How do I prep my soil for next year (late blight this year)

cleo88 · September 5, 2009

Hi,
Despite being extemely discouraged by my first experience growing tomatoes from seed, somehow I am still planning on trying again next year. Hope really does spring eternal...

All was going great until late blight snuck in while I was on vacation.

My response to it was not as careful as recommended on this site, but please don't come down too hard on me. I sprayed with Seranade and it appeared to slow the blight down a lot - hard to tell. I cut off the worst affected foliage. I yanked two plants a week or two after spraying, and I yanked a bunch more today. I did not cover with plastic or anything, just carted the mess way out into the woods. Also poured some extra Seranade that was left over on the pile out in the woods.

Now my question is: what should I do to the soil in my beds (once I yank the remaining plants) to give me the most success next year? I plan to put compost from our compost pile in there and I will be spraying foliage proactively next year with Serenade, but is there something I should be doing to treat the soil to prevent LB?

Thanks.

bcday · September 5, 2009

You don't need to do anything to the soil, other than your normal planting preparations. Late Blight can only be carried over on living plant tissue, not on its own in the soil.

If you have any potatoes growing, make sure that none of the tubers survive over the winter to sprout volunteer plants next spring. Other than that, once all of the tomato and potato plants are dead, the LB will die out too. It can't live in the soil by itself. There won't be any spores in the soil either, unless there are live potato tubers there for them to live on, so you don't need to treat the soil at all.

dice · September 5, 2009

Turn it over. You want to bury any spores on top of the soil
under a shovel full of dirt. A tiller or other cultivater probably
works for this, too.

I might then mist everything with 3% hydrogen peroxide to hit
any spores that are still on top of the soil after cultivating.

Edit:
bcday's advice may be more informed here with regard to
late blight. I was looking at general advice on soil sanitation,
and tillage and crop rotation were recommended as best practices.
(This tillage advice probably predates the popularity of large
scale no-till farming in the US, but large scale farmers usually
have the space to rotate their crops anyway.)

September 5, 2009	#1
cleo88 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Sharon, MA Zone 6 Posts: 225	How do I prep my soil for next year (late blight this year) Hi, Despite being extemely discouraged by my first experience growing tomatoes from seed, somehow I am still planning on trying again next year. Hope really does spring eternal... All was going great until late blight snuck in while I was on vacation. My response to it was not as careful as recommended on this site, but please don't come down too hard on me. I sprayed with Seranade and it appeared to slow the blight down a lot - hard to tell. I cut off the worst affected foliage. I yanked two plants a week or two after spraying, and I yanked a bunch more today. I did not cover with plastic or anything, just carted the mess way out into the woods. Also poured some extra Seranade that was left over on the pile out in the woods. Now my question is: what should I do to the soil in my beds (once I yank the remaining plants) to give me the most success next year? I plan to put compost from our compost pile in there and I will be spraying foliage proactively next year with Serenade, but is there something I should be doing to treat the soil to prevent LB? Thanks.

September 5, 2009	#3
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	Turn it over. You want to bury any spores on top of the soil under a shovel full of dirt. A tiller or other cultivater probably works for this, too. I might then mist everything with 3% hydrogen peroxide to hit any spores that are still on top of the soil after cultivating. Edit: bcday's advice may be more informed here with regard to late blight. I was looking at general advice on soil sanitation, and tillage and crop rotation were recommended as best practices. (This tillage advice probably predates the popularity of large scale no-till farming in the US, but large scale farmers usually have the space to rotate their crops anyway.) __________________ -- alias

September 5, 2009	#2
bcday Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NY z5 Posts: 1,205	You don't need to do anything to the soil, other than your normal planting preparations. Late Blight can only be carried over on living plant tissue, not on its own in the soil. If you have any potatoes growing, make sure that none of the tubers survive over the winter to sprout volunteer plants next spring. Other than that, once all of the tomato and potato plants are dead, the LB will die out too. It can't live in the soil by itself. There won't be any spores in the soil either, unless there are live potato tubers there for them to live on, so you don't need to treat the soil at all.