Tomato blight

[Colonel Mustard]

My tomatoes were attacked by blight last summer. Someone has told me that the blight spores remain in the ground, and not to plant tomatoes for several years. Any advice on this?

[Llwyncelyn]

Its an air borne disease.  If you have destroyed by way of burning the plants and not composted them you should be ok.

[Tony F Dordogne]

And it's usually associated with very wet weather which allows the spores to get a hold and breed.  Like the sooty deposits on apples and other tree fruit, helped along in no little part by the climatic conditions tho at least they could be eaten.

Hopefully 2008 isn't going to be as bad as 2007 summer weather wise, loads of seeds to put in and the overwintering stuff already seems to be very happy.

[Cottage Garden]

You shouldn't grow anything from the same family of tomatoes such as potatoes or aubergines in the same bed the following year.  One of the reasons for rotating crops is to ensure that the soil isn't harbouring diseases for the next crop.   If you rotate your crops every 3 years then you are employing good husbandry and reduce the chance of disease.   However, my understanding is that tomato blight spores only survive for about 3 weeks and as Tony says they are blown in with the wind and the rain.

Another way to grow tomatoes with a lot less risk of getting blight is to grow them under cover.   I never experienced this when I grew tomatoes in a polytunnel.

[Berlioz]

I had blight on my Toms except the 'Ferline' which are blight resistant.  I sprayed the rest with bordeaux mixture every 2-3 weeks after I spotted it on a 'tigerella' and didn't lose a single plant. I didn't spray the peppers or aubergines and they didn't catch it. I would rather spray  than not grow any. I rotate anyway. I don't have a greenhouse here as it would be too hot.

 I was 99.9% organic in the UK but am having to revise this a bit after finding just about every fly, blight, disease, pest etc in my new plot this year (probably imported in the 1 tonne of  municipal compost).