Potatoes planted where tomatoes grew

[nancygene]

I accidentally planted potatoes where we had tomatoes growing previously. I know that potatoes and tomatoes do not make good "garden friends". Do I have to dig up the potatoes? Does anyone know what will happen if I leave them in the ground? Thanks so much for your help...

[rainbowgardener]

Not necessarily a problem. The reason why we worry about it is that they are in the same family (solanacea, nightshades) and thus are susceptible to a lot of the same diseases. Some of the nightshade diseases are soil borne. So if there are say blight organisms in the soil from the tomatoes, they will attack the potatoes too, where they wouldn't attack something from a different family.

But if you are convinced there is no disease present, then not a problem.

[nancygene]

Thanks so much for your reply. My tomatoes did not do very well last year in that spot and we think it is because we had planted them in that spot for a couple of years and should have rotated them. They started out great and then started to get limp, curled leaves and fruit got rotted. We had to throw most of it away. So, we are rotating tomatoes to a different area. In the end, I think I will probably dig up the potatoes I planted and plant some in a different spot. Thanks again, I appreciate your input.

[rainbowgardener]

If the fruit got black and rotted at the bottom (opposite from stem attachment), that's blossom end rot:


[img]https://www.maine.gov/agriculture/pesticides/gotpests/diseases/images/blossom-end-rot3-big.jpg[/img]

It is not a disease, it is related to stress making it difficult for the plant to uptake calcium.

But the limp curled leaves could have been a disease. So yes, you are probably better off planting the potatoes somewhere else.

Follow tomatoes with cucurbits (squash, melons etc), corn, beans.