Solarizing North and West Beds

I've given up on the soil in the North and West Beds, since I know it has tested positive for Fusarium and Root Knot Nematodes.  Finally, I bit the bullet and I'm solarizing it, hoping it will help.  Following the directions on this site, I cleared out all the plants and debris, watered deeply, and covered the soil with clear plastic sheeting.  We pulled the drip irrigation lines up such that they are resting on top of the plastic.  We also anchored the plastic down with river rocks on the edges.  Since this isn't peak summer sun, although it is darn hot out there still, I plan to leave the plastic on for about 2 months.  I hope it helps.

Home garden update

The upper mandarin's water was a little low, although we ran the irrigation to check it before I got to assess how dry the soil was relative to when it last ran, so hard to tell if that was the issue.  Anyway, adjusted the drippers so the upper mandarin is getting more water.  Also added compost to its well.

Used fish emulsion to fertilize the two mandarins, the back lemon, the North bed, the West bed, the carrotwood tree, and the front hedge.  Used Grow Power Plus on the carrotwood and hedge.  Also used Organic Citrus fertilizer on the two mandarins and back lemon.  Used organic veg fertilizer on the North and West beds and pots.  Finally, DD put old commercial worm castings in the North bed, West bed, and pots.

I saved seed from our cauliflower and broccoli and tore out the old plants.  I planted cucumber seeds in the West bed, and zucchini and pumpkin seeds in the North bed, plus some nasturtiums for fun.

Planted and Fertilized at home

Ah!  Spring is definitely here, and I've go the bug!  I spent almost the whole day in the garden, after starting the morning at Zumba.  I pulled out some old veggies and gathered fennel and basil seeds before planting.  I put in basil, dill, and chive seeds.  Plus I had starts of Celebrity Tomatoes that I planted, which are VFNT resistant.  If anything can survive my diseased home garden beds, they seem the most likely candidates.  They went in the North and West beds.  I hope they at least taste decent.  Also, I planted marigolds (for looks and to discourage nematodes), snapdragons, and celosia.  The latter I've never grown before.  The flowers went in North, West and South beds, plus pots.  DH harvested the worm bin and put the castings in the North and West beds.  Finally I gave a very thorough fish fertilizing to the Carrotwood tree and the hedge on the North side of the house that I'm hoping will pep them up, along with the deep watering they've been getting.

Fertilized and applied compost at home

Today I used the fish emulsion to fertilize the N. and W. garden beds at home, plus pots and citrus trees (except missed one on the side yard).  I also applied compost to the two lower mandarins.  The lowest one is still looking less than thrilled with life.  When we planted it initially (was it only a year ago?) the dirt there was shockingly pale and whitish/chalky.  I wonder if that is impacting the tree.

Fertilized at home, Carrotwood Tree

Today I used seaweed and fish emulsion deeply on the citrus trees.  Trying to perk up a little mandarin in back.  Used this on a quetionable apple tree on the back slope to see if it would leaf out better this year.

Also used the seaweed and fish emulsion on the N. Bed, S. Bed, W. Bed, and pots.

Still trying to help the Northern part of the Carrotwood Tree.  Used the seaweed and fish emulsion deeply there, then wound a new soaker hose around the back area and watered deeply.  Please let this help!

Finally, took that seaweed and fish emulsion to the front yard and fertilized the North hedge.  Somewhere on that hedge the dial-a-sprayer must have clogged, so I don't know how much fertilizer that hedge actually got.

Fertilized with Fish Emulsion at home, Pruned Roses

I fertilized the South, North and West garden beds with Fish Emulsion today.  The lettuce and beet seeds that I planted in my nematode-infested North bed are hardly germinating.

Pruned all the roses, so now my house is littered with vases of roses that were still on the bushes.  What do other people do in warm climates?  You have to prune sometime, right?  But it always seems a shame to cut off so many flowers.

While pruning roses, I found more raccoon scat.  That thing loves my garden.  DH was kind enough to clean it up for me, wearing gloves and mask and such.  Nasty diseases in that stuff.

Worm Bin, Planted seeds

Today we cleaned out half the worm composting bin to harvest the worm castings and make room for more composting.  I used the worm castings in the N. bed, W. bed, and on both mandarins.

The prior oil spray seems to have improved the black aphid situation on the chard but it is far from over.

The prior compost addition to the N. and W. beds did indeed attract the raccoon back for more digging.  Fortunately, it didn't dig out any plants this time, just the dirt/compost.  I'm sure the worm castings will be a raccoon magnet.

I also planted seeds from romaine and buttercrunch lettuce and for beets in the N bed.  I hope those don't get trashed tonight by the raccoon.

Happy New Year!

Gardening update

I've been neglecting this blog and recording what I've been doing.

