THE TOMATOES ALL HAVE BLIGHT! / ALLOTMENT GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS

The second bit of news is a little bit more horrendous. Oh guys, it's such a shame. You gotta do it anyway. Good morning, good morning everyone. Welcome back to my allotment diaries. My name is Emma. These are my allotment diaries. I would love you to hit the subscribe button if you are enjoying my allotment content. Welcome back to the UK. So, we had a massive heatwave yesterday. Yesterday, like last week, yesterday we had a heatwave. All of last week we had a heatwave and it was like 33 degrees. It was insanely hot in London. It's still very sticky and humid but it is raining today and it is a bit overcast. So, I'm really happy about that because it means that I can start getting on with those autumn jobs. I've been putting them off because I'm just gonna sweat to death, guys. I'm just gonna be a puddle on the floor. And I like autumn jobs. I enjoy this time of year. I enjoy those jobs. So, I'm really happy the weather has kind of changed a bit. Just before we start this video, I have some very exciting news. So, a lot of you have been asking if I am releasing a 2024 allotment planner. The answer is yes. So, this is my copy. So, my... Oh my goodness, is that you? Is that Rocky? Oh! Scary that you're... Oh no, Rocky. Rocky, come on. Why? Rocky! No, Rocky. No. No, no, no, no, no. It's like he knows that you're there and he's trying to talk to you. Hi. Come on. I can't get him off me. I don't know why I don't have a cat. Can I touch him? Get down. Get off. I am releasing a new allotment planner for next year. This is my author copy, so it won't have that big strip across it there. It's absolutely full of pages for planning. Daily planning, weekly planning. Lots of... Rocky, no. Rocky, come on, Rocky. Rocky. Right. Well, that all didn't go to plan at all, did it? I was just trying to show you a little bit of the inside of the planner. So, there are lots of squared pages where you can... I'm not sure if you can see this. Where you can plan your plot, suggested jobs for each month in here. So, it's quite personalised. I've also got quite a few little ideas of things that you can do. So, it's a lot more than just a planner. So, this is all of my advice on how to grow a sweet PTP. It's more than a planner. Lots of the drawings in here are actually my drawings that I've done. So, it's personalised as well. It's my work, basically. And all of these... This front cover is completely designed by me. They're all my hand-drawn pictures. So, yes, it will be available in October. I have a couple of changes to make to it and a couple of things I want to add to it. And that's all come from your feedback. So, thank you so much for all of your feedback from last year on my planner. You've asked for more planning space. You've asked for it to be bigger on the page so that you can write and it's clearer and it's bigger. You've asked for even more jobs on the pages. You've asked for more sort of, like, advice and stuff in it. Which is why the price point is going to be £14.99 UK. This is more than a planner, guys. This is more than a planner. This isn't just a load of blank pages. This is a lot of work and effort and advice. And it's very personalised to every month. It's more than a planner, basically. It's your absolute handbook for the year. That's what I should have called it, really. My lockmick handbook. But I've called it a planner because you can plan in it. So, there we go. It'll be available in October for all who are asking about it. I've been working away on that. Right. This intro has been, like, one of the longest, I think, I've ever done. So, let's get on with some gardening and some bad news. What's new? Right. Let's show the bad news. So, in my last video, you might have seen that I was mulching a lot of my beds over. So, I've done two beds so far really well. Really good mulching. And then this has happened, hasn't it? This is fox behaviour. Fox or rocky, I reckon. Which is really annoying. So, he's dug a whole cardboard up. He's obviously not happy with the mulching situation. And then I left one of my compost bags because I thought no one's going to steal it. So, I'll just leave it out here. And look at these. Look at this. This looks like, to me, the fox. The fox has come in and just had a good old go at that. Which is really frustrating. But, yeah, we're going to have to fix this up. I just put it all the way over there. It's like a big fox. Obviously, this little bit of compost here is not thick enough. So, what I was planning on doing is leaving that over it now. Because I thought it would help rot down the cardboard better. And then I was going to just top it up in the springtime before I go to grow in it. So, it's got really, really fresh, good compost in it. But, obviously, the fox really likes the cardboard too. Not just worms. So, he's just dug it all up. I hope he doesn't do it again. I'm wondering if I should maybe put some chicken