Tomatoes and potatoes

[gfrederickk]

Good morning. I'm planning my vegetable garden for 2023, and I'm thinking about adding a section where I'll grow potatoes in 5-gallon buckets. I'm worried this addition of potatoes will add risk of blight and/or aphids to my tomatoes. Does anyone here grow both tomatoes and potatoes in their garden. Any advice? Can you tell me how far apart I should keep the potato buckets from the tomatoes, which will be planted in the ground? Or should I simply not plant the two in the same garden.
Thank you for any advice you can offer.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have not had any problems, but I do think I would do it the other way around and put the potatoes in the ground and tomatoes in the buckets. The potatoes like a good deep layer of moisture retaining material like leaf mould, or even paper and almost raw compost, you can mulch them heavily with grass cuttings, all in all they are good for improving the soil. The tomatoes may benefit from being able to move them into the sun or out of the wind depending how the weather goes, and tend to take more from the soil than gets put in. A nice rich compost can get lost in the ground in a way it wouldn't in a container.

 

[headfullofbees]

Don't mix them, that's all the precaution I take.

 

[Meadowlark]

... Does anyone here grow both tomatoes and potatoes in their garden. Any advice? ..

Yes, and have done so for several decades without any problems. I do rotate plantings of both and avoid planting them in the same location for 3 years. I also continuously rejuvenate the soil with extensive use of cover crops all year around.

 

[redback]

Yes to Meadowlark's reply. Keep them as far apart as possible in your garden and don't follow a potato crop with a tomato crop the following year, or visa versa. In fact I allow six years between potato crop rotations such as - potatoes - lettuce and spinach - peas - carrots- corn and beans - melons - and then back to spud again. With tomatoes I plant them where I have built permanent trellises. I no longer bother rotating them year to year, but I do fertilize them extremely well in autumn and let the manure sit for all of winter. I think this kills off any nematode problem.

 

[Meadowlark]

... let the manure sit for all of winter. I think this kills off any nematode problem.

This is highly effective

 

[skinyea]

What if you cant rotate? I have several raised beds that I grow potatoes and tomatoes in. If I rotated them every 3 years, I would not be able to plant enough to get me through the winter

 

[Meadowlark]

... If I rotated them every 3 years, ...

I believe you can get by with a lot less than 3 with your use of cover crops. Compost, loads of it, helps also.

 

[redback]

If you are having no problems Skinyea, then stick with your method. Rotation used to be more closely followed than it is now. Monoculture was the main reason for rotation. If you are mixing all the crops side by side with others than you might be (accidently) using very modern microbiome practice.

 

[Meadowlark]

... Rotation used to be more closely followed than it is now.

If you could take a drive through the heart of corn growing acres in Iowa and northern Missouri in USA in the most sophisticated farms in the World, and most highly productive I might add, I doubt you would say that. Thousands upon thousands of acres of soybeans and corn in rotation. Literally more than one can even imagine. Incredible to see.

 

[skinyea]

If you could take a drive through the heart of corn growing acres in Iowa and northern Missouri in USA in the most sophisticated farms in the World, and most highly productive I might add, I doubt you would say that. Thousands upon thousands of acres of soybeans and corn in rotation. Literally more than one can even imagine. Incredible to see.

in a perfect world I would rotate properly. But doing so would mean I would run out of room fast. I try and grow enough to were I do not have to purchase tomatoes, potatoes, beans, and peppers. Corn I can get to about 6 months worth thanks to you

 

[redback]

If you could take a drive through the heart of corn growing acres in Iowa and northern Missouri in USA in the most sophisticated farms in the World, and most highly productive I might add, I doubt you would say that. Thousands upon thousands of acres of soybeans and corn in rotation. Literally more than one can even imagine. Incredible to see.

Yeah, you're right. I have seen photos and they are here too. I was thinking of gardening, where once, everyone had a six-bed rotation system.

 

[Meadowlark]

Yeah, you're right. I have seen photos and they are here too. I was thinking of gardening, where once, everyone had a six-bed rotation system.

That's kind of descriptive of the main impediment I often see when people consider cover cropping/rotation. People that start out gardening one way without rotation are often very reticent to change to a system that appears to take away some of their garden space. Often times they refuse to even try it. What they don't realize is that they are actually expanding production, not reducing by using covers and rotation.

When the most technically savvy farmers in the World use it, I have to believe they know what they are doing. It works.

 

[redback]

I love green manure, cover crops, rotation and no fallowing. If you look up the 6-bed rotation system you will find that it includes green manure, both cereal and legume types. It is a practice that avoids pests and diseases with no spraying.
Those very large monocultures, have serious problems. The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers are endemic to the practice and dangerous to the point of extinction of the human species. Fortunately, the smarter practitioners (like you), are adapting and finding that you can make more profit if you ditch the NPK fertilizers.
As for spuds - organic practices are already widespread. Tomatoes on the other hand, have become hothouse products with no taste and utterly destroyed as a food by the desire for a long shelf life and spotless appearance.

 

[Susan BBPM]

I don't have any relevant knowledge or thoughts relating specifically to whether growing tomatoes and potatoes together increases risk of blight. I'd have thought not, because it's in the air your whole garden woud get hit (I'd have thought?)

A couple of thoughts though.

1. What about blight resistent potaotes and tomatoes? Sarpo Mira potatoes are very blight resistant and this would solve your problem.

2. On the issue of crop rotation....

Due to inexperience, I grew early potatoes in my polytunnel raised bed early in the season followed by tomatoes. I did this for 3 years before discovering it's a no-no. I did it again this year because it had worked previously and I was so disorganized in spring I couldn't think where else to put the potatoes.

I follow the Charles Dowding 'no dig' approach where essentially you just put an inch of compost on all your beds in December. That's it - no further feeding or fertilizing. He doesn't think rotation is necessary in a garden setting and has been runninng side by side experimennts for many years growing all sorts of veg (including potatoes) in the same bed every year. He's had no problems at all. He would of course rotate if he had disease in any crop, but thus far (several years) he hasn't.

Just to be clear - many talk of cover crops and green manure. The addition of compost each year is essentially the same thing. However, rather than just one crop being dug into your beds, everything you grow is composted and put on the beds. That might be why Dowding's experiments show no need for rotation. He's rotating his soil rather than his veg in a way.