Blight resistant tomatoes

[WendyS]

After two disappointing years of having my outdoor tomatoes affected by blight, can anybody recommend some blight resistant varieties so I can start looking for the seed packets now.. I want to grow a mixture of normal sized and small cherry tomatoes and in the past have grown Alicante, Moneymaker and Sweet 100. Thanks.

[Lonnie]

Hi Wendy, is it possible you might be over watering them, I ask that, because I grow Alicantes, and they, along with Moneymakers are very hardy plants, are they in the ground, or in pots?, I also spread Epsom salts around the base, also I only use water from the butts, as straight from the tap might be a bit cold for them. Sorry I can't be more help, but good luck this year.

[WendyS]

Hi Lonnie. I grow my tomatoes directly in the ground, swapping their location alternate years with climbing beans to try & avoid build-up of soil problems. However I'm pondering your query about over-watering because for the past two years we've used an automatic hoseipe irrigation system to water our veggie patch. While we don't use it when rain is forecast, unfortunately our annual summer fortnight's vacation in both years coincided with wet weather. Rather than risk everything dying from lack of water, we left the system switched on while we were away. Possibly this caused overwatering and possibly the blight? Something to ponder, since none of the other vegetables were affected.

[Lonnie]

That seems to be the most probable cause, just in case, have you got neighbours/friends/family, who could do it for you, I grow mine in the ground also, my method, is to dig a hole the size of a flowerpot, take out the bottom and insert the pot in the hole, then fill the bottom with manure, the rest with a specialised compost. of course, we all have our own methods, but i've never had any trouble doing it this way, and get rewarded with trusses holding upto fifteen tomatoes each.

[Alibobs]

Try your usual methods but also grow a selection of each in a grobag - you will know whether it is something in the soil or not then