andy10917 wrote:Thanks! After a bad, bad attack of Early Blight two seasons ago, I am avoiding growing tomatoes and other early blight sensitive plants in that area for 5 years. I bagged the diseased plants and carted them to the curb. No composting at all for them.

Andy you do not have to wait that long if you do not want to so listen up I have another excellent tip you or anyone else.

Crop rotation is a excellent idea, but lets face it not many folks have that luxury or space to do that. You can easily kill all the viruses easily with a little work. I have done this many times and it works like a charm. In TX we have two mator seasons, spring and fall. By mid to late June and sometimes early July if we are lucky it gets way too hot and the tomatoes are done. So I pull the plants up, soak the bed, and cover it with heavy gauge clear plastic and solarize the soil. By the end of August pull the plastic off and I am left with nice sterile soil for a fall planting of mators.

texasweed wrote:
3. In every planting hole I recommend 1-pound of well-aged and rotted animal manure compost, and 1 Tablespoon of Epson Salts. If you do not have access to quality manure compost, no problem I have a secret recipe a very dear friend of mine came up with. His name is Darrel Merrill from Tulsa OK aka The Tomato Man (RIP Darrel). In each hole add 1 Tablespoon of blood meal (nitrogen), ½ cup of bone meal (phosphorous) , ½ cup of green sand, 1 Tablespoon Epson Salt, 1 whole banana with peel (potassium), and 2 crushed calcium tablets to prevent blossom-end rot. That is it for fertilizing for the season. Do not add any more.

Texasweed - do you think your friend's secret recipe would be appropriate for container gardening of tomatoes as well? Perhaps in smaller proportions?

texasweed wrote:But today after moving th Prescott, I will just be using store bought conical cages. Only planting a few tomatoes this year to see if it is even possible to grow mators here. So far so good, but I have not found many people around here that grow them.

What exactly was your concern? Too cold? Too warm? Too dry?

As I feared too cold for too long. Being from TX I made an error of trying to get tomatoes out too early here. We had frost and freezing weather up to late May.

texasweed wrote:7. Mulch lightly after planting to prevent soil being splashed onto the plant from watering or rain. As plants grow, keep adding mulch layers to about 1-foot.

tw: Thanks again for the tips. I've got the best crop of tomatoes I've ever had.
I went with the 5' concrete mesh cages and some of the sweet 100's are already 1' above the top of those!

About the mulch: What do you do with the 1 foot of mulch at the end of the season?

Ohio2112 wrote:About the mulch: What do you do with the 1 foot of mulch at the end of the season?

There are a few things you can do with it.

1. Leave it on the beds and let it turn into compost. Turn it about once a month and keep it moist. Then next season til it in.

2. What I do is remove it and put it into the compost pile. Then in early fall immediately after you rip up the last plant, I plant a green manure crop of Hairy Vetch. You can plant anything in the legume family. Then next spring, turn the cover crop over and mix in the compost you made during the winter.

Did you get a good crop of mators this year? I didn't and most folks I talk too had a horrible growing season this year.

texasweed wrote:

Ohio2112 wrote:About the mulch: What do you do with the 1 foot of mulch at the end of the season?

There are a few things you can do with it.

1. Leave it on the beds and let it turn into compost. Turn it about once a month and keep it moist. Then next season til it in.

2. What I do is remove it and put it into the compost pile. Then in early fall immediately after you rip up the last plant, I plant a green manure crop of Hairy Vetch. You can plant anything in the legume family. Then next spring, turn the cover crop over and mix in the compost you made during the winter.

I like option 2 too.
I was planning to do a cover crop this year for the first time. I was thinking of trying those monster radishes C&C used last year but my garden soil doesn't really need that kind of aeration. Do you know if Hairy Vetch works up north?

texasweed wrote:Did you get a good crop of mators this year? I didn't and most folks I talk too had a horrible growing season this year.

Well, I've got more live plants than dead ones and I'm picking tomatoes every day, so for me that's a success compared to prior years!

[ Post made via iPod ]

Hairy Vetch is a winter hardy plant, so yeah I think it should do good for you. As soon as the mator quit or slow down enough, pull them up and plant vetch. It should do good at least up until you get really hard deep freezes. In Texas it grows all winter even after cold spells of teens. But keep in mind when we do hit the teens is just for a few hours, not days.

It is cheap seed, so you got nothing to loose and everything to gain. When Hairy Vetch is grown in pastures it can fixate 120 lbd per acre of nitrogen or roughly 3 lbs 1000/ft2 which is enough to grow most cash crops except corn and mators. Couple that with some good compost and horse maure, you wil not need any store bought nitrogen.

Is it county fair time up in your area? Do you have a PU truck? Go to the fair on the last day and get a load of horse love, sheep, cow, or whatever you can get a load of. That with the mulch will make you some of the best compost money cannot buy. Till that in with Hairy Vetch next spring and you are set to go my friend.

I live in Prescott AZ now and did not get but a very few mators. Most of mine were froze out. So for my fee, next year send me a box of LOVE from your bumper crop.

texasweed wrote:Hairy Vetch is a winter hardy plant, so yeah I think it should do good for you. As soon as the mator quit or slow down enough, pull them up and plant vetch. It should do good at least up until you get really hard deep freezes. In Texas it grows all winter even after cold spells of teens. But keep in mind when we do hit the teens is just for a few hours, not days.

It is cheap seed, so you got nothing to loose and everything to gain. When Hairy Vetch is grown in pastures it can fixate 120 lbd per acre of nitrogen or roughly 3 lbs 1000/ft2 which is enough to grow most cash crops except corn and mators. Couple that with some good compost and horse maure, you wil not need any store bought nitrogen.

Is it county fair time up in your area? Do you have a PU truck? Go to the fair on the last day and get a load of horse love, sheep, cow, or whatever you can get a load of. That with the mulch will make you some of the best compost money cannot buy. Till that in with Hairy Vetch next spring and you are set to go my friend.

Great idea on the fair. Our county fair ends Sunday. I should be able to get plenty of fresh poo for the compost pile.

texasweed wrote:I live in Prescott AZ now and did not get but a very few mators. Most of mine were froze out. So for my fee, next year send me a box of LOVE from your bumper crop.

I'd be happy to send you a box!
Just PM me your address.
Would it be better to send ones that are a bit less than ripe?

[ Post made via iPod ]

Well thanks for the offer, but I was joking.

Lol, I figured you were kidding but I wanted to offer anyway. I really do appreciate the tips. I'm sure they have a lot to do with the success I'm having this year.

[ Post made via iPod ]