :)

[patR]

I dont think it is...
Also your toms look as if you may have a slight potash deficiency, you get that stalk end but that doesnt ripen properrly and stays harder and greener...

[theoldpunk]

The last leaf looks like it was burnt by a droplet of water in the sun, also the tom fruits look like they've been water spotted.
You don't water (spray) them during daylight hours do you ? Although it looks like they are outside, so was probably raindrops.

Plain water drops and sunlight won't burn your leaves:

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20ch ... scorch.pdf

The myth possibly came about from the practice of watering earlier in the day (to avoid rapid evaporation and reduce the chance of fungal diseases). There are lots of possible causes of leaf damage but this isn't one of them

[Odsox]

The last leaf looks like it was burnt by a droplet of water in the sun, also the tom fruits look like they've been water spotted.
You don't water (spray) them during daylight hours do you ? Although it looks like they are outside, so was probably raindrops.

Plain water drops and sunlight won't burn your leaves:

http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20ch ... scorch.pdf

The myth possibly came about from the practice of watering earlier in the day (to avoid rapid evaporation and reduce the chance of fungal diseases). There are lots of possible causes of leaf damage but this isn't one of them

That's interesting, but I feel an experiment coming on.
The next time the sun shines brightly (probably next October at this rate), I shall purposely place a drop of water on a leaf and see what happens.

I know however from experience that it certainly scorches tomato fruit.
Last year I had to go out in a hurry and forgot to open my greenhouse before I went (it was cloudy and misty at the time)
Of course the sun came out with a vengeance and the temperature shot up to over 100 F with condensation everywhere.
All the sunward sides of the green and red fruit were blistered and the more shaded ones developed white patches exactly the same as Penny's pictures.
But of course I may have mythinterpreted the reason.

[grahamhobbs]

As everyone has said, this is not blight. Blight usually starts with definite largish chocolate brown spots or blotches on the leaves, usually the older leaves and then rapidly spreads to the stems and fruit, with similar blotches appearing. In my experience once blight hits, the fruit will rapidly become affected even if you pick them immediately. So do not pick them and leave them to ripen thinking they look alright, they will develop the blotches and go rotten. Therefore pick straightaway and use immediately, if green in chutney for example.

[Millymollymandy]

You may have been unlucky Graham because in my experience if you get the fruit off the plants pronto and put them on a windowsill (indoors!) to ripen, they will ripen up fine. Just keep checking and remove any that develop blight. I've done this several times and had no problems.

Bordeaux Mix really does help because my plants that caught it whenever it was (2 weeks ago?) are doing fine despite having blight on the stem of one of them - I pick off leaves occasionally but really it is spreading soooooo slowly that the fruit are ripening on the plant as normal.

[Peggy Sue]

How quickly does blight normally spread on teh plant and to adjacent plants(another nieve question I'm afraid!), is it a couple of days or are we talking weeks?

[Millymollymandy]

Days, PS! But if you spray with Bordeaux Mix like I have been saying it really does keep it at bay and the toms carry on growing and ripening as normal - just need to pick a few blighted leaves off every few days and be a bit vigilant. But without the BM mix the plants would have been a goner in a week.

[Peggy Sue]

This really couldn't have been blight then, I must have ummed and erred for a week before doing anything.

My downfall is always not wanting to destroy any plants and not wanting to treat chemically- the result is a week of umming and erring then sheer frustration at any devistation! Guess I was lucky this time

[grahamhobbs]

Millymollymandy, good to hear your experience that with Bordeaux mixture blight can be controlled even after it is first noted, I never realised this. i guess you need to get in very quick with the treatment. Similarly with saving the fruit, previously mine and other fellow allotmenters have found that perfectectly good looking fruit have just gone rotten after a week or so.
This year my wife came back and said we had blight on the tomatoes in the polytunnel (she is a gardener by trade, although I do most of the veg. growing at the allotment). The following evening I rushed up there after work, picked all the tomatoes big, small green and red, and having just be given a super-dooper sprayer, sprayed everything with Bordeaux mixture and stripped all the affected leaves. Went home feeling a mixture of dismay that we had got blight in our polytunnel but elation that I had dealt with it quickly and that we might at least get some tomatoes and some chutney out of it.
Then I started to think about those chocolate brown blotches on the leaves and the fact that in my experience blight moves fast, leaves, then stem and then fruit. This was only on the leaves and all plants, except the Pink Brandywines. I looked up tomato problems on the internet and there it was LEAF MOLD not blight. So now I am elated that we don't have blight but dismayed I'd picked all the tomatoes before they were ready.
The link below gives very good pictures of tomato diseases in case anyone is uncertain what things look like
http://www.avrdc.org/photos/tomato_diseases/index.html

[dave45]

what is Bordeaux mix and where do u get it?

[Millymollymandy]

Millymollymandy, good to hear your experience that with Bordeaux mixture blight can be controlled even after it is first noted, I never realised this. i guess you need to get in very quick with the treatment. Similarly with saving the fruit, previously mine and other fellow allotmenters have found that perfectectly good looking fruit have just gone rotten after a week or so.
This year my wife came back and said we had blight on the tomatoes in the polytunnel (she is a gardener by trade, although I do most of the veg. growing at the allotment). The following evening I rushed up there after work, picked all the tomatoes big, small green and red, and having just be given a super-dooper sprayer, sprayed everything with Bordeaux mixture and stripped all the affected leaves. Went home feeling a mixture of dismay that we had got blight in our polytunnel but elation that I had dealt with it quickly and that we might at least get some tomatoes and some chutney out of it.
Then I started to think about those chocolate brown blotches on the leaves and the fact that in my experience blight moves fast, leaves, then stem and then fruit. This was only on the leaves and all plants, except the Pink Brandywines. I looked up tomato problems on the internet and there it was LEAF MOLD not blight. So now I am elated that we don't have blight but dismayed I'd picked all the tomatoes before they were ready.
The link below gives very good pictures of tomato diseases in case anyone is uncertain what things look like
http://www.avrdc.org/photos/tomato_diseases/index.html

I haven't heard of or seen pictures of that before - first of all that's a really good link and I'm going to save it - 2nd of all having just been talking curcurbit diseases on another thread it does seem that practically everything catches either blight, rust, mould, mildew, wilt or anthracnose just that they seem to have different latin names for different species. It's a ruddy nightmare!

Anyway console yourself that maybe the plants would have died anyway (haven't googled your disease yet!) so you've acted quickly and saved your crop.