This topic contains 4 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by John 6 years, 1 month ago.
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I think you must work by events. Blight is said not to be persistant, arriving from afar in rain/humid conditions. Other ‘pests’ might be spidermite and fungal. Maybe a second tunnel would give you more scope……
Hi Paul, nice to hear of your success.
What I do is grow tomatoes one end one year, the other end the next year etc, so a two year “rotation”.
Michael Kelly of GIY in Waterford, Ireland has grown tomatoes for about 8 years in a row and reports good growth.
Blight spores cannot live in soil or compost, they need living tissue to survive, so it’s not about blight. A problem can be nematodes that eat tomato roots, and one (expensive) solution to that is buying grafted plants, or learning to graft tomatoes onto pest resistant rootstocks.
Personally I don’t think that is worthwhile: just no dig, healthy soil with compost mulch.
For salads, I grow lettuce family one half and brassicas/other families the other end, then swap next winter.
And it’s better end to end, not side to side because of plant roots travelling under paths to a neighbouring bed – they go a long way.I have been planting tomatoes in the same beds for 3 years now. I mostly use composted grass on the beds. But, my polytunneld is removed at the end of the growing season and the beds are exposed to the external temperatures until may. I am thinking about a caterpillar tunnel…less materials to erect but same structure. Oh my current poly tunnel is only suitable as a temporary one, similar to something like a hoop cloche.
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