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Re: Crop Rotation

Hello,
        This is surely interesting!

>Recently on the rec.gardens newsgroup there's been a discussion about NOT
>rotating Tomatoes. The reasoning behind this is that tomatoes send
>especially deep roots, so if you plant them in the same place year after
>year, the roots don't have to work as hard to dig as deep. In addition the
>consensus seemed to be that tomato diseases are mostly airborn (primarily
>wilt) or a problem with inconsistent watering, so rotating them would not
>benefit the tomatoes.

        Here in the Atlanta area (zone 7b) we have every sort of tomato
disease.  A botanist told me that wilts remain in the soil as long as they
have a food source (i.e. the tomato plants).  The only way to reliably
remove them is to take the food source away.  During the off-season, their
numbers dwindle, but there are enough present that when the new season
begins, they come back with a vengeance.  After about 3 years, they
completely die off.  So tell me more!  I really don't have enough space to
rotate my tomatoes on a 3-year basis.


**************************************************************
Vivian Viverito                         (404) 894-7192
Research Engineer                       (404) 894-7080  Fax
Georgia Tech Research Institute
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