wire over it or something. I don't know really. Anyway, that was the first bit of news I wanted to tell you about. The second bit of news is a little bit more horrendous. So, somebody commented this on one of my videos a week ago, two weeks ago maybe. And I did read the comment, but I was like, nah, ignoring that. I'm not going to listen to that. Well, it turns out not listening to stuff doesn't mean that it's not happening. And it's definitely happening, guys. So, the drama of the tomatoes continues. We're on to a new chapter now. And the chapter is called Blight. Oh, yes. They've got blight. No. I genuinely did not notice the first stages of blight. I wasn't even looking for them. Somebody commented on a video saying, I think I've seen some blight, Emma. And I just didn't look. I just didn't check. It's just not been on my radar. Because I've been so obsessed with getting them to turn red. And what's really frustrating is these ones are starting to turn red now, which is really annoying. Like, finally. Finally, they are starting to turn red. So, the banana skins must have done something. They are turning red, but the problem is this. This is the problem. The blight. Because the blight will eventually kill the tomatoes as well. So, it normally starts on the stem. Yeah, you can see down here. It's all over the stem. And it starts to creep up into these ones. And then it starts to get the leaves. And then the leaves start to wilt away like this. And, yeah, basically, it's just blight. So, I might be talking absolute rubbish right now. And if I am, please correct me in the comments. But I think with early blight, which is at the beginning of your crop's life. So, if your crops get blight early on in the season, before they've even started to grow and stuff. You can rescue them. You can cut them back. You can put loads of stuff on them. You can remove infected plants and stuff. And kind of control it, basically. But when it's late blight. So, it's late in the season. Everything's starting to die back anyway. And you get blight. I think they're just a goner. They're just a goner. And you can see how quickly it spreads. So, I have a feeling this plant here was the first one to get it. Because he seems to be the worst infected. And then his neighbour got it. So, he's now got it. And then if you look here. It's spread here. And he's starting to get it as well. He's starting to get the dreaded black spots of blight. Then it's spread over here as well. So, he's starting to get it. And the other way. He's definitely got it. And then this one here is such a shame. Look, one leaf. Oh no, two leaves. Two leaves have got it. And that's it. But it's spread. It's too late. The infection has spread. So, the rule that I've always been told. Right from the beginning when I first got my plot. Is as soon as they get blight. Remove all the tomatoes. Get rid of all the plants. And that's it. Because not only is it going to spread here. It could spread to my potatoes. I need to check those. It could spread to all my neighbours plants and everything. So, I need to get rid of them now. As soon as possible. So, that's what we're going to do. Because just as they start to go red. They all get blight. These ones have gone really red. Aren't they fabulous? Fabulous, fabulous. What is that? I apologise. I thought that was a giant spider. It was just a bit of dirt. Why is there woodlice in there? God sakes, go away. Leave me alone. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes. How lovely and red they are. It's like the worst picking of a tomato ever. How do I pick them then? The way I did that was so weird. I want to get that little stem thing on it. It won't come off altogether though. Oh yes, it will. There we go. Lovely. These are my yellow sun roast ones. That's what they're called. Someone said sun roast. Remembered now. You just have to tell me enough times. Unfortunately, most of them are green. Guys, it's such a shame. I really wanted to pick them when they were red. Now I've got to pick them before. Wow, look at him. He's a whopper. Right, we've got the goods. We've got the goods. It's so frustrating because it actually looks like a really good little harvest. Some of these are whoppers. Look at the size of that one. My goodness. A couple of them are starting to go red, which I think is a good sign. A few of them in there are red as well. It's a good little harvest of tomatoes. Now it's time to get rid of all of the plants, unfortunately. They've just got to go. I'm going to put on an old glove. Then I'm going to not use this glove again because I don't want to spread the infection to the rest of my plot. On goes the old glove. I've got an old bag of strolch here that's empty. I'm going to put all of my plants into here. When my plants have dried out, I'm going to burn them. That's the only way to get rid of them. The last thing that you want to do is put blight into your compost because it's going to spread it all around the plot. You just have