slashpine (slashpine) wrote in ecofans, @ 2010-05-12 00:38:00 |
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Entry tags: | food-and-farming, gardens, tomatoes |
advice for tomato fans
I live in the warm dry West but oh, my heart went out to all my friends who lost their homegrown tomatoes in the East last year! Here's a news brief and some tips you might not know.
Tomato Growers Told to Take Steps Against Blight
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 12, 2010
CLAVERACK, N.Y. (AP) -- Plant pathologists are already recommending farmers and gardeners take steps to avoid another outbreak of late blight. The disease destroyed millions of dollars worth of tomatoes in the eastern U.S. last summer.
Cornell University plant pathologist Meg McGrath says tomato growers can spray pesticides to try to prevent infection, but once late blight takes hold, the plants are lost.
Late blight flourishes in cool, wet conditions and can survive during the winter in living tissue, such as potatoes buried underground.
McGrath says growers need to destroy any potatoes left from last year before planting this spring.
She also says they need to watch for black patches on tomato stems, leaves and fruit. Infected plants must be pulled up, bagged and thrown out.
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Basically, just don't plant tomatoes where where potatoes or eggplants have been grown in the previous two years, and try to avoid succession-planting after peppers, too. This is because late blight is hosted on ALL the nightshade family plants - which is this group above - whether it damages them or not.
Another interesting conflict is between tomatoes and the roots of black walnut trees. Trees can put out some pretty powerful underground toxins; it's part of their defense system, since if you think about it, trees must stay in one place through all the years, which makes them sitting ducks (so to speak) for any predator, as well as forcing their roots to compete with any other plant nearby. Many tree root systems have clever ways of discouraging competitors, including alliances with fungi to make life difficult for intruder plants. Black walnut juju makes tomato roots wither and die, so if you're in countryside where they grow, park the beefeaters somewhere else. Not near corn or fennel, either! (Who woulda known?)
Neutral or good companions for tomatoes: asparagus, basil, bee balm, broccoli, calendula, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, onions, spinach, lettuce, parsley, sage, borage & dill. Dill and also marigolds help reduce tomato pests. Tomatoes can follow any of these crops from the past season, and vice versa.