At home: The VFN tomatoes didn't die super quickly, but they don't look very happy either.  I wonder if the FN load in the bed is just too much.  Also, the marigolds quickly got skelatonized at home (and a bit at the community garden), in a pattern that spread in such a way that I wonder if it was a caterpillar or something that crawls.  I've planted many broccoli and cauliflower starts at home, plus some cosmos and snapdragons.  Twice now they've been badly uprooted and thrown about.  I'm wondering if it is a raccoon or a skunk doing that.  I've replanted everything that survived, used a my granular all-purpose organic fertilizer, sprinkled some crushed dried jalapeno peppers around and DH set some rat traps in the garden.  I'll hope some part of that helps.

At the community garden: brussel sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower starts went in.  Plus lots of seeds for kale (saved), carrot (saved), lettuce (saved), broccoli (saved), onion, beets, bok choy, kohlrabi.  What am I forgetting?  Oh, and today I fertilized at the CG with the all-purpose dry organic fertilizer.

Fertilized

Did Gro-Power inn the front and on roses plus some ornamental pots.

Did Dr. Earth's Citrus Fertilizer on the citrus.

Did some Miracle Grow Organic (until gone - yea!) and some Dr. Earth's Vegetable fertilizer on N, S, and W beds, plus the vegetable pots.

Also, used worm tea in the N bed.

Trip to the Nursery, VFN tomatoes, Marigolds, and Compost

After the bad news of my infestation, I wanted to know more about VFN varieties.  Interestingly, the Territorial Seed Company seed catalog that I had at home did not seem to comment on VFN status.  I wonder if I missed it or if the info really isn't there.

Friday afternoon, we went to the nursery.  There we found only a few hybrid seed packets labeled with VFN information in small italic, light font.  The tags on actually plants weren't very helpful either - the most informative said "disease resistant" but didn't specify which diseases.  The customer service desk did have some helpful printouts regarding VFN status of some varieties they carried.

To test the theory that my tomatoes' big issues at home are the wilt and nematodes, I bought a 6 pack of Champion hybrid tomatoes.

Reading more on the root knot nematodes online, I saw information about using marigolds to help control them.  So, I bought 24 French Marigolds to plant at home.

I also read that using compost may help, as it may up the beneficials populations such that they can prey upon the parasitic nematodes.  I need to also read further about whether it is worthwhile to purchase predatory nematodes.

Saturday, I put our entire supply of finished compost into the North and West beds, which gave several inches of new compost to each.  I removed dead plants, cut diseased ones, planted the new tomatoes and the 20 or the 24 marigolds.  (The other 4 I'm saving for the community garden bed.)

Here are the beds as I'm cleaning them out and adding compost:

And here they are when I was done:

I also supported the tomatoes in the front bed with an approximation of a Florida weave.  Despite the fact that all of those plants are heirlooms, some of them are doing okay.  I haven't grown any vegetables in that soil before.  It isn't the best soil, but it also isn't too infested apparently.

Here is the weave in progress:

Here is the finished photo:

Lastly, here are some of my garden helpers.  They supervised some of the gardening from up in the Carrotwood tree:

Infestation Lessons from the Plant Pathologist

This morning I had an appointment at the County Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures with the plant pathologist to look at my sickly heirloom tomato plants.  She was kind enough to actually let me come in with my plants and learn from her!  Thank you!  These are my notes from our appointment.

I had 2 terribly stunted samples form the North Bed, one moderately stunted and wilting sample from the West bed, and 2 larger and rapidly wilting samples from the Community Garden bed.  I made the appointment figuring that since not everything responded miraculously to my fish emulsion that the problem went deeper than nitrogen deficiency.  And oh how very deep the problem is!

From the North Bed:
Plants 1 + 2: Snow White Cherry + Orange Cherry
a) chewing damage along stems consistent with pill bugs, ear wigs, etc. (I knew this, but the problem seemed more extensive than this)
b) tomato russet mite - can decimate fields, but not that many were present
c) no evidence of fusarium wilt or parasitic nematodes but the sample tomatoes were so stunted that one really couldn't tell for sure.  Easier to diagnose in bigger plants.  These were tiny - like less than 4 inches tall despite being seedlings from the spring.

