But as soon as I got to the garden, I was in for an unpleasant surprise. Late blight was going crazy all over my tomatoes. In just 24 hours which I’ve been away, it managed to infect almost 50% of the cherry tomato plants.

 So there was no other solution, but to put everything else on hold and start removing the infected leaves one by one. Unfortunately, for cherry tomatoes, this means removing almost every leaf. But, it has to be done since the fruits are still perfectly healthy and I need to prevent the infection from spreading to the fruits. Right now with the percentage of infestation, I’m not hoping for the second harvest on the cherry tomatoes. I’ll be happy if the plants survive long enough for the fruits to ripe. They should ripe quickly since there aren’t any leaves hiding them from the sun.

Once again my theory has proven to be true. Tomatoes are less infected by blight when they are planted closer to each other. The plants I’ve planted very close to each other are perfectly healthy and growing better than the cherry tomatoes I’ve separated and planted separately one on every pole.

Separated cherry tomatoes

Over the years, I’ve noticed that tomatoes act as a shield from the sun when planted closely, and no plant is affected from all sides. This helps to protect them during the shower period, and late blight isn’t as aggressive as it would be on the separate plants. When there are showers mixed with the sun, separated plants get soaked by the rain and then covered in sunshine all over the plant triggering the late blight. When plants are close to each other they protect each other from the sun. Late blight can start but only on the first couple of sun-exposed plants, while the middle and the last plants are perfectly healthy.

The main argument for planting the tomatoes away from each other is that the plants need air to stop the blight. I can’t say I disagree with this, plants do need air, but only around the root. Late blight starts from the bottom and climbs up until it affects the baby leaves on top. It never starts from the middle or the top. So what is the point of planting each plant separately when you can simply air the bottom parts by removing the lower leaves?

Removing the lower leaves will keep the soil moisture away from the leaves and give air to the plant. If there is no blight spreading from the bottom, there’s no reason for the upper part not to be bushy.

My ox heart tomatoes are the perfect example of this. Plants are incredibly bushy, they are huge, with a bunch of leaves. But also they are completely healthy. I did remove the lower leaves to give the plants some air, but they seem to enjoy being planted so narrowly. This row of tomatoes is bigger than any other tomato in the garden, leaves are healthy and blooms are everywhere. I have the same ox heart planted separately, and the plants are much smaller and showing signs of blight, so it’s not about the variety resistance, it’s the way they are planted.

Knowing this I’ve decided to do a small experiment next year. I will not plant my tomatoes on poles next year, I’ll place 2 or 3 big poles alongside the bed and plant the tomatoes in a single row across the bed. I plant to just tie them with string around the poles, similar to the way I’ve sown my beans this year. Only I’ll use big poles. The strings should hold them from falling, and they should be close enough to protect each other from the sun, wind, and blight. 

Maybe it will work better than the way I’m planting them this year, maybe it won’t, but I do know one thing, I will not make the mistake of planting my tomatoes so far from each other ever again.