to get rid of it in the best way that you can. This is the best way I can get rid of it is by burning it. That's what we're going to do. Now I feel bad that I've said all that in front of the plants because I think they're probably going to be panicking now, thinking, What? What did she say? Did she say what I think she said? Yes, I did. I'm sorry, guys. You're all going to be burnt to death. Right. Bye bye, tomatoes. Oh, it looks so sad in here. But I have to say, there is something ridiculously satisfying about pulling out all your crops and just having it all nice and empty and neat again. I do find it very satisfying. I'm very pool friendly. What does that mean? I don't know what that means. I've said it. I'm very trigger happy. Is that what it's called? You know when you're just quick to destroy everything. That's what I'm like, basically. I'm quick to destroy everything. Now they're all in this bag here. This is quite a thick bag, so I thought this would be quite good. And what I'll do is I'll tie the end up like that so none of it looks trying to escape already. None of it will be able to escape. And as soon as that's dried out, I'm going to use my little incinerator thing and just burn it. I mean, these crops, they can't last forever. They all need to come out at some point or another. Blight will get them, or they'll just finish and die off anyway. So I'm really happy with what I've got. And that's sorted. The only thing I'm worried about now is that it's spread to my potato plants. And they're my Christmas potatoes. And I don't want them to go down. So we're going to go and check them and see if they've got blight. I'm really hoping they don't. You're finished, mate. Well, you are now, because I've pulled you up. You're definitely finished now. They are getting the first signs of blight. Guys, it's unbelievable. I can't believe this is happening. That is definitely blight. That is blight. I can't just pull them all up. I can't, don't make me do it. What I'm going to do, you know what I'm going to do? You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to cut the blight off, even though I literally just said you couldn't do that. And I know you can't do it, and it won't bleed and work. I know it won't work, but I'm going to do it. I'm going to cut the blight off, and I'm going to mulch it with a great big pack of compost in the hope that I can just save it long enough to get Christmas potatoes. I know I won't be able to, but I'm going to do it. Right, I know it won't work. I know. Sometimes in life, you've just got to do it, even though you know it's not going to work. You've just got to do it anyway, you know? You've got to do it anyway. Come on blight, bugger off. We don't like your kind around here. We don't want your kind around here. We're chopping off the blight. It won't work and then we'll die. Why, oh why, oh why, oh why? Cutting off the blight. To try to put it right. Do you believe in life after blight? Me neither, but let's pretend. Slug's eating that. I wonder if that kills a slug now he's eating blight. Maybe there'll be a mob of infected... Oh my god, is that red ants that I'm just sitting on? God's sakes. Why does nature hate me so much? Anyway, there was some sort of scientific slash logic behind doing that. Something about blight comes down in the rain and it splashes the soil onto the plants, so mulching around tomatoes and potatoes and things that are likely to get blight kind of prevents the blight from getting onto the plant or something. I think it's way too late for that now and I'm pretty sure they're goners, but I've done it anyway, so you can only try with these things. I've taken all of the blight infected stuff off of it and I've really mulched under it and I've sort of mulched all the way along here and so, I mean, I've given them the best chance possible at surviving the infection, but it's up to them. It's up to them. Will I get Christmas potatoes? Watch this space. Find out. I don't know. No one knows. I might just have to buy them in the shop. Right. I hope you enjoyed my little vlog today. I know it was a little bit negative, but behind every negative, there's a positive and in this case, the positive was a basket full of tomatoes, I suppose. It's always good to harvest something, whether it's ready or not. It's always exciting and I've cleared the polytunnel as well, which is excellent and I've mulched something. I mean, it's all looking very, very good around here at the moment. It is my favourite time of year. I hope you're enjoying your allotment plot. Let me know what you're getting up to at the moment. Look out for my planner. My planner is going to be released in October. I will give you lots and lots of notice before and I'm going to do a proper, I'm going to go through the planner properly in another video and show you all the inside of it so you know exactly what you're getting for your money and I will see you again in a vlog on Friday. Thanks for watching guys. See you then. Bye.