Tomato crop rotation in polytunnel

[roosky]

As a relatively inexperienced polytunnel user, can someone help me here? I've grown tomatoes in the same raised bed in my polytunnel for 2 successive years, and mulched with well-rotted manure before last year's planting. Can I grow them in the same bed again, with mulching, or should I move them to a completely different bed this time ? Crop rotation in a polytunnel is not so easy as outside in the vegetable garden !

[wolfwalker]

I grow my tomatoes in the same beds year after year. I compost heavy ever fall and top off in the spring (After the soil warms ). I use the spring compost as a mulch. Never been a problem here. My 2 cents.

[rainbowgardener]

Likewise. I have very limited space that is sunny enough for tomatoes, so they stay in the same spots year after year. May not be ideal, but has been working for me.

[roosky]

Thanks, both of you - that's reassured me.

[PaulF]

For several years raised beds were the method I used to grow tomatoes. There was no problem for me not being able to rotate. Using well rotted manure would keep your soil healthy. A concern would be that any soil borne disease could become a problem. If the poly tunnels are in place year round, how do you water? If you water at the base of the plant, be sure not to splash water up onto the leaves. Likewise if you use overhead watering. If the poly comes off during the growing season and rain can splash soil onto the leaves, that may be a way disease could attack your plants.

Most pathogens harmful to tomatoes are soil borne and vector to the plant by contact with soil on leaves. A layer of some other form of mulch such as straw, newspaper, grass, plastic sheeting, etc. around and between the plants would help stop any soil to leaf contact.

[roosky]

Thanks, Paul, that's very helpful. I always water from below, and this year I was thinking of sinking a small upturned water bottle into the soil beside each plant, and watering through that - a method I used successfully with courgettes previously. Would that be suitable, do you think ?

[wolfwalker]

I used 1 gal. milk jugs with the neck down burred with each tomato plant. Use 2 jugs per plant with a 2 inch diameter hole cut in the bottom of the jug to fill with water.... Fill each jug one a week as needed. The only diseases I have problems with are the blights. Blight will not over winter due to the cold. I use low tunnels covered with plastic to get a early spring start.Remove the covers after the soil warms.

[PaulF]

Upturned water bottles would probably work very well. I would like to install a drip irrigation system, but have not gotten around to it yet.