Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.
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May 16, 2017 | #16 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Nothing it invites and houses sails and slugs.
Will later with decomposed leaves. Free. Worth |
May 16, 2017 | #17 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Texas Coastal Bend
Posts: 3,205
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I laughed so hard, I called my husband to come look too. LOL, Spike you made my day today!
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In the spring at the end of the day you should smell like dirt ~Margaret Atwood~ |
May 17, 2017 | #18 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: St Louis, MO
Posts: 9
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I lay my soaker hose on the ground, then I put down 2-4 sheets of newspaper and over that I spread about a 2 inch layer of leaf mulch. by the end of the season, the worms have done a number on the newspaper and have reduced the leaves by a bunch as well. After the season is over I till it under and plant cover crops or cover it with a tarp.
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May 17, 2017 | #19 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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Quote:
Bill |
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May 17, 2017 | #20 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: selmer, tn
Posts: 2,944
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I have raised beds and have mulched them for many years with free stuff such as leaves,pine needles, ground up pine cones and gum balls and an almost endless supply of wood chips. I like straw, but need the money for other things.
Jon |
May 17, 2017 | #21 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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Not mulching putting out bait and letting the soiI dry out on top this year is the only way I have been able to sprout anything in my beds.
One year I put rosemary around some sprouts and it worked. It was the sharp needles they didn't like.. Yesterday I pulled a weed and found a root growing into a fresh dead snail carcass. Revenge is sweet. Worth |
May 17, 2017 | #22 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Southeastern PA
Posts: 1,420
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It's a Catch-22, if you keep the soil moist with a mulch, the plants will love it but so will the earthworms and slugs. Earthworms are good and slugs are bad so you get the good with the bad.
If you don't mulch you get hot, dry soil and weeds. Earthworms will burrow deeper to be where the woil is moist and they will not benefit your soil as much in the plant's root zone. I love spike's cartoon but I hate weeding so I use mulch and then I use organic slug bait around my cabbage plants. The slugs really don't bother much of anything else in my garden, not even the lettuce. Maybe because I have so much mulch everywhere, they are happy eating the straw. I don't know. |
May 17, 2017 | #23 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Alabama
Posts: 7,068
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I cut the last of my cabbage today and all four of them had some slugs at the very bottom but none up in the cabbage head so I was very happy with that. Of course while I had my sharp pocket knife in my hand I went ahead and sliced the slugs too.
Bill |
May 17, 2017 | #24 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
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May soil is now getting watered every day so it is moist that and lots of killer is saving me.
Soon when the cucumber and some other plants get big enough I will put the drip on automatic the soil will stay moist. What I will not do is use leaves from the yard again. I cannot express to anyone just how many snails and slugs I killed one year when I did. I think they were full of eggs. Worth |
May 17, 2017 | #25 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Minneapolis MN
Posts: 25
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Does anyone use landscape fabric? I put some down over 4-6" of semi-composted leaves, but I am worried its keeping the soil underneath too dry--it seems more water repellent than I expected. any suggestions?
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May 17, 2017 | #26 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Southeastern PA
Posts: 1,420
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I used to have more of a slug problem than I do now so when I set out my cabbage seedlings I surrounded them with a ring of crushed eggshells that I had saved over the winter. The slugs are reluctant to cross the barrier of sharp edges.
It really worked for me. |
May 17, 2017 | #27 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Des Moines, IA
Posts: 140
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I have yet to see a slug in my garden here in Iowa.
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May 17, 2017 | #28 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Brownville, Ne
Posts: 3,292
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From a local farmer I get eight bales of straw in the fall and use them as insulation around the foundation of the house where there are water lines prone to freezing in the winter. In the spring the garden, which was fall tilled, turning under last year's mulch, gets a covering of newspaper. This comes in 36 inch wide end rolls from the local newspaper where I happen to work one day per week and also write for.
So, three layers of newspaper covered by six to eight inches of straw keeps the weeds down, allows water to get through, keeps the temperature of the soil down and looks good, too.
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there's two things money can't buy; true love and home grown tomatoes. |
May 17, 2017 | #29 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: connecticut,usa
Posts: 1,151
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grass clippings
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May 17, 2017 | #30 | |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Santa Maria California
Posts: 1,014
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