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What's New
Tomatoes 2008
Composting.ppt
Iris with music.ppt
Flowers and
bulbs in garden.ppt
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To grow tomatoes like never before, carefully follow these directions
according to the given timetable:
September
The first step toward high tomato yields is taken in early September when you
prepare permanent raised tomato beds. If you're trying this method for the first
time, use an inoculum to establish the proper soil bacteria.
Seed the beds with hairy vetch, a winter-hardy legume that's becoming widely
available. Do this about 2 months before winter freezeup. Seedlings will emerge
within 1 week. By the time that frost arrives, plants will be 5 to 6 inches
tall.
Above ground, these skinny little vines will form a mat. Underground, the root
systems will all this time be growing into an extensive network. Foliage and
root systems will be working together, above and below ground, to hold the soil
firmly and stop erosion.
Below-freezing weather will cause the vetch vines to become dormant, but never
fear—Spring reinvigorates growth.
Now that wasn't too tough. And the good news is, you won't have to do anything
else until May.
May
By May, individual vines will be 4 or 5 feet long and form thick stands about
2 feet high. Now it's time to kill them.
Yes, I said kill them!
Determine your ideal tomato-planting time. The day before, go out and buy
however many tomato seedlings you're prepared to cultivate.
Then mow the vetch (a high-speed flail mower is recommended) and leave the
residue in place on the beds. For the next several months, the dead vines are
going to form a nutritious organic blanket that will snuggle up to your tomato
plants (keeping out weeds) and gradually break down into soil nutrients.
Tomorrow you'll transplant young tomato plants right through the mulch residue
and into the underlying soil.
Moisture is vital, so you'll need to irrigate. Immediately after planting,
install trickle irrigation lines on top of the vetch and 3 to 4 inches from the
tomato row. Fix them in place with U-shaped wires.
Fertilizers? A good stand of vetch provides sufficient nitrogen to meet from
half to all the nitrogen needed by tomatoes. As for phosphorus, potassium, and
essential micronutrients, it's best to have your soil tested—and supplement
according to the soil's specific needs.
June…and Beyond
During the first month after mowing, expect the vetch mulch to suppress weed
emergence. After that, as the decomposition of the residue advances, weed
seedlings are likely to emerge.
One herbicidal application of 0.5 pound active ingredient of metribuzin per acre
should do the trick, applied 3 to 4 weeks after transplanting. (Your nursery
professional can help compute the quantity needed for small applications.) This
application will also kill any regrowth from the mowed vetch plants.
By summer's end, your tomato plants will bear an abundance of fruit, the organic
mulch will decompose to a fare-thee-well, and the year will have come full
circle.
Mow the old tomato plants and leave them in the field to decompose like the
vetch mulch.
Now it's time to reseed with...
hairy vetch!
Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa). To look at this spindly legume, you'd
never guess that it's the Mercedes of cover crops for most parts of the United
States. Hairy vetch not only has the widest range of adaptability, but offers
consistently high rates of nitrogen fixation and biomass.
There are other cover crops you can consider though. Common vetch, bigflower
vetch, crimson clover, subterranean clover, arrowleaf clover, austrian winter
pea, and berseem clover are all possibilities.
02/01/2009
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