Tomato patch. Stay or go

[YesDeere]

I use this woven fabric for my tomatoes that's 10'-100'. Well it worked great. I just tilled and didn't remove this. Should I? Or just replant in the same holes in the fabric? I fertilize and use tomato tone on them.

 

[brin]

I have been told to alternate tomatoes from one year to the next to avoid disease, however, I have used the same spot for mine for 3 yrs. at a time with no problem but then I moved them ....did not want to push my luck...

 

[bp fick]

It's unlikely one more year is going to mean much, but let me ask this. Did you have any undo infestation last year?

Another little side issue. For most small gardeners, with limited space, "crop rotation" doesn't have a bunch of meaning. If a garden spot is 25' x 25', as a lot of gardens are, there is really no genuine rotation possible. Moving the row of tomatoes over 5 feet isn't exactly going to fool the bugs, if you know what I mean.:laughing:

 

[GPintheMitten]

I don't get it. How do you till without moving the fabric?

 

[YesDeere]

I tilled everything but the fabric. Just trying to be lazy because it's already staked in the ground.

 

[300UGUY]

I don't get it. How do you till without moving the fabric?

I was wondering the same thing. In my world, that fabric would be wound up in the tiller, nice and nasty....

 

[GPintheMitten]

I tilled everything but the fabric. Just trying to be lazy because it's already staked in the ground.

Oh, OK. I didn't get that at first. Is that the fabric in the second picture between 2 tilled areas?

 

[WayneB]

Loks like you have lots of space and if it was me i would pull up the fabric and till that area too. Oh and I would move the location as well.

Lots of things can live beneath the fabric and enjoy eating your garden too!

 

[MarkV]

I'd pull it to till and add amendments. We also use soil cloth under our maters. Sure helps with the weeding.

MarkV

 

[2LaneCruzer]

With the amount of garden you have available, I would pull it up and move the 'maters to another spot. Straw makes a good mulch, and you can till it in in the fall.

 

[jinman]

I think lack of tilling the soil and leaving the old root ball there will override any benefit of leaving the cover in place. We take up our ground cover each year and till. The best tomatoes I've ever grown were mulched heavily with cedar mulch from native cedars on my property with no other ground cover. I think cedar is a great mulch because it inhibits mold growth that often kills plants from the bottom up. At the end of the year, you just till it in as a soil amendment.

 

[Western]

I think lack of tilling the soil and leaving the old root ball there will override any benefit of leaving the cover in place. We take up our ground cover each year and till. The best tomatoes I've ever grown were mulched heavily with cedar mulch from native cedars on my property with no other ground cover. I think cedar is a great mulch because it inhibits mold growth that often kills plants from the bottom up. At the end of the year, you just till it in as a soil amendment.

That makes sense Jim, I use cedar in our little flower beds and we don't get any of the molds and whatnot now. Had good luck with the pine bark too. I never thought about using it in the garden, pretty good idea. I usually only have 5 or 6 tomato plants, so weeding that few is nothing. Adding stray or other natural type mulch is great since I can till it in like previously mentioned.

I have never tried a "commercial" mat.

 

[bp fick]

Another gardener who uses straw. We set out a couple hundred tomato plants and it holds the moisture well. Makes fall cleanup and tilling easy. Lots of folks use the plastic or fabric, though, because they want the soil warming side benefit. Don't know if that's important to you or not.

 

[LastSTRAW]

If you have the room move the tomatoes. I find that the first year is always the best.

When wilt strikes and you find out that you should have moved them it is usually too late for that season. Moving not only helps by escaping pests in the soil it provides a higher level of nutrients in the new area that would have been depleted from last year's plot.

 

[WayneB]

With the amount of garden you have available, I would pull it up and move the 'maters to another spot. Straw makes a good mulch, and you can till it in in the fall.

I agree with the straw as mulch, but it is a bit costly around here. We usually put in around 90 to 100 tomato plants and I rotate to a different garden area every year. We also do cover crops up here, winter rye which is a good poor mans manure. Our frost level goes down abut 3 feet most years so it will be late March before we even think about doing any work on the garden areas.

 

[Marty38]

No matter what I've put down during the last 3 years , straw , fabric , I seem to provide Voles Moles , and Field mice fantastic hiding and feeding areas

 

[YesDeere]

Yup. I'm gonna move it and till. I like the straw method. I should be able to get another year out of this cloth though.

 

[Western]

For you guys that plant 50+ tomato plants, what do you do with all of the harvest? Can?, sale?. Just curious, 5 plants and I cant give them away.

 

[bp fick]

Yes, we sell. Tomatoes, carrots, corn, potatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, etc. We have many, many more vegetable varieties that are just for freezing for our own use and family use.

 

[Western]

Yes, we sell. Tomatoes, carrots, corn, potatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, squash, etc. We have many, many more vegetable varieties that are just for freezing for our own use and family use.

BP, do you do that at a roadside type thing, or directly to grocers, or a "u-pick" type deal?

When I was a kid we went and picked all kinds of fruit when my parents where in Med school in California. Everything from Oranges to Cherries, I don't know if it saved my parents any $$, but it must have. All I remember is being full when we left

As far as Tomatoes, the wife and I have been thinking of canning pre-made spaghetti sauces for us to use throughout the year.