Variety/companion garden question

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by TightenUp

also keep in mind ramapo and rutgers arent the largest tomatoes on the market. did you weigh any of the ones you got?

redbarron can comment on the size of the rutgers tomato better than i can but i dont think theyre very big and almost positive they stay under a pound and closer to 8 oz

6 to 8 oz usually

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by feldon30

If there is some empirical evidence that companion planting improves plant growth, disease management, and harvest quality, and if you have a Companion Planting Varieties list which has undergone some scrutiny, by all means please link it.

companion planting

Intraspecific genotypic richness and relatedness predict the invasibility of microbial communities

Airborne Induction and Priming of Plant Defenses against a Bacterial Pathogen

[dice]

[companion plants]
Basil is fairly pungent. I always assumed that if there was some
benefit from interplanting it with tomatoes, it would be not
a root enzyme effect but rather a bug repellent effect of
the scent of basil, that some pest that loves tomatoes hates
basil and will move on to some other kind of plant if it gets
a whiff of nearby basil when it lands on a tomato plant.

I do not know if that is true, but it seemed more likely to
me than that there was some chemical effect of the growing
basil plant on the growing tomato plant.

[horse manure]
Composted horse manure was always great stuff to amend
the soil with for me. It is simply that one needs to test it for
contamination before using it these days, because of chemicals
that have shown up in horse manure and hay in the last few
years that kill tomatoes and many other vegetables at very
low concentrations.

Rabbit manure should also be tested, but I would expect it to be
a lot less likely to be contaminated with herbicides used on hay
fields, because of all of the people that use alfalfa pellets for
rabbit feed. Farmers cannot use aminopyralid (and its chemical
relatives) on alfalfa fields, because it would kill the alfalfa.
(The herbicide does not kill grass, but alfalfa is not grass,
more like a clover.)

The test is too simple to skip, though, and risk having to
dig up your whole garden and replace the soil 3' deep or
whatever. It only costs a few pea or bean seeds and some
container mix to find out for sure whether the manure is
safe to use in your garden.

edit:
If you are having problems growing tomatoes in horse
manure amended gardens, it could be contamination,
but it could also be lack of light. Tomatoes need 6-8
hours of direct sunlight per day to thrive.

[nnjjohn]

Originally Posted by dice

[companion plants]
Basil is fairly pungent. I always assumed that if there was some
benefit from interplanting it with tomatoes, it would be not
a root enzyme effect but rather a bug repellent effect of
the scent of basil, that some pest that loves tomatoes hates
basil and will move on to some other kind of plant if it gets
a whiff of nearby basil when it lands on a tomato plant.

I do not know if that is true, but it seemed more likely to
me than that there was some chemical effect of the growing
basil plant on the growing tomato plant.

[horse manure]
Composted horse manure was always great stuff to amend
the soil with for me. It is simply that one needs to test it for
contamination before using it these days, because of chemicals
that have shown up in horse manure and hay in the last few
years that kill tomatoes and many other vegetables at very
low concentrations.

Rabbit manure should also be tested, but I would expect it to be
a lot less likely to be contaminated with herbicides used on hay
fields, because of all of the people that use alfalfa pellets for
rabbit feed. Farmers cannot use aminopyralid (and its chemical
relatives) on alfalfa fields, because it would kill the alfalfa.
(The herbicide does not kill grass, but alfalfa is not grass,
more like a clover.)

The test is too simple to skip, though, and risk having to
dig up your whole garden and replace the soil 3' deep or
whatever. It only costs a few pea or bean seeds and some
container mix to find out for sure whether the manure is
safe to use in your garden.

edit:
If you are having problems growing tomatoes in horse
manure amended gardens, it could be contamination,
but it could also be lack of light. Tomatoes need 6-8
hours of direct sunlight per day to thrive.

I am not sure if it was low nitrogen and two many plants or if I didn't loosen the compressed soil during growing season.. I do know anything I planted wasn't growing the way I see other gardens.. My yard at best gets six hours light with the exception of the longest days of summer around the equenox,, probably a combination of low nitrogen , deficient amendments ,, I do get about three bussels of tomatoes , more than we can eat.. about six in family eat them.. but eventually I will know for sure using the pea test.. could be a little of everything.. I know now not to add horse manure should it be the case. ty for sharing, john

[nnjjohn]

Attachment 35155

Attachment 35156

Attachment 35157

Attachment 35158Want to show the difference in plants from the less sunny side shaded beds ..you can see the beds getting more day sun are way ahead

[nnjjohn]

please forgive me about the photos posted upside down.. i hope one of the mods could correct them..i am not sure from here how to yet.

[dice]

I am getting an "invalid attachment" message when I click
on them. This is the phone pic thing? Seems like that was
working a month ago. (Maybe your phone has been invaded
by Little Green Men, and the uploading code detected it.)

[nnjjohn]

Not my doing..I contacted the administrator. I canpost picture anymore

[dice]

If you used to be able to attach pictures from a particular
device, and now pictures from the same device are flagged
as invalid, I always wonder if the software on the device
changed, the operating system version if the device has
its own operating system (like an Android or iphone or ipad,
for example), the firmware version for the device
(little bit of code on a chip in it), etc. Is there something wrong
with the file format of the pictures that the device is saving
to its memory now that used to be correct. (That is what
I meant by "Little Green Men" invading your phone.)

I don't really know if that is what makes an attachment
"invalid" in the eyes of the Tomatoville forum software,
so someone else would have to answer that.

On another note, you might find this idea of dcarch's
for getting more light onto his plants useful:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=5379

[nnjjohn]

Iwill figure it out ty again too

[nnjjohn]

I finally decided to harvest to rest of my Swiss chard today.. probably enough for four servings tomorrow. I wonder if the Chard will continue growing more leaves late fall season? I guess it all depends how much freezing overnight we have.. still grateful for the warm fall we been experiencing.

[Cincinnati]

Originally Posted by baileyj

nnjjohn,

...

I do all my growing in 40 earthboxes about 15 will be tomatoes this year and a few dwarfs in 5 gallon buckets. All but 4 will be single plants of those varieties.....the 4 I am planting 2 plants of each.
Good luck,
Judi

Judi,

I too grow my tomatoes in 13 Earthboxes. #14 has peppers..

I am experiencing a problem with my tomatoes cracking indicating too much water, do you have this issue? How often do you top off your boxes? I was told the beauty of EBs is they take as much water as they need when they need it. But I have done 4 seasons and get deep splits in my fruit to some degree each season. I recently started watering only once per week, but am concerned that the mix may dry out Too much. Being in zone 9a, we are still having 80+ degree days in late November.