market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Market Farming
List archive
- From: KAKerby AT aol.com
- To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Tomato disaster!
- Date: Tue, 22 May 2012 22:03:41 -0400 (EDT)
This is a total shot in the dark, and an extrapolation of what worked for
one fungal problem into what might work in another. So, proceed with
caution, but here goes: A tomato grower here (not me) was looking at a really
bad case of early blight a few years ago - she'd already lost a lot of plants (I
think about half) and she was afraid she'd lose the whole planting.
Instead of thinking in terms of killing the evil bad fungus already there, she
went the other direction and deliberately introduced massive amounts of good
healthy fungus and associated beneficial bacteria, via compost tea as a foliar
spray. She said she was able to save most of the remaining plants and
salvaged something of the tomato harvest, rather than watching the whole thing
burn down.
While early blight is a leaf issue, rather than a base/stem issue, the
basic principle would seem to be the same - flood the area with the good guys
and the bad guys won't be able to compete. Or at least it'll slow 'em
down. I found myself reading through your dilemma and wondered if that
might be a worthwhile option. If you choose that option I'd love to hear
how it works out. Actually, please let us know what option(s) you choose
and how it/they worked. I'm sure one or more of us will eventually face
something similar in the future.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at
frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html
--Original Message----- From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Marlin Burkholder Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 8:23 PM To: Market Farming Subject: [Market-farming] Tomato disaster! I am having what amounts to a major disaster in my high tunnel planted tomatoes this spring! I am having die off of plants transplanted three weeks to a month ago. Inspection of the roots reveals that about an inch of stem below the soil line has begun rotting and collapsing causing sudden death of the plant. I would estimate that I have lost upwards of 1/3rd of my plants in one house and it looks like I am going to lose more. I posted here one day last week and several responded that it is damping off. The damp off I am familiar with happens in the greenhouse soon after young plants have come up. I don't think you would see damp off of 18 inch to two foot tall plants, some of which had tomatoes on approaching the size of golf balls. I have heard of warnings about putting fertilizer too close to stems at transplanting. I had put about two tablespoons of "Plant Tone" (an all organic product) mixed in the soil around the top of the roots at transplanting. I have done this for years and never had trouble. Once about 15 years ago I had a similar problem when I transplanted tomatoes through plastic mulch into ground that had one foot tall red clover plowed down about a week or two before. I figured that that was triggered by too much bacterial activity in the soil breaking down the clover and also attacking the tomatoes. The soil in one high tunnel had been amended, tilled, and plastic mulched last fall and did not have an excess of freshly decomposing organic matter in the root zone. The other high tunnel had not been mulched and was planted to over wintered spinach last fall and it had lettuce plugged into it in very early spring. I had seen about 5% die off of lettuce soon after transplanting to some similar type of root rot but it was nothing to be alarmed about. There is some tomato loss in that house but not nearly as bad as in the plastic mulched one. Now I am wondering what the heck is going on and what should I do about it! I'm thinking of buying some replacement plants and soaking the roots in some sort of fungicide before putting them back in the holes. I would also spray fungicide at the base of the plants that are still living. I would rather not use something chemical. We do have an abundance of forage mustard growing in other areas of the field which was planted for the purpose of natural soil fumigation. Would it work to make up an infusion of it and spray it on the soil? I need to pick some brains here! Marlin Burkholder Shenandoah Valley Virginia _______________________________________________ Market-farming mailing list Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming Market Farming List Archives may be found here: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/market-farming/ Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email address and password): http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming |
-
[Market-farming] Tomato disaster!,
Marlin Burkholder, 05/22/2012
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato disaster!, Paul Wiediger, 05/22/2012
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
-
Re: [Market-farming] Tomato disaster!,
KAKerby, 05/22/2012
- Re: [Market-farming] Tomato disaster!, Etienne Goyer, 05/24/2012
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.