Tomato soil

16 years ago

For several years we have been using the same raised beds to grow tomato plants. We grow both standard and heirloom varieties. In mid to late summer the plants always start to develop disease, mostly late blight. The severity of the blight changes depending on the host plant and the enviromental conditions that year. However, I am starting to wonder if the severity of the disease is increasing due to the fact that I grow tomatoes each year with no crop rotations. Am I escalating the problem by giving the disease a host to thrive on each year? Should I avoid tomato plants in those raised beds this following summer? Or should I just battle the disease by using disease suppressing techniques like avoiding overhead irrigation, amending the soil with compost and organic ferts, ect...

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Comments (3)

colokid
16 years ago
I guess the answer is to do what you have to do. Or able to do. Rotation should be better. I am limited to the same place each year, which is not the best. I used over head sprinklers one year- never again! I now water under the plants with a modified drip and think mulch is one of the best thing you can do. Any thing you can do to improve the soil is all ways good.
KennyP, who knows less and less each year.
digdirt2
16 years ago
The severity of the blight changes depending on the host plant and the enviromental conditions that year.

No offense but how do you know you are dealing with late blight (p. infestans) every year? Is it common in your area? Checked with local county ag office? Photos? There are many of them here and on the web. Do the plants die quickly? Symptoms? Where do you live? Reason I ask is it could actually be any one of many other things as many folks tend to lump all sorts of things in the "blight" camp when they are something else and the "fix" would differ accordingly.

EX: If cold enough for freezing in the winter then late blight wouldn't normally be a chronic problem.

If not, then I'd do both - rotate if you can but amend the soil with good compost too as there is some evidence that the bacteria found in quality compost can help control bacterial and fungal diseases (not viral).

But either way I feel you may be just treating the symptoms while not fixing the cause of them. To eliminate it you first need to ID for sure what the chronic disease is.

Dave
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mitanoff
16 years ago
ShadyB:
Really good rap name btw. :>
I too have raised beds in which I grow tomatoes. This year I did not mulch, nor did I do a proper staking job. Granted, the weather did not help AT ALL this year, but my plants were just awful the past season. This year I will rotate (I have 5 raised beds, 3x8), mulch and stake! If I get the same results then at least I'll know that I will have eliminated some of the variables that lead to disease/blight. (I don't spray). Pre-baby, I used WOWs, a mini greenhouse, basket weave staking, watered the plants at the root every day. I had 7ft+ monster plants with an abundant crop. Post-baby, I stuck the damned things in the ground and prayed for rain. Baby is older now. Yay!