Grow Bags with Late Blight

[MissTee]

Tomatoes last year got late blight. Some were grown in-ground and some in containers — plastic and fabric.

I can wash the plastic ones.

Can I reuse the fabric grow bags as is, without any remediation? Unsure if the spores will die with cold or if the grow bags can survive washing and/or bleach.

(All containers have been stored in my Canadian garage with temperatures below freezing this winter, and the growing mix was removed from them in the fall.)

[Yak54]

I soak my grow bags in a bleach solution every spring in a plastic garbage can. Make sure the brand of bleach has a min. of 7.5% Sodium Hypochlorite and the solution should be 10% bleach and 90% water. I use Clorox brand. The bags will last 4-5 years.

[rossomendblot]

I don't think late blight is supposed to overwinter on non-living material.

Although here in the UK...

"The presence of new blight strains in the UK means that the pathogen now has the potential to produce resting spores (oospores) in the affected plant tissues. The oospores are released from the rotting tissues to contaminate the soil. These resting spores have yet to be found in the UK, but analysis of the recent genetic variations in blight strains occurring on potato crops in some parts of the UK suggests that they could be being produced. Little is currently known about their survival and their potential as a source of the disease, but investigations are continuing and more information is likely to become available over the next few years."

(https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/potato-blight)

[MissTee]

Interesting. I removed all plant material and will rotate the beds this year and containers will have new mix. I put all plants at the back of the property 200 feet away so they can be burned in Spring. Not in the compost.

(I couldn’t send them to landfill since stuffing 90 plants in garbage bags and paying for each bag for garbage pickup was prohibitive).

[Yak54]

Interesting. I removed all plant material and will rotate the beds this year and containers will have new mix. I put all plants at the back of the property 200 feet away so they can be burned in Spring. Not in the compost.

(I couldn’t send them to landfill since stuffing 90 plants in garbage bags and paying for each bag for garbage pickup was prohibitive).

You should still give your bags the bleach treatment as well as the containers

[MissTee]

For sure. Now that I know the fabric will be okay.