Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: elizabeth1 on February 10, 2013, 14:59
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Last summer the blight even managed to get inside my poly tunnel and I lost all my tomatoes.
I grow direct into the soil which I mulch heavily each year with home made compost combined with my own horse manure.
My question is whether the blight will overwinter and if there is anything I could do.One elderly gardener has said that if I soak the soil thoroughly to the point of flooding then I will wash the spores away.I use Citrox to wash the poly tunnel inside and out in spring-should I soak the soil with that too?
Or do I have to give up tomatoes altogether in my tunnel?
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I really don't know what these old boys will come up with next!
Spores will not survive in soil alone. They need live plant material. If there's nothing in there for them to live on, you won't have any!
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Thanks DD. I think I might just lift the top inch or so of soil and replace it with new.
I love my tomatoes so here's to a blight free 2013!
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If growing direct into the soil, it's a good idea to change it anyway to stop the build up of other diseases.
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Last summer the blight even managed to get inside my poly tunnel and I lost all my tomatoes.
Are you sure it wasn't botrytis? I've had botrytis in our polytunnel here, but never blight in or outdoors.
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I've had blight in my polytunnel twice now. As soon as I realised what it was, I just kept going in there every day, and taking off any affected bits, leaves, fruit, or if it was the stem, but the stem just below the damage.
I did lose quite a few toms, but it seemed to keep it in check, and then I got lots of new side shoots and some more fruit.
Not all of it ripened though.
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I remember seeing Monty Don at Wisley where the veg gardener there said "always deal with your tomatoes in the greenhouse first thing in the morning then shut the door and don't go back". His view seemed to be that the blight spores would get onto your clothes and get into the greenhouse that way.
Seems like sense to me.
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Blight spores can only germinate in conditions of warmth and high humidity (the leaves have to be wet) - overall it's something of a lottery, because you will get higher humidity and higher temperatures if the ventilation is poor, but a greater chance of the airborne spores finding their way in if you have the doors and windows open to improve it! ::)
To swing the odds more in your favour, water the soil rather than the foliage, don't grow plants so close to the sides that condensation is trapped between the leaves and the walls, and avoid general overcrowding of the space which will also increase the local humidity.
(Not just blight either, most fungal diseases, including botrytis, are favoured by high humidity.)
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Aaaaahhh, but there's the thing Jay, I don't water the foliage, only the soil. Even though Brian kept telling me to water the leaves as well as that's where the plant takes in its water!!!! :ohmy: :ohmy:
He did keep shutting the door though as he said if the wind catches the tunnel, it will destroy out old polythene. Even though I opened the back door!!! :) :)
It was definitely blight that I had though! ;)
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Don't suppose there are many people who've forgotten that getting blight was an odds-on chance last year, but that's all the more reason for doing what you can to improve your chances of avoiding it.
My Red Alerts in an open cold frame succumbed, as did one of my Sweet Million in the greenhouse (significantly, the one nearest to the opening window) but like GA I managed to keep them all going long enough to salvage the fruit by regular surgery (which finished up rather drastic in the case of the Red Alerts!)
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Thanks for some of these tips as I have had a poly for one season. Its always good to have different ideas of what to try. :) Luckily didn't have blight on the toms in mine. The ones outside unfortunately did. :(