How do I grow tomatoes without blight?
I have tried growing cherry tomatoes every year for a decade, moving them to different beds regularly, but they always get attacked by blight and the crop usually fails. Any suggestions.
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Ugh! Hate that! Maybe use a container?
Blight? Like brown scars, sometimes like gouges? That is not from bugs if that is what you have. My first few gardens produced regular sized tomatoes with what I Too thought was a blight. Lots of reading lots of research brought me to conclude my soil lacked the proper amount of Calcium. World of difference. PLUS, every 5-7 days sprinkle Epsons Salt 2-3” from base of plant. It has Magnesium in it in which Tomatoes and other vegetables Thrive On. I normally stick to cherry tomatoes and Roma’s. They are hearty and fill my food planning needs well.
If you grow them in a garden, as soon as you plant them, surround them with a thick mulch. I like to use my grass clippings. You could even place about 3 sheets of newpaper on the ground before adding mulch. Keep adding to the mulch as the plants grow. Blight is in the soil, so don't let rain splash off the ground onto the plants. Or you could try growing them in very large pots or plastic totes (drill holes for drainage). Use a good quality potting soil. Do not add any soil from your garden. Keep them on a patio where rain can't splash off the ground onto the plant. If you still have problems with blight, contact your county Dept of Agriculture and ask questions. They can put you in touch with a local Master Gardener who would help you out for free.
Cherry Tomatoes often blight due to too much Clay causing too much Moisture in the Soil. This also attracts snails.
Start the plants indoors now from seeds you cut from a Container of Cherry Tomatoes.
Start these in plastic Cupcake Containers with Soil.
Although you can dig out some or all of your clay layer under the bed, to reduce the Clay under your soil, you are best to invest in Concrete to Grow 2 cherry tomato plants in each homemade Concrete Planter by:
Pouring 3" of Concrete around a Tin Coffee Pot Wrapped in Newspaper or an Old Cloth placed between 4 Old Shelves.
You want these bottomless so these do not saturate.
You Remove the Can, knock off the boards, and Shovel in Soil from your garden with manure, and plant within that.
If you want these lower in the Ground or hidden beneath soil (to prevent saturation in flood plains that recommends) tis best to excavate before each pour to pour in that new excavation rather than excavate after pour and haul the concrete Twice rather than once.
Never restrict these to a cold water diet.
Hotter a plant is, the more it tries to spread out to cool off.
Providing it relief with cool water stunts the growth.
Mix manure with hot water only in what I call a Diarrhea Daiquiri, it is All purpose for anything:
32 ounce water
8 ounce manure
1 orange slice (optional)
1 bamboo umbrella (optional)
Good luck with your Homegrown Tomatoes (or anything else).
Seed from produce in the store may not grow exactly like the fruit it came from. Remember seeds are pollinated flowers, and a bad tasting plant may provide the male pollen, the fruit will be poorer quality than the fruit it came from. They may not even germinate if they are hybrids. Seeds you purchase from seed companies will come true to what they claim and you will have a much better rate of germination on the seeds.