Raised Beds and Rotation (do you or don’t you)

[DonDuck]

I have seven raised beds and fifteen, 25 gallon containers. I started with twelve inch deep raised beds, but as the deep wooden borders have disintegrated over the years; they have been replaced with 8" and 6" deep borders. I always cover my beds with a thick layer of pine bark or shredded hardwood mulch to conserve moisture and moderate soil temperature in the hot summer. The mulch also helps prevent plant leaf contact with the soil and soil born disease's..Each spring, I turn the beds over with a shovel incorporating the previous years mulch, alfalfa pellets, and sand into the heavy clay soil. I typically don't rotate my tomato beds and I haven't observed any problems. I also like to use cover crops like rye grass, turnips, or collard greens which are turned over into the soil each spring along with the other amendments. I prepare my soil by promoting a healthy earth worm population.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

I do the same 3 year rotation of those three families plus alliums in my beds too. There are sixteen 4x18 beds and they get mulched during the year from a huge pile of leaves raked in the fall. Of course, the beds near a big pecan tree are rather self-mulching in the fall.


However, there was/is some kind of wilt in the soil that affects only the tomatoes so for the past four years we've been growing them in 15 gallon pots next to the house but this year I'm also going to plant a few in the garden again "just to see".

That is a beautiful setup. What part of Georgia are you located in?

The only problem I see is that you have a pecan tree nearby. My backdoor neighbor had a large pecan tree in his backyard which abutted my garden and although it was around 50 feet from my nearest bed it sent roots into the bed. As the years went on they infiltrated further and further into the beds and required digging out with a shovel every season to hold them back some. Luckily five years ago the thing blew over in a high wind and the roots that were invading that side of the garden disappeared. Now I only have to deal with the huge live oak tree that is on the other side and the large pecan that is on the other side which only gets to the two lowest beds which are not used for tomatoes because of the shade.

Sounds like you have fusarium wilt. So far everything I tried to get rid of it did not work but I did observe over the years of battling it that a cold winter helped some. My trouble is we don't have cold enough winters to help much and we don't have cold winters very often so the problem only got worse as the years rolled on and more strains of it showed up making growing heirlooms terribly frustrating. Finally I gave in and started grafting onto root stock that was resistant to all three known races of fusarium and I have had no problems with it since then. You could try growing a couple of Big Beefs and if it gets the wilt then you probably have all three kinds but if it does well then you are only dealing with one or two types of fusarium wilt. Having one or two types is much better than having all three because some heirlooms will survive but if you have all three it is much more difficult to get a heirloom tomato to survive the whole season without wilting. You can also try some of the FFF hybrids and if they don't wilt while all the others do then you know what you are dealing with.

Bill

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by b54red

That is a beautiful setup. What part of Georgia are you located in?

Thank you! I'm in the Augusta area.

Originally Posted by b54red

The only problem I see is that you have a pecan tree nearby.

Yep, those roots invade all the way out to the edge of the canopy. I use a big broadfork, about 30 lbs with 16" tines (I call it The Beast) to work up the soil so I can pull the fibrous masses out. It needs to be done both spring and fall on about four beds near the pecan.

On the other side of the garden (out of the photo) there's a cedar tree which affects one bed. Along the top of the garden there's a grape vine and those roots wander into the top two beds. And each top corner has a large crape myrtle.... LOL! Who needs a gym membership when there are beds to "beast"! Funny, it wasn't a problem like that 30 years ago.

Originally Posted by b54red

Sounds like you have fusarium wilt.

Whatever it is, the tomato plants would be nice and big and loaded with large green tomatoes. Then one day a 3" terminal branch tip at the top of the plant would be wilted. The next day about 1/4 of the plant would be wilted. Within two more days the whole plant would be wilted. Amazing how fast it went.
I'll be keeping the tomatoes in the buckets as those garden beds are now used for other stuff in rotation and there would now be no room for nine tomatoes. Mission creep!

[taboule]

Originally Posted by b54red

... My trouble is we don't have cold enough winters to help much and we don't have cold winters very often ...

Bill

Bill,

We have plenty of those around here. I'd be happy to send you some.

Charles

[b54red]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Thank you! I'm in the Augusta area.




Whatever it is, the tomato plants would be nice and big and loaded with large green tomatoes. Then one day a 3" terminal branch tip at the top of the plant would be wilted. The next day about 1/4 of the plant would be wilted. Within two more days the whole plant would be wilted. Amazing how fast it went.
I'll be keeping the tomatoes in the buckets as those garden beds are now used for other stuff in rotation and there would now be no room for nine tomatoes. Mission creep!

If the whole plant is wilting in a day or two then you may be dealing with Bacterial Wilt. If before the wilting begins you are seeing some yellowing of the foliage, that is more indicative of fusarium wilt. I would need to see some detailed photos as the disease progresses to be more certain of what you are dealing with. Since I have been dealing with fusarium wilt for decades I have become somewhat good at spotting it early before the more advanced symptoms show up. Bacterial wilt is one that I have seen for years and it always took me by surprise in how fast it would totally ruin a big healthy plant. Over the years it was rare for me to have more than a 10% loss of plants to Bacterial wilt but I have heard of it ruining a whole tomato patch in some areas. Fusarium while much slower to progress usually was a problem for me every year and would sometimes devastate all but a few plants causing me to continuously replace dying plants with new ones. That is how I got into staggered planting which I have continued since starting to graft. I like having new strong young plants coming into production for as much of the season as possible so I get a more steady supply of fresh tomatoes from early summer well into late fall.

Bill

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by b54red

If the whole plant is wilting in a day or two then you may be dealing with Bacterial Wilt. If before the wilting begins you are seeing some yellowing of the foliage, that is more indicative of fusarium wilt. I would need to see some detailed photos as the disease progresses to be more certain of what you are dealing with.

Bacterial wilt is pretty much what I was thinking at the time. There was no discolored foliage at all; just real healthy plants wilting suddenly. A longitudinal section of the stem just above the crown showed some discoloration and sticking the piece in water showed some streaming. The only photo I found is from 2013. I know I took others of the section and other plants but can't find them.



That's the last year I grew tomatoes in the garden and switched to containers not in the garden.

Apologies to the OP for getting off topic!