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Tomato advice please!

Cornwall, United Kingdom Gb

I decided last year that I wasn't going to try growing tomatoes again after the awful summer & heartbreak of blight but then it was lovely early this year so I thought I'd have one more go....I don't have a greenhouse, & all the tomatoes are in pots, upended growbags and one hanging basket. Now, of course it's raining a lot. I have got some Bordeaux mixture but reading the bottle it sounds horribly toxic stuff. Is there anything else I can do to prevent blight? This time last year they were already well infected but so far they seem ok.




Answers

 

so long as you didnt leave any of last years infected plantstuff lying around close to where you have this years crop it should be fine. If you are going to use your bordeaux mixture you need to do it before the plants show signs of infection. Personally i wouldnt use it and just hope for the best. It was probably last years bad weather that helped spread the blight.

20 Jul, 2009

 

Bordeaux mixture isn't that bad, and for a long time it was permitted for use by organic growers. The only 'nasty' in it is the copper of course and if used a lot this can build up in the soil. It really is effective. Although as Dawnrosie says it is best as a prophylatic, if you catch a tomato with the first signs of blight, pull off and destroy the leaves, and spray with Bordeaux mixture, you will probably keep it at bay. I did this last year and managed to retrieve quite a bit of the crop I would otherwise have lost.
If you want a totally organic 'preventative' if you can get hold of a whole lot of horsetail/ marestail (equisetum) and soak it in water for a couple of weeks, you can spray this and it has good fungicidal properties because it contains silica.

20 Jul, 2009

 

tks for the info on the marestail Bertie, my sis has this growing in her garden, now i know what to do with it!

20 Jul, 2009

 

Thank you very much, both of you. I have an abundance of weeds but not marestail, but will ask around - a great tip! And if unsucessful I think I'll try the Bordeaux mixture - I can't bear to lose the toms again!

20 Jul, 2009

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