Thursday 27 June 2013

Tomatoes blight.

Try growing cultivars such
as 'Ferline', 'Legend' and 'Fantasio', which have some blight resistance.
All that said, there is hope for outdoor growers. A wilder Mexican tomato called Matt's Wild Cherry shows signs of resistance; another is Koralik, a sprawling bush tomato (the type where you don't have to pinch out side shoots) closely related to Matt's. Both have tiny cherry tomatoes.

Ferline and Legend are F1 cordons (the type where you do pinch out the side shoots) that were bred in Oregon, where blight is a common problem. They are not immune to blight, but are very early fruiting, so you get a tomato salad or two before your chutney-making begins.

Poor air circulation compounds the problem, so if your plants are in pots, give them plenty of space; in the ground, aim for 1-1.5m apart. There is some anecdotal evidence that a solution of 50/50 milk and water sprayed weekly helps to keep the spores at bay. And feed pot plants weekly with comfrey or liquid seaweed, to keep the plants' strength up.

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