From the West Bed:
Plant 1: Mortgage Lifter
a) Root Knot Nematode (prominently!).  Easy to see the knotting, not uniformly tapering roots.  Parasitic worm in a gall, which is a reaction to her presence.  The pathologist shaved off the gall carefully with a scalpel under the microscrope and we could see the small gooey white looking balls that were the adult nematodes.
b) Fusarium Wilt - plenty.  Easy to see when we cut the plant's stem in cross section near the soil line.
c) Tomato Russet Mite - mild
d) no spider mites

From the Community Garden Bed:
Plant 1: Super Sweet White Cherry
a) Fusarium wilt - prominent
b) Root knot nematode - mild - it was harder for me to see in this specimen, but she saw it.
c) tomato russet mite - mild
d) spider mite - a few present, but not many at all
Plant 2: Yellow Pear
a) Fusarium wilt - plenty
b) tomato russet mite - some
c) aphid - present
d) no root knot nematode noted

Fusarium wilt is a soil born fungus.  "Basically there forever" due to spores.  When the stem is cut in cross section, it is easy to see the brown discolored ring in the plant's vasculature.  Further up the stem it becomes less obvious.  It is nightshade specific, thus the recommended rotation of nightshades, which can be very difficult to do in the home garden.  More practical to get VFN (Verticillium Wilt, Fusarium Wilt, Nematode) resistant tomato hybrid varieties.  If doing the rotation, rotate out at least 3 years and see if you can get one decent crop in before the fungus population rebounds significantly.

Root Knot Nematode - Parasitic nematode that lives in the soil, has a broad host range (including most vegetables and some weeds, etc), and is basically there forever according to her.  Some resistant varieties can be found (mostly tomatoes, though) and can solarize the soil as a last resort.  This involves a clear tarp on top of soil for 4-6 weeks in the heat of the summer.  Problem with this is that it kills everything, even beneficials in soil.

Also discussed powdery mildew on the squash - soap and water can help, but do not apply at hottest part of day.  Sulfer can work, too, but with the same caution.

Fertilized with Fish Emulsion at home

Used the Fish Emulsion on the North, South and West Beds, plus pots, front and roses.

Amending Soil to Fix the Zero Nitrogen Issue

I am aware that some organic vegetable gardens may have very low water soluble nitrogen levels, but ZERO seems a bit low to me.  I'm hoping this is the issue with my North and West beds, because it is one that I can fix.  Just to be sure, I dug up a few of my pathetic tomato plants to take them back to the nursery for show and tell, along with my soil test results.

I came back with some new tricks.

The first is blood meal.  I've heard that it is easy to burn plants with this as it can be too nitrogen-hot, but really, with ZERO, is that going to be an issue?  (Were those famous last words?)  One of the nursery guys told me to use it in 2-5x quantities on the label and he wasn't concerned.  Another just said he's had trouble with it attracting animals, so he recommended I scratch it in.  I don't want to attract the raccoon pair that's recently been sited in the neighborhood.

I used the blood meal in the North Bed: 4 1/6  cups total.
Blood meal in the West Bed: 1 5/6 cups total

I clawed it in for both locations.

The second photo shows what I'm hoping will be my new best friends: Dial N Spray and Fish Fertilizer.  Today I used the Sprayer for the first time and it was super easy.  We had something like this about 12 years ago that wasn't nearly as intuitive.  I used the fish emulsion on the North Bed, West Bed, South Bed, Pots, and Front.  (Plus the camellias were in my way, so I foliar sprayed them, too.)

I hope to see some improvement in the sorry state of some plants.  I hope I'm on the right track.

Massive Soil Testing: No nitrogen!

My northern, and to a lesser extent, my western garden beds have been suffering terribly.  I've put in dozens of tomatoes that died.  Plus many beet and green bean seeds have been total duds.  The shallots in the West bed are very sad as well.

Here are pictures from my north bed, where so many tomato seedlings have died.  The chard and parley are from last year.  There is one okay eggplant in that bed that is a start from a nursery this year.  Plus some of my cinnamon basil starts have survived.  Those things in yogurt containers are months old tomatoes that I started, like in February!  

I've been wondering if I've contaminated the bed with a persistent herbicide like Picloram because this fall I used horse manure that I composted in the bed before I knew about the issue.  I spoke about that some in this link.  But I was also hoping it was something like a pH issue.  In my compost pile use a ton of coffee grounds that I get in big bags from Starbucks, so I was wondering if perhaps the pH was just off.

On Friday I went to a good local nursery, Walter Anderson's, to gather advice.  I explored the send-away soil test options but the people there weren't selling it to hard, saying that the results were confusing, even for them to understand.  I'd heard that home test kits were iffy, but they seemed fairly confident in theirs.  So I came home with a new home test kit in addition to the pH probe I already had.

This weekend I did a lot of pH and NPK tests from these beds. I used both my pH probe and the pH that came in with the NPK test kits.  The probe gave readings about 0.5-0.75 lower than the test kit, but all were acceptable.  EVEREY SINGLE nitrogen test I did was ZERO!  The P and K were in the slightly low, to normal, to slightly high range.  So I'm averaging that out and calling the P and K good.  Here are my handwritten notes:

So how is it that my organic beds, amended with homemade compost and homemade worm castings has zero nitrogen??!!

Fertilized

Fertilized the veggies using a Miracle Grow Organic Fertlizer I got at Home Depot, which I don't really trust.