Tomato Blight

I think the thing I was most excited about this year on the allotment was having a greenhouse at last. Especially for growing tomatoes. I prepared the ground and bought good strong plants from the mill house nursery and Katie did the same.

The plants grew tall and strong and I wired and strung them to hold the weight as I knew it was not going to be that long before the plants were just clusters of fabulous tomatoes hanging from them. And I was not wrong, the plants were laden in fruit.

There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to have a bumper crop and I was already planning how to use them so they would take me through the winter months as soups, passata and married up with the courgette glut there would be plenty of ratatouille as well . The freezer was going to be full and I was feeling rather smug at my first year's success with a greenhouse.

I went away on a short break and left Katie in charge of my booty. When I returned two days later some of the plants on one side of the greenhouse leaves had started to curl up and were turning brown. Just before I had gone away I had cut back an over vigorous cucumber plant and put it down to bruising where I had trimmed the cucumber back and detangled it from the tomatoes.

The following day to my horror all the plants on the right were now in a bad state and tomatoes were starting to drop. Each day I went back and the situation worsened until my whole crop on both sides were riddled with TOMATO BLIGHT! ��

I tried to save some of the green tomatoes to ripen at home but I had to clear every plant and I took them home and disposed of them as I didn’t want to put them in my compost bin. Tomato blight is carried in the air and can travel up to 30 miles apparently. Everyone at the allotment this year lost all their tomatoes inside and out, except for one….. yep you guessed it KATIE!

Now I don’t know why or what she had done differently to the rest of us other than she didn’t fuss and faff as much as I did. Katie is very much sticking it in the ground and letting it do it’s own thing. I constantly tweaked and trimmed and strung and watered... god damn it I practically sang to them!

Some people are saying it was the weather, maybe I over watered? I would like to know your thoughts on tomato blight. Was I just unlucky? Is it something I did or didn’t do.?

I have to finish by saying how glad I am that Katie is my friend. Her tomato crop is upper bumper and more than enough for both of us. Katie is kindly keeping me supplied with generous amounts of various coloured tomatoes that are so sweet and delicious. Thank you Katie x