Gardening expert explains how covering tomato soil with natural materials like straw or newspaper can prevent destructive blight by stopping infected soil from splashing onto plants during spring rains.
Katherine McPhillips and Vita Molyneux
10:24, 16 Apr 2026
One addition will protect your tomatoes(Image: Ekaterina Vasileva-Bagler via Getty Images)
Tomatoes are relatively straightforward to cultivate and renowned for being low maintenance, but gardeners must monitor their leaves closely. April is notorious for its warm but wet conditions, which create ideal circumstances for a particularly destructive disease known as blight.
Blight travels via fungal spores carried in water and becomes extremely difficult to manage once it takes hold in a garden, given how swiftly it spreads. It initially appears at the base of plants, causing leaves to become patchy, brown and withered, severely limiting the tomato plant’s ability to generate energy.
A plant with deteriorating leaves will struggle to photosynthesise and will experience stunted growth that’s unlikely to yield any fruit, reports the Express.
Should a tomato plant manage to produce fruit, it will rot on the stem and become inedible as the disease progresses upwards through the plant.
How to protect tomatoes from blight in spring
Early blight is a frequent concern at this time of year, but gardeners needn’t panic, as a straightforward method of preventing this disease is ensuring excess moisture doesn’t accumulate around the plant.
Tomatoes require ample room to develop, as adequate airflow assists their leaves in drying more efficiently following rainfall. Ensure each plant has sufficient space and complete sun exposure, as tomatoes growing in shaded areas are far more susceptible to remaining damp, which promotes disease. It’s essential to always water tomatoes as close to the soil as possible around the plant’s base, since overhead watering produces wet leaves and creates the perfect environment for spores to develop.
Tomatoes will stay healthy if their soil is covered with 1 natural item(Image: Getty)
Bob Wildfong, a gardener from Seeds of Diversity, has revealed that the finest defence against blight is to stop rain from carrying spores near your plant by properly mulching your tomatoes.
He said: “That splash zone is where infected soil will infect your tomato plants. Fortunately, a good mulch will completely prevent the soil from splashing.
“Whether you use straw, leaf mulch, newspaper, horticultural plastic, or fabric, any good barrier on the ground around your tomato plants will keep the soil from splashing up.”
Mulching is a straightforward gardening technique involving covering plants with biodegradable material that gradually breaks down into the soil, boosting fertility and nourishing the plant.
Not only does mulching establish a protective layer around tomatoes, but it also stops the soil from becoming waterlogged, giving spores little opportunity to flourish.
A simple way to protect tomato plants is to cover the soil with mulch(Image: Getty)
It additionally regulates soil temperature and moisture levels, easing stress on the plant while reducing humidity around the foliage.
This not only shields tomatoes from blight, but the nutrients released by the mulch will also encourage a robust, healthy plant that boasts greater natural resistance to disease. However, take care not to apply mulch to tomatoes immediately after planting, as doing so prematurely can hinder their development and diminish fruit yields.
Bob explained: “Just a word of warning about mulching tomatoes, though. While mulch helps prevent blight, helps retain moisture, and keeps weeds down, it also cools the soil.
“If you mulch tomatoes in spring, at the same time you plant them, the cool soil will slow their growth and make them ripen late.”
Ensure you wait at least a month before applying mulch to tomato seedlings, giving the soil time to warm up, then cover them with straw, newspaper or any dry material once they’ve become established.
When you mulch at the correct point in spring, your tomatoes will be safeguarded to develop robustly and healthily, yielding plump red fruit come summer.
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