is it unwise to reuse this straw?

[tjg911]

a few years ago i divided my garden into 4 quarters and plant vegetables of the same family in each quarter so this allows me to practice a 4 year rotation in my garden. each year i keep the straw i used for mulch on the tomatoes and peppers and use it for the garlic and onions the next year - in 2013, garlic and onions will be planted in the quarter where the tomatoes and peppers were this year. this year my tomatoes got late blight. i'm going to toss all fruits on the ground but i may miss some of the cherry tomatoes.

i know that late blight can over winter under ground in infected potatoes and resurface the following year but not so for tomatoes. despite that is there any reason to worry that the straw would retain the late blight spores and reinfect me next year? 2013 tomatoes will be at the least 5' and the most 15' away from where they grew this year.

straw is $9 a bale so it isn't cheap here and the old straw works great the next year for mulching the alliums, i hate to waste it but for $9 i sure don't want to have late blight again.

tom

[salix]

Don't know, Tom - but others keep stressing that it overwinters in 'living' tissue - so I hope not, for your sake (and pocketbook).

[maf]

Yes, the late blight pathogen need a living host like a potato tuber to overwinter. Straw would not be anything to worry about, especially in zone 5B where hard frosts will totally eradicate any spores and kill any living tomato tissue. I would guess even a potato tuber would have to be buried pretty deep to survive the winter there.

During the Autumn and winter the late blight will retreat back to the southern areas where it was too warm for it to survive the summer, and will survive the winter in some frost free locale ready to start the cycle again next year, most likely to be brought back to the North via tomato plants imported from the South and sold in large stores.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by maf

Yes, the late blight pathogen need a living host like a potato tuber to overwinter. Straw would not be anything to worry about, especially in zone 5B where hard frosts will totally eradicate any spores and kill any living tomato tissue. I would guess even a potato tuber would have to be buried pretty deep to survive the winter there.

During the Autumn and winter the late blight will retreat back to the southern areas where it was too warm for it to survive the summer, and will survive the winter in some frost free locale ready to start the cycle again next year, most likely to be brought back to the North via tomato plants imported from the South and sold in large stores.

being dead i figured straw was safe. oh potato tubers do survive the winter under ground, the ground will be frozen solid easily a foot deep, building regulations require footing to be 48" deep to escape the frost level. i have had volunteer potatoes appear the next season where i grew potatoes the year before.

and you are absolutely correct about LB being imported up here from the south on tomato plants in the spring. if stores only sold locally grown plants we'd be relieved of this new menace, that is importing it each spring on plants as this is new.

tom