The addition of plenty of rich compost helps your plants to combat pathogens naturally. The beneficial microorganisms offer some protection for plants. Also, a soil that is teeming with beneficial microbes is more likely to be able to stave off and recover from infestation and infection.

Tomatoes should be planted in a different location from year to year, as disease spores can persist in the soil, just waiting for a susceptible plant to join them.

Hi Greg,

I'm in NC too, just outside of Chapel Hill. This has been a really rough year on tomato plants for some reason around here. I've had a bad time with fungus and many pests.

Do a search on corn meal on this site. It inhibits growth of many soil fungi. It's best to use it in the soil before planting.

I had an extra bag I needed to get rid of so I just came in from sprinkling it on the ground. I guess a little late is better than nothing.

Also, Epsom Salts sprinkled around the plants every two weeks strenthens the root system and seems to keep the plant more decease resistent.

Erin

Should I avoid adding things like Mushroom compost to my garden?
I put that and horse manure in my beds this year. Could that have added to my problem?

Your first defense againt disease is to select and grow disease resistant plants.

If you grow disease susceptible plants you're going to have problems.

You need to talk with extension to identify the problems that are known in your area so you have plan for preventive maintainence before you transplant seedlngs into the garden.

I live near new construction. I have picked up scraps of new drywall (not painted) and placed small pieces throughout my garden in the fall as I remove the dead vegetable plants. I let them get weathered and rototill them into the soil to increase the calcium to prevent blossom end rot.

I can't imagine mushroom and horse manure compost would have contributed to the problem, but that's just my opinion. Not very scientific.

I wonder if our more scientific gardenweb members might weigh in on that question. I too am now curious.

Erin

How aged was the manure? A couple years ago, I used manure about 3-4 months old and some of my plants looked like this:

{{gwi:1299319}}

Here's a better pic at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1299317}}

I use mushroom compost and it's Black Gold. I live near many mushroom houses so it's, pardon the expression, "dirt" cheap. I just wanted to comment on that.

I also make my own compost. I am an organic grower and here's how I keep my tomato plants happy all season with very little disease issues:

Good Fall Garden Clean Up
Proper Spacing of Plants
Good Mulch
Soaker Hose
Fish/Kelp extract as seedlings
Compost Compost Compost

Works just fine. My plants are going gangbusters again.

Horse manure and Mushroom compost generally have a high salt content which can damage your plants if used in excess. Adding extra epsom salts can also damage your soil PH. I'm not sure what either has to do with Fungal deterrent however. Daconil is an effective deterrent to the problem. Some people put black plastic to cook the soil underneath but the problem will likely be more widespread than what you can put plastic on.

I agree with bigdaddyj: Remember to clean up dead/diseased material at the end of the season. Also, where did you get your plants? That is one way disease can get introduced. And remember to mulch next year.

Compost will help, in general. You could see what folks on the Soil/compost forum say about mushroom compost. I would make sure the stuff looks OK before using it. I don't know if it's normal, but sometimes the stuff smells very fungus-y and has white stuff in it.

seahorse