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Novice tomato grower needs urgent help!

12 replies

CarGirl · 12/08/2007 17:18

I have money makers, they are growing & are still green but some of them now have big brown blemishes - looks diseased and some of the stalk has all died off and got black bits on?

What is it and what do I do - pick the tomatoes to stop it spreading?????

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MrsWeasley · 12/08/2007 17:20

cant help except to say mine have done this too. First time grower here

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Kathyis6incheshigh · 12/08/2007 17:21

Mine too.
I read somewhere that it is caused by too much feeding and not enough watering, but I don't actually believe this in my case.

However I ate one which was about half brown and the non-brown bits were absolutely fine.

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CarGirl · 12/08/2007 17:27

well I haven't fed mine at all!

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Kathyis6incheshigh · 12/08/2007 17:29

Ah that must be rubbish then CarGirl!
I've fed mine about half the amount it says on the bottle hence my scepticism.

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anchovies · 12/08/2007 17:32

can be loads of things think it is called blossom end rot. All mine have got it, in my case not enough water I don't think

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Catz · 12/08/2007 18:08

The worst thing it might be is blight. I got this on my outdoor tomatoes and it kills them pretty quickly. If it's blight there'll be brown patches on the leaves that look like cigarette burns. AS it gets worse these spread to kill the leaves, you get brown/black patches on the stalks and then brown patches on the fruit. Eventially the whole thing goes black and looks burnt. Does that sound like it? I hope not!

If so you should deal with it quickly if you have any healthy plants that might be infected. Yoiu can take the fruit off and try to ripen it but you should dig up any infected plants and burn them/throw them out (don't compost them) and then spray bordeaux mixture on the healthy ones. This should prevent infection. If you've not got healthy plants left then you can spray them all with the mixture and it will delay the spread but not cure it. At least that's what I found out when we had it and out greenhouse plants are all fine. Don't grown plants in the same spot again next year if directly in the ground.

Hope that it's something else!

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throckenholt · 12/08/2007 18:13

could be blight - has certainly been a bad year for potato blight and it is the same family I think.

Pick off all the affected bits and bin or burn (don't compost).

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Pixel · 12/08/2007 21:42

My moneymakers on the allotment have got blight too. I've just picked all the green tomatoes off to ripen at home. The ones at home are fine and have been treated the same so I don't think it's anything I've done. Lots of other people at the allotments have lost their tomatoes as well this year. Is it all the rain we've had do you think?

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CarGirl · 12/08/2007 21:45

So if I pick the green ones that don't have blight how long will it take them to ripen at home - plus we haven't got window sills so no idea where to put them!

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Pixel · 12/08/2007 23:38

Well I've read somewhere that you don't have to put them on the windowsill, just put them near a banana. I'm going to try that .

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throckenholt · 13/08/2007 07:21

blight likes it warm and wet - very much what we have had this year. I think the commercial potato (and presumably tomato) crop has been badly affected this year.

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Tanee58 · 30/08/2007 13:54

First time tomato grower here, too. Some of mine are going brown and wrinkly on their tips but the rest of the fruit, plant, leaves etc, look fine. Is that blossom end rot? What is it? How do I prevent it in future?

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