Tomato blight - destruction of material

[antipodes]

All my tomato crop has sadly been decimated by late blight.   :'(   :'(   :'( 
Obviously I removed the plants as quickly as possible and they were thrown away. But there were numerous fruit that had fallen and were squashed into the ground. Is that dangerous? There is no way to remove it all.
I do rotate so the toms will not be in the same place next year, do you know if blight lives in the soil or if it is only windborne?
Does it affect other plants of the same family? I have peppers and eggplants next to them but they seem unaffected.
thx for advice.

[antipodes]

[Melbourne12]

You're advised to destroy as much blighted material as possible, but I think that on most allotment sites it's endemic, so destruction is more of a gesture than anything else.

It doesn't affect aubergines, just potatoes and toms.  Good article here: http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/Profile.aspx?pid=217

[antipodes]

Good article! The infected fruit will have been squashed into the ground, so won't be composted at any rate. We are still having unseasonably wet summers so maybe just need for a good drier July/August to not be affected?

[cornykev]

Have a fire and burn them all on the spot the toms grew and its windborne, thats how it spreads from plot to plot.   ;D

[antipodes]

Would be nice but we are not allowed fires. Should I really put something down at that spot, some kind of product? Unfortunately my neighbour also has caught it and I have seen other tomato vines in the disposal bin so.... I am not alone, even though I ripped the vines out as soon as the problem became apparent.

[realfood]

There is no real need to do anything as blight spores are carried by wind, not the soil. The only legal substance that I  can think of that you could put on the ground would be lime.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Blight can't live in dead tissue, so it won't overwinter in toms. People are always worrying about green tissue, which doesn't matter. At the same time they won't do the one thing which might make a difference, which is to be completely ruthless about removing potato accidentals.

[BarriedaleNick]

From the article that Melbourne12 posted

The fungus can also produce resting spores (oospores) in the plant tissues that can contaminate the soil. Little is known about their survival and their potential as a source of the disease. The investigations into oospores are continuing and more information may be available in a few years.

Sounds a bit ominous

[antipodes]

At the same time they won't do the one thing which might make a difference, which is to be completely ruthless about removing potato accidentals.

Funny thing is that I don't have potato blight as the maincrop are already awaiting harvest and there are no more heaulms visible.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Blight can reproduce sexually and produce oospores under the right conditions, but the last I heard they hadn't been found in the UK. What I don't get is that every year we get people worrying about blighted foliage, but everyone's totally blase about overwintering tubers, which are the normal way the fungus survives the winter. I suppose it's a case of 'out of sight, out of mind'. Then, of course, they get it again the following year.

[Alex133]

I try not to leave any potatoes in the ground but the tiny ones are quite easy to miss.