Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: ronfred on October 29, 2010, 16:02
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I usually re-use the compost from the troughs in my greenhouse which have had tomatoes and peppers growing in them. I keep the compost as I dispose of plants during October and November and then use it to grow new potatoes in old compost bags the following spring. This has always worked well in the past, but this year I had some blight on the tomatoes in the greenhouse in September. I took off leaves and any affected stems quickly and most of the tomato plants recovered without losing any tomatoes. The Marmande were badly affected so I disposed of plants and compost. Would it be safe to re-use the compost from the surviving plants for potato growing?
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Hello Ronfred and welcome to the forums!
The scientists tell us that blight spores only overwinter on live plant tissue (e.g. infected spuds left in the ground.)
Despite that, having experienced the destructive effects of blight I would be very cautious about compost re-use, especially for growing potatoes, as the same fungus is responsible for both potato and tomato blight.
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Thank you for your reply. I did realise that it is the same blight that affects both which is why I was asking. I presume that it would be safe therefore to reuse the compost on my garden instead except where I might plant tomatoes next year?
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Mine usually goes to mulch the perennial flowers. I figure that it cant have much goodness left in it after the tomatoes are done, but it makes a good mulch and is quite separate from anything that could suffer from any remaining spores .... like JayG, better safe etc.