I grow my tomatoes in pots up against the walls of the house. I've done this almost every year for the last 25 and only once planted them in the ground - here at my house in Brittany. Yup they got blight before the ones in pots which I had dotted around several sides of the house.
Dunno what it is about Brittany because I never had blight in London, the Netherlands or the other side of France near Geneva. In fact I'd never heard of blight before I moved here. It's bloody frustrating. And here it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with rain because I got it in the drought summer of 2005.
Blight comes across the Atlantic, spores blown on the wind from America which is why you wouldn't get it near Geneva. However, in Brittany the Atlantic winds have nothing to stop them which is why your tomato plants get blighted.
About a dozen plants plants see us for salad in season, chutney in winter and some to freeze as pulp. This has never seen us through to next season though. We did try soup but it was too acidic and adding sugar didn't really improve the flavour. Anyone got round that problem?
Love and Peace
Jim
The law will punish man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the Common
But lets that greater thief go loose
Who steals the Common from the goose.
Darn! I didn't know that which is very interesting. I'm right up the eastern end of Brittany though so at least 3 hours from the furthest point west. I suppose I should be grateful because perhaps up that end they get blight before they get any toms at all!
So does that mean that people in the west country are more likely to get blight than those in east anglia, say?
Everyear something happens ie last two years blight, 3 years ago went on holiday etc.
This weekend I've just potted on the seedlings:
8 Brandywine (for green house only)
9 Black Krim (outside at lottie)
8 Gardeners delight in pots against a S facing wall and outside
2 Ferline (left over seed from last year, good blight resistence so outside)
6 Cour de Bue (pots,green house and outside new variety for me so testing it.)
And I've still to plant Red alert which it says leave until April for out side
It's not easy being Cheezy
So you know how great Salsify is as a veg, what about Cavero Nero,great leaves all through the winter , then in Spring sprouting broccolli like flowers! Takes up half as much room as broccolli
42 - 12 gardeners delight, 12 'roma' (plum), 12 moneymaker (for cooking) and 6 santini (from a M&S tomato).
I thought this was too many, but having read your posts, maybe not!?! It is all I am going to fit in the g/house, what with the aubergenes (12) and peppers (12) and chillis (8). Will struggle - have decided to ditch the growbags (or growbag compost in pots) and am preparing 1m boarders all the way around my 8 x 6 g/house.
Have grown them outside before in one of those cheapy plastic mini greenhouses and they were fine on a south facing wall, so will do this with the extras if I run out of space!
"A pretty face is fine, but what a farmer needs is a woman who can carry a pig under each arm"
Yes it's why the blight damaged the potato crops in Ireland so badly, first place for the spores to hit. The resultant famine was caused by economic and social factors .... but that's another matter. Has anyone had it hit peppers, chilli or aubergine? They're all in the same family,
Love and Peace
Jim
The law will punish man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the Common
But lets that greater thief go loose
Who steals the Common from the goose.
I have 4 Roma plants - I would have had more but the dog knocked the propogator off the windowsill a couple of weeks ago and only 4 survived the shock of being spilled all over the floor. But that's fine I'm space limited and only have one growbag greenhouse and one small walking greenhouse. So three of the roma's will end up in the growbag house and the 4th in a pot on the floor of the walkin. The shelves of the walkin will be for chilis (both hot and mild), a kind of mini-sweet pepper and minibel tomatoes. A small cherry tom variety of which I currently have 14 in a propagator looking like they'll be ready to pot on in a week or so.
I intend to start another batch of the minibels when they are potted on so I suspect I'll be ending up with full windowsills as well.
Well you can all wish me good luck because I've never grown tomatoes before. It seems about right to get a packet into a seed tray and start from there before they go off down the allotment later in the year. I'll tell you how many I grew when I've grown any!
well I'm going to try for 20 in the PT a 25ft row on the plot (not sure how many that will bea few in tubs and baskets at home a row of about 6 in border in the garden.
Have no idea how I'll get on what with blight two years running.
I heard on the radio, don't remember if it was the food program or GQT, but apparently there is a farming website which tracks the progress of blight for potato growers, it always starts in the west and travels N.E, due to the prevailing winds. Not sure if it's blown over from the USA, don't think so,I think it's more to do with it being warmer and wetter in the S.W, which are the ideal conditions. The main way it is transfered is via water droplets slashing onto infected leaves and spreading.Which is why polytunnel and greenhouse tom's usually fair better.
You can apparently follow the "blight alert" on the web, and apply your bordeux mix accordingly.
It's not easy being Cheezy
So you know how great Salsify is as a veg, what about Cavero Nero,great leaves all through the winter , then in Spring sprouting broccolli like flowers! Takes up half as much room as broccolli
(thanks)
