Topic: Good or Bad Thing To Do ?

[betula]

Last year my first time grown Beef tomatoes that were coming on so well got Blight.

I only have a small veggie patch and I really want to grow some potatoes on the same spot this year or am I asking for trouble  ?

I know in theory it should be OK But ???

[grawrc]

I'm humming and hawing on this one. Same family - get the same diseases -so probably not ... but if that's what you really want to grow why not give it a whirl? Or could you grow some pots in containers at your door and keep the veggie patch for safer stuff? The blight shouldn't be an issue unless it's being spread from nearby and the weather conditions are right. Plus if you stick with earlies they have a shorter growing season than beef toms.

[plainleaf]

i done it but you need to take blight spraying and prevention measures seriously.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Blight overwinters in live tissue, and there isn't anything surviving from last year's toms. So no problem.

[daitheplant]

Blight overwinters in live tissue, and there isn't anything surviving from last year's toms. So no problem.

I agree, blight only survives on live material, so shouldn`t be a problem. Also, if you grow early spuds, as grawrc says, they have a shorter growing time and should be out of the ground before the blight season hits. :)

[OllieC]

Bad. Just because some people have got away with it (me included), doesn't mean it's not a risk. It isn't true that blight spores need something living to overwinter, it is a lot more complex than that & beyond my biology. I found this which goes into a bit more detail on one experiment...

http://www.euroblight.net/Workshop/2010Arras/Proceedings/Page223_230_Kuznetsova_web.pdf

[chriscross1966]

It's unlikely that the overwintering type of spore (produced by sexual rather than asexual reproduction) got formed in this country last year to any great extent, but I wpouldn't grow spuds where toms had been for all the other issues with the same family.... there's always a couple of get-out plants for this sort of thing.... sweetcorn and cucumbers/gherkins/squash/courgettes.... they'll take all the manure you can give them (improving soil for next crop)and have no real problems to hang around for next year....

[Robert_Brenchley]

Overwintering spores appear to be rare in Britain, so I wouldn't worry too much. In practice, infections arise from farmer's outgrade piles (a product of our crazy system of marketing vegetables) and accidentals surviving over winter. The latter is the big problem on allotment sites.