tomato blight in greenhouse

hello everyone last year was my first year with a crop of tomatoes in the greenhouse unfortunatly blight struck anyway all the soil is in raised beds would it be recomended that i change all the soil or is there another easier solution

 

I change the soil in my greenhouse every year (regardless of disease as Tomatoes tend to harbour disease anyway). I used 50:50 well rotted manure and compost heap - so its rough compost, and by the end of the year its really good compost that then goes onto the beds.

Its lighter to swap over than my clay soil, so not too much like hard work.

 

I don't think there is much you can do but change the compost - plus do grow tomatoes which are blight and disease resistant. I had blight on my outdoor toms 2009 - changed the type of tomato and had no trouble last year. Thompson & Morgan have a few in their 2011 catalogue and I think Wallis seeds do a cheaper variety too.

 

my soil seems ok are you saying swap soil in greenhouse put it on veg patch and top up with compost

 

Yup, that's it. Just like the outdoor veg need crop rotation, so do the Tomatoes - trouble is you can;t move the greenhosue :D so you have to move the soil instead.

Crop rotation means that different crops grow in the soil each year, and the same crop does not use that soil for 3 or 4 years (or more). Any bugs specific to that crop should die off in that time, and the nutrients that one crop rips out of the soil will be different to those of other crops, and it balances out.

Tomatoes and Potatoes are from the same family, so you could put the greenhouse soil where the Tomatoes were - 3+ years until you grow spuds there again, and you should get soil from where the Potatoes are about to be grown this year (i.e. the soil that has not seen potatoes for the longest period of time).

But I get around that by using the compost heap instead. (I have two compost heaps, and any plant material from Tomatoes and Potatoes goes into one, but I use the other - made up of weeds, nettles, tall grass that has been hacked down etc. - so that I'm not putting any Tomato / Potato composted material back, but if you only put disease-free material on your compost heap that should not matter)

 

thankyou for your reply i will take your advice i can spread whats in the greenhouse and i have aplace to put it .where the soil is going i am planning to put some broad beans i did ok with these last year and found them easy to grow and quite rewarding can you see any probs with this

 

Sounds OK to me. You could sow Broad Bean "Aquadulce" (which is very hardy) in 3" pots now, harden off and plant out before Winter is fully gone (beginning of March I would guess) for an earlier crop - later crops tend to succumb to blackfly

 

I have read somewhere that varieties Ferline and Fantasio give good results-has anyone tried them? I had blight last year for the first time, it was so upsetting after years of lovely Gardeners Delight

ariadae

 

please could someone help me with another question my brother has just rang and wants to know what a fair price would be to prune a apple tree it hasnt been touched for 12 years it is about 15ft high and 20ft wide