The blight takes its toll

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Now here’s a sorry sight:

That is all that remains of my “Costoluto Fiorentino” tomato plant. Despite my efforts to save it, it finally succumbed to the blight. I had been cutting off infected leaves one by one, which slowed the rate of the disease’s development, but in the end it got into the plant’s stem, at which point the battle is lost. All you can do is cut down the plant and get rid of it – definitely don’t put it in your compost bin!

I saved all the fruits of any significant size:

They are still very green, and may not ripen, but I think it’s worth a try, because these are very handsome fruits and many of them would probably have grown pretty big. I gave them a good wash with very dilute washing-up liquid, to get rid of any fungal spores they might have been harbouring.

I shall be inspecting these tomatoes very carefully, at least once a day (probably more, knowing me), looking out for any tell-tale soft brown patches, like this:

Once a fruit shows symptoms like that, there is no saving it. The best thing to do is throw it away as soon as possible so that it doesn’t infect other fruit.

This post is a bit depressing for me, so I’m going to end by focussing on something a lot better…

In gardening, it’s definitely a case of “Win some; lose some”!

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