[simond9383]

The books seem to vary on this one.

Some say keep your toms miles away from your spuds.

Others suggest keeping them together - presumably so that diseases are kept in one place and diminished with rotation.

I am making my first attempt with spuds this year but only with some First Earlies so hopefully they'll be out before the blight.

Anyone got any experience/views?

Simon

[Celtic Eagle]

It's true that they suffer similar problems with blight etc but I've never split em up

Agree with the first earlies they should be out before blight gets goin other than that try one of the resistant maincrops  there's a big list in another post

[Aidy]

I always plant apart, although logic says "does it really matter" if blight hits, then will 30 or 40 feet apart stop it, doubt it.

[WG.]

Tomatoes need glass / polythene cover up here.  Isn't it simply a nuisance to grow them together?

[paintedlady]

Have to admit that I have grown potatoes and outdoor tomatoes in beds next to each other - logic is, if there is disease that affects them both, that area as a whole can be avoided in the following year (like in crop rotation)  If I split them all over the plot, then I have to think of 2 areas to avoid growing both potatoes and tomatoes in.  Hope that makes sense?

[siztenboots]

Have to admit that I have grown potatoes and outdoor tomatoes in beds next to each other - logic is, if there is disease that affects them both, that area as a whole can be avoided in the following year (like in crop rotation)  If I split them all over the plot, then I have to think of 2 areas to avoid growing both potatoes and tomatoes in.  Hope that makes sense?

Started off with 100 tom plants, and planted them out in the same quater of plot as the potatoes. Blight got all the toms, but at least the potato crop was okay, just the tops looked bad

[Trillium]

I had them side by side this past summer and they didn't suffer, mostly because I rotate the potatoes yearly. Toms can stay in the same place for up to 5 years with no real problems. Blight will get anything anywhere regardless.

[Contadino]

I grow mine separate (in fact this years spuds will be 500m up the road.)  Last year a friend lost all his toms and potatoes, and he brought round a bug that he'd found which did for them both.  I wish I'd taken a photo of it.  It was like a huge maggot with teeth, fat at the teeth end, thinner towards the tail.  It was about as long as his little finger (OK, so he's a pip-squeak but that's still a sizeable bug.)

The thing is, once he'd shown it to us, he threw it into the garden (!!! :x ) followed by some cussing in thick dialect.  I had to spend about an hour on hands & knees looking for this thing which ultimately found it's way under the heel of my boot.

Octogenarians!  :roll:

[gobs]

That sounds like a colorado beetle larvae except for the size, you are not exaggarating there, are you?

[Trillium]

We get a lot of Colorado potato beetles here but I can't say I've ever noticed the larvae. The adults aren't that big so I question if Contadino's critter was a Colorado. Regardless, the potato beetles totally ignore tomato plants even when side by side. In fact, I had almost no beetle damage this year because the potatoes were right beside the toms. When apart, I get a lot of damage.

[Contadino]

That sounds like a colorado beetle larvae except for the size, you are not exaggarating there, are you?

In old money, I reckon it was about an inch and a half long.  I'll measure my mates finger next time I see him.  It was gross.

[Trillium]

Then definitely not a Colorado beetle. Not sure what you have unless you can give us a piccy, preferably unsquashed.