Next year's Toms

[mew]

This year Ive had a real failure with my tomatoes (Alicante) which I tried to grow in my unheated greenhouse.

They were in two large polystyrene boxes (two plants in each so there was plenty of room) and were planted up with some organic compost and soil.

They were going great but then the leaves suffered with what Ive been informed was a virus - no one could really pin point exactly what it was. I kept removing the affected leaves, the fruits seemed fine. The leaves from the mid vein out started to yellow in blotches and these yellow/beige blotches would eventually go brown and necrotic. I eventually tried some general liquid plant food I had in the shed in a last ditch attempt to try and salvage the tomatoes and the leaves (whats left) are now fine and have had a good growth spurt these past 3 weeks or so.

Would anyone risk using the same compost / soil again or would you remove it completely and start again. I know crop rotation is the recommendation so if I rotated it, again would you be tempted to use it in a different crop or not? I dont want to have to simply throw it away for obvious reasons.

Finally any tips on succesful toms next year......??

Thanks
MEW x

[wulf]

Next year, how about trying a range of different varieties and planting in different spots in the garden and greenhouse. There is more chance that you will get some harvest and you can observe which ones work best in your conditions.

Wulf

[possum]

I wouldn't grow tomatoes in a green house. In the UK, up in Yorkshire I grew dozens outside direct in the veggie patch and they did wonderfully well, not a bit of disease among them.

[Peggy Sue]

I always grow outside, and normally really successfully. But this year there ahs been alot of tomato failure, and mine are a bit miserable- blotchy leaves, yellowing. I think it's just a lousy summer for toms

[red]

to be honest mew - sounds like you have had blight on your tomatoes.. even though people say you cannot get them in a gh, we did
Its goign to be difficult for us to change the compost as ours were planted straight in the ground

its justbeen a lousey year for toms - I have grown then in greenhouses for over a decade and this is the first time I have ever had blight. and the first tiem we have not had buckets and buckets of tomatoes. the usually do very well in a greenhouse.

So in answer to your question.. yes.. i would ditch the compost - give everythign a good clean and try again next year. if you do decide to give outdoor toms a go too.. try to plant them away from the gh as its often the outdoor ones that bring it to your garden in the first place.

[possum]

to be honest mew - sounds like you have had blight on your tomatoes.. even though people say you cannot get them in a gh, we did

I would disagree with that statement. Green houses are the perfect breeding ground for blight as there is a high humidity and a warmer temperature - perfect conditions for blight, so oonce infected can spread rapidly, though probably less likely to be infected to begin with as the fungus is airborn. Outside, it is harder for it to spread. I have had it on one or two plants outside (out of say 50), but I just pull the plants up and that is the end of it.
I am guessing it is all the rain that the UK has had that is to blame.
https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0 ... blight.asp

[Stonehead]

Funnily enough, we've had an excellent year for tomatoes - grown in our south-facing sun-porch as we don't have a greenhouse and it's far too cold to grow them outside. Ventilation is by opening a combination of the doors into the house (which warms the house very nicely as well), the front door and the two windows.

Last year was a total disaster on the other hand with the plants not growing much more than three feet tall over the entire season and providing us with just one tomato!

Anyway, back to the question.

I always plant seed into clean, fresh compost; then plant the seedlings out into fresh, clean compost either in pots or growbags. Spent compost is thoroughly mixed into the muck heaps and left for at least a year.

As for the disease, it sounds to me like early blight. This starts as yellow blotches with tiny black spots. Before long, you end up with large yellow patches surrounding black, necrotic tissue. The combination looks like a bull's eye.

To avoid it as far as possible, avoid wetting the leaves (water the compost directly), ensure good air flow and remember that heat and humidity together encourage blight.

Another disease that can look similar at first glance is bacterial speck, but the while you still have yellow areas with black centres they are much smaller than blight and much more widely spread over the leaves. It's more of a speckling pattern. Again, wet leaves encourage it to spread. It can be controlled with copper sprays.

If there's more black than yellow, the stems and fruit as well as leaves are affected and there's prounced leaf curl then it's more likely to be canker. This is another fungus that overwinters in residues from your previous crop, it's spread by the wind and damaged plants (from pruning or impact damage) are very susceptible. Again, wet leaves are a no-no.

Hope this helps.

[mew]

Stonehead, you're a star, looks like its bacterial spec from googling.

thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu been scratching my head all summer :0)

[Christine]

Yes, cheers to Stonehead - I wondered what the apparently harmless markings on one tomato plant in the Ghouse were and I reckon it's that bacterial thing.

All my outdoor toms - and everyone else's on the allotments - were slaughtered by blight.

I did feed and shelter mine, just in case they could produce, but the fruits did eventually blacken too. However, in the meantime a good feed and brighter weather let them put on lots of healthy topgrowth, which is not at all what I expected of blighted plants.

[Thomzo]

My indoor toms seem healthy but very few fruits. I think this weather was just too bad for them.

Zoe

[Thurston Garden]

My toms began to suffer with early blight, but removing all the infected leaves seemed to stall it.

Poor fruits though, but there's been little heat here.

[Peggy Sue]

Mine are JUST starting to take off, I though they had blight earlier in the year but now I think it is more likel canker and some ahve survivied.

We are in the sunny (if there is any) south east so maybe the cooler outreaches will be not far behind now? Quick before the temperature drops!!

[Martin]

grew a couple of Alicante plants this year - grew and fruited well outdoors, but certainly won't bother growing them again, they were absolutely tasteless - having looked them up and found that they've got "Moneymaker" in their ancestry, it's hardly surprising!
On the other hand, the old "Ailsa Craig" breed gave wonderful tasty tomatoes!

[blathanna]

I grew a mixture of toms this year as well. Got early blight but found Ferline to be mostly resistant to it. Am making sure this is on my list of ones to grow next year. have also found the cherry varieties have some resistence as well.