[LivvyW]

A hard frost finished everything off in the greenhouse/polytunnel. I made 14 jars of green tomato chutney over the weekendand can't find a sinner who knows what to eat it with!

Anyway whilst baby slept yesterday, i cleared the tomato plants to the fire pit, harvest the last of the green peppers. I don't think the toms every got blight, just started to go a bit mouldy after the frost had killed them.

I have no-where other than the greenhouse to grow my toms next year. What do i need to do to the soil now?

Do i have to shift it all out and put new in?

Any suggestions?

[Michael D]

Hi  
    You could light your fire pit place the soil on a metal tray of some kind over the fire cook for half hour this should kill any bugs in the soil, let it cool mix with new compost save wasting the soil.   Only do a small amount at a time and don`t burn yourself.   i saw this done on TV
      Michael

[meterman]

I grow my toms in horse manure so at this time of year i empty my g/h borders onto next years brassica plot also add same amount of unused manure then jeyes empty boarders,paths and glass then refill with unused well rotted manure cheep not to hard a job and great resulting toms

[llinx]

I generally dig over the soil, take a ph test, add manure, grow tomatoes from seedlings then plant in the soil. I find this all works as long as they don't dry out and are kept fed with a Tomatorite type of feed ( I use comfrey liquid as it has a higher N,P,K than Tomatorite.

Soil sterilisation is the key to kill off any disease that may be lingering. It sounds like you did very well with the crop with no blight or tomato end rot (caused by inconsistent watering).

I can't see any reason why your next crops shouldn't be equaly as good

Rule 1 : Hygene
Rule 2 : Keep hygene up

[LivvyW]

Thanks all,

meterman talk me through what you do with they Jeyes.  I have a spray bottle, i can't empty my boarders completely as the greenhouse is a wooden frame over soil and then covered in poly. My OH built it for me.

So do i spray the soil?

What is likely to happen if i use it on the poly?  I don't want to have to get another product if i can avoid it.

Thanks again.