Problems with soil infected with tomato blight

[Showers]

What do you do with soil that's had tomato blight?

[Capsid]

Nothing really, the spores only survive on living material and won't survive the winter.

[zazen999]

It's not the soil that gets blight, it's the tomatoes.

Just don't compost the actual tomato fruit is the latest advice IIRC.

[Showers]

I've got rid of the infected plants !

I know it's a fungal disease and I'll have to thoroughly clean my greenhouse with a toothbrush and not grow tomatoes in there next year. Any other recommendations?

Could I re-use the soil on my outdoor beds?

Thanxs
Showers

[chris]

Yes. But as above, it needs living material to survive on - so if you're not growing anything that it can survive on throughout the winter then it won't survive the winter period.

[BertieFox]

There is far too much hysteria about blight surviving in the soil, or even in a greenhouse over winter. As long as you use some basic hygiene and don't keep the temperatures high all winter with growing plants in the greenhouse, the chances of blight occurring next year are minimal; what will matter most is what is happening outside in the area! Like the new disease of ash trees, the spores of blight are borne in the wind and rain, and once it occurs in your area, when the conditions are wet and humid, it will almost certainly infect your plants which are outside (unless protected from the rain in some way). As Chris and others have said, to survive the winter it needs living materials: the worst for this are potato tubers left in the soil which start growing again the next year as 'volunteers' as these can often carry over blight from one year to the next. Once the potato seedling is infected it can pass blight on to nearby tomatoes. Similarly with compost heaps, a cool heap might well leave an entire blighted tomato unrotted all winter, from which blighted plants might start growing. Use a hot heap, or a closed bin, and there should be no problem

[Showers]

Thanxs guys
I thought as much,
just needed advice to re-assure my allotment partner who was fretting about cross- contaminatination,
she thinks we can't grow toms again in same greenhouse for several years!

[Matt94]

If you are that worried fumigate your greenhouse in the spring with a sulphur candle, they only cost around a fiver