Discover the secret to a flourishing garden by pairing your tomato plants with companion plants that offer mutual benefits. From pest control to nutrient enhancement, the right Plants with Tomatoes can elevate your tomatoes from good to great.
23.08.2023 - 12:57 / gardenersworld.com / Monty Don
Tomato blight, a fungal infection called Phytophthora infestans, spreads by wind and water-splash. It attacks tomatoes and potatoes and is triggered by warm, wet conditions, making outdoor tomatoes more susceptible than those in a greenhouse. The crop is quickly ruined and even if you pick the tomatoes at the first sign of infection, you can’t stop them rotting.
How to identify tomato blightSpread by airborne spores that can be carried over 30 miles on the wind, tomato blight is most prevalent when conditions are warm and wet. Outdoor tomatoes are more susceptible to blight than those growing in a greenhouse.
When affected by blight, ripening tomatoes develop brown sunken spots, which spread to the leaves and stems.
In this video, Monty Don explains what to do if blight affects your tomatoes, and explains whether you can still eat the tomatoes growing on blight-infected plants:
How to prevent tomato blight Keep tomatoes dryGrow tomatoes in a greenhouse or polytunnel if possible, as this will keep the leaves dry and help fruits ripen sooner than those grown outside.
Never plant tomatoes in soil or compost that has previously contained diseased plants.
Support tomato plants with a stake, including bush varieties, to keep their leaves off the soil.
If growing tomatoes outside and blight hits, try placing an umbrella of polythene or a plastic roof over tomatoes to keep the rain off them. This will stop rain splashing onto the leaves and reduce the likelihood of infection.
When watering tomatoes, water in the morning, so the plants don’t sit damp all night. Take care to water only the soil or compost, keeping the leaves dry. Remember, tomatoes taste better if the plants aren’t overwatered.
Feed tomatoes with fertilisers
Discover the secret to a flourishing garden by pairing your tomato plants with companion plants that offer mutual benefits. From pest control to nutrient enhancement, the right Plants with Tomatoes can elevate your tomatoes from good to great.
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Potato blight, also known as late blight, attacks the foliage and tubers of potatoes, eventually causing the crop to rot. Caused by the same fungus responsible for tomato blight, it is a particular problem in wet summers. Potato blight was responsible for the Irish potato famine in the 19th century, devastating crops in the ground, and those in storage too.
It looks as though spring might be on its way in the northern hemisphere, and gardeners’ thoughts are turning towards tomatoes and potatoes. You may have already sown your first tomato seeds; your seed potatoes may be chitting on the windowsill. But what if you could get both potatoes and tomatoes from the same plant – a TomTato?
We don’t really eat fresh tomatoes in this house, and as a rule I don’t tend to grow them. Last year I was tempted by a trio of unusual flavoured tomatoes from Wyevale, but they were tall and needy things that wanted constant watering. I didn’t notice any significant difference between the flavours of the ones we did eat; I gave most of the fruit away. When I had a juicer I would grow cherry tomatoes and make tomato juice; the chickens loved the leftover pulp. (And yes, if you juice yellow tomatoes you get yellow tomato juice.)
At New Year, the AeroGarden blasted off on a new mission – to grow fruiting veg. It started with a crew of three – two peppers and a tomato. The seeds germinated quickly, and the start of the mission went according to plan.
Monty Don was recently explaining how to save tomato seeds on Gardeners’ World. I know this not because I watch it, but because his method (sticking seeds to paper towel) was roundly slated on Twitter. I’m fairly sure I tried that once, and that it worked just fine, but it was a long time ago and to be honest I just can’t remember.
I’m hoping to go and see The Martian soon, one of the few films to feature a botanist as the hero. Astronaut Mark Watney is one of the first humans to set foot on Mars, but accidentally gets left behind and has to survive on his own – and to do so he grows potatoes. He wouldn’t be the first person (or even population) to rely on potatoes for survival, but here on Earth there’s a slight snag. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) has an arch nemesis – late blight, caused by an organism called Phytophthora infestans. It cuts down both potatoes and tomatoes, and was the biological cause of the Irish Potato Famine in the 19th century.
Ideally you should check on your seedlings every day, to make sure that they have enough water and are growing well. Regular attention makes it easier to spot problems while they are minor and still easy to correct; issues that have remained undetected for a few days may well be easier to spot, and most will still be correctable.
In this NASA image from January 2020, you can see Lashelle Spencer taking measurements on ‘Red Robin’ dwarf tomato plants. Lashelle is a plant scientist at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and this photo was taken inside the Plant Processing Area in the spaceport’s Space Station Processing Facility.
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