A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Husband planted potatoes by tomatoes

ok, so my husband went and planted potatoes between my tomatoes and eggplant. now i know, not good. I really don't want to abandon that field for 3 years. what can i grow there? and for how many feet is the soil fouled? the tomatoes i'd planted 5 weeks earlier got nasty and i was only able to salvage about 15 off 4 plants. the eggplants closest to the patch got big, but no fruit. i have late tomatoes growing in the same lane about 10 ft away. are they done for?
thanks for any help; i'm new here.

Planting veggies of the same family close together or in the same place each season just increases the chances of the pests and disease those plants get. For instance potato beetles like potatoes, eggplant and tomatoes. Otherwise it isn't that big of a deal. What exactly happened to the tomatoes that got nasty?

they look like they have all kinds of fungus. the leaves were fine, but 2 wks after he put in the potatoes, they started to have pinholes, then black spots that turned yellow and tore thru, then black & gray and dry. the fruit has almost no flavor, is about 1/3 of last year's weight, and has taken on some wierd forms. then, within 12 weeks, all but 1 has died. how far-reaching is this damage, i wonder, and for how long? the guide here says 3 years, but i thought it said i could grow beans there.

I'm glad I read this. We always plant our tomatoes and potatoes in the same field and so far no trouble but I don't want to take the risk.

tomatoes companion plants are chives, onion, parsley and asparagus.

and personnally I don't think you have to abandon your field for three years. you haven't done any permanant damage. try planting some companion plants near the tomatoes next year. marigolds.....your in alabama???, can you still plant marigolds seeds now where you are? they'll die after the first killing freeze but if you can get them to grow a while they put nutrients back into the soil and are great plants for equalling out the bug population. (good bug- bad bug thing)

I do have marigolds in my garden. I heard that the bugs will go to them rather than the plants. Maybe that's why I don't have bugs.

I don't think companion plants will help the blight or whatever it is. Spray lots of fungus spray and get rid of the bad plants before it spreads. A disease like that may cause the fruit to be bland; I'm not sure. I've never had problems with disease on my potatoes so I am not sure if they get stuff like that as easy as tomatoes.