Tomatoes & potatoes.

martinn123

I'm starting to plan in my head for next years planting. I had some successful crops this year but one problem, I need adviceI had a small space left after planting Potatoes, and a few Toms leftover, so I planted them in the same area. 3, Cherry plants, 20 Potatoe tubers.
The spuds did well, and the Toms, in another area great, but close to the Spuds, all the Toms developed a black rotten bottom, and I pulled them all from the Plant and discarded.
So is it a case of not mixing two species in the same area, or something else??
Any advice, cheers.

redser7

It sounds like blossom end rot. It is a result of the plants not getting enough calcium. And that can be because there is a shortage in the soil, or the plants are getting watering irregularly leading to them not taking up calcium.
So try to work out if you were watering too much or too little or perhaps the soil wasn't very fertile.

btw - potatoes and tomatoes belong to the same family and shouldn't be planted together. It could be that the spuds took most of the nutrients and starved the toms. Apart from that they suffer from the same desaeases, the main one being blight. So keep them apart and rotate what you plants there next year, or ideally use a 4 year rotation.