Originally Posted by
nigelandjan
Well Panda what I was meaning by making my own compost as I do in the UK I use no soil at all ,, I have learned a way of layering all the veg waste , leaf waste/ lawn waste , + shredded paper over an 18 month period ( I have 2 heaps on the go at anytime ) now this turns out what can only be descibed as looking just like pure black soil ,, so that is just what I use in its pure form .
However ,,,,,,, if what your describing is how it is in Thailand what that sounds like mate is some kind of airborne disease in which case I would imagine that is going to be very difficult to compete with unless as some other posters are suggesting a F1 variety to compete with it .
Makes me wonder where they grow those mini cherry / plum shape toms for the som tum ,, I did grow some of those from seed in the UK this year most succesfully however they came out that awfull pale red colour as in Thai and were absolutley tasteless , one thing I did note was the black around main stem of the plant ,, these all went to the local rubbish dump after and not into my compost bins , and I wont be growing them this year. Happy gardening