Rutgers is a fine tasting, medium sized tomato which i'll always have in my garden. Flavor is great!!! Very prolific. I picked my last Rutgers around mid-January this year and I'll be planting it again in the fall around late September.

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Rutgers vs Earl's Faux? hmmmmmm...

I am sorry but why waste a lot of peat for this reason ? It is a pitty already that peat is added as a cheap medium to most growing media these days - if you can choose (and when you get a bag of pure of composted peat you can choose) leave the peat - peat enriches only the pockets of the peat-industry ...

Hi Earl,

Seems like a lot of trouble just to grow some silvery firs. ;-)

Kurt

the666bbq, I think "composted peat humus" is about the closest you can come to readily available "compost" in a bag. Not everyone can make their own compost, for various reasons. And peat of any kind is readily available quite cheap in North America (I see you're in Belgium.)

Do you have any suggestions what we in N.A. should do with all this peat? (besides leaving it alone.)

If I understand correctly, peat is a NON-renewable resource. Surprised me, when I heard that, too. It takes thousands of years to create a peat bog.

From wikipedia: "Because of the challenging ecological conditions of peat wetlands, they are home to many rare and specialised organisms that are found nowhere else. Some environmental organisations and scientists have pointed out that the large-scale removal of peat from bogs in Britain, Ireland and Finland is destroying precious wildlife habitats. It takes centuries for a peat bog to regenerate."

Well, centuries then?

Another quote: "Most modern peat bogs formed in high latitudes after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age some 9,000 years ago. They usually grow slowly, at the rate of about a millimetre per year."

Here is a link that might be useful: Peat

doof, was that a general FYI/Info post or was it aimed at any particular post/poster?

Oh, it was another typical slightly off topic trivia thing, I guess. Peat is an interesting subject actually. Think about it. Nine thousand year old peat. I used it for years, thinking it was just some type of compost. The widespread overuse of peat is a big topic with some environmentalists.

Personally, I always have a great big bag of it. The alkaline clay soil here seems to profit from it.

Somebody out there will want to read this one sometime soon.

Fusion

I use essentially the same method as Earl and it works great. I'm using raised beds and the concrete re-enforcing wire, and the hole method. If you spend a little extra time in preperation it will make all the difference in the world. Get the hole deep and wide and fill it back with the ingredients Earl uses. I am a big believer in Seaweed Solution, so I add some of that too. The fish emulsion is great, too.

Aggrand and AlgoFlash are two wonderful tomato fertilizers and I believe both can be found on line.

I would advise against the chicken wire as mentioned above. There is no way to harvest the tomatoes. Another reason Earl uses the CRW. You can get your hand in and out easy, and rarely have a fruit that you can't get through it.

Thanks again Earl for the post! Remember to do it again in the Spring.

Don

How did I miss this post??? You folks are hilarious! Thanks for the post, Earl!!! I'm thinking of using this method for some new beds! Thanks!

Great post Earl !!! I am a first time gardener and I'm using the layer method in my garden and I'm counting on the worms to turn my soil, eat mulch etc. My question is if I put a handful of Epson salt in the hole will it keep my worms from using that area?

Thanks Ronnie

I have found that epsom salt works best when dissolved in the Miracle Grow solution I use to initially water in my plants.
A little salt, pepper and sugar does wonders for the beneficial bugs. Or just mix in all water soluble goodies with manure tea for the second watering.
Oh, just kidding about the salt and pepper.

...if I put a handful of Epson salt in the hole will it keep my worms from using that area?

It has never bothered my worms. ;)

But don't just dump it in the hole. Mix it in the soil well.

Dave

Nice method...thanks for sharing Earl

what do I do with this white stuff :)

{{gwi:1290368}}

NM, wow, you are really up there! How long is your growing season?

I did use some elements of Earl's method this past summer with great success. I dug each hole wider and deeper and mixed in about triple the amount of compost and manure. I had one of my best years ever.

However, who knows if it was also weather related or something else that I may have done. All I know is that I changed something and got a lot of tomatoes....

Bout this long :)

Our season up here was about a month longer...I had no surprise frost in the spring. A distance of 15 miles made differences in weather this past year....we had enough rain and a very late frost.

some brandwines:

My favorite sandwich tomato were these Mr. Stripeys

Just to note that you don't have to have raised beds to benefit from using "EarlÂs Hole Method of Growing Tomatoes". I have been doing essentially the same thing for many years in my garden, although I usually put my compost in uncomposted (I bury my garbage in the holes during the winter, deep) and cover it before I plant with about 4-6" of garden soil. I also ALWAYS plant EVERYTHING in a slight depression to aid in watering, so I have holes instead of hills.

I love this thread because it proves that there is not right or wrong way of gardening! :)

Thanks!

Tom-

What about cat manure?

You would need a lot of cats.

Don

If peat wasn't renewable, the Scotch distilleries would have used it all up about 200 years ago.

Ever noticed how much just one little cat puts out?

Yes peat bogs are nenewable, but not at a sustainable rate. It takes thousands of years for the sphagnum moss harvested every day to be replaced by natural processes. Great care must be taken not to drain the entire bog or trample the living organisms while hauling out while harvesting from one area within the bog. Only by extreme conservation can the peat bogs continue to yield what the market demands without depleting the resource beyond its ability to recoup.

I'm staying away from peatmoss now. I use coir which is cheaper or about the same cost
and really holds water, I think better. Walmart won't have it but you can search the net
for supplies or try a business that caters to htdroponics. It comes
in bricks that really expand when moistened.

What about cat manure?

Only if they're free-range cats raised on albacore tuna. ; )

If it will help worms thrive, put it in the hole; or close by.
Earl

Are there any other useful ingredients that folks add? I am going to try it this year. I'm definately in with the Epsom salts and bone meal. I always add compost to whatever I plant (I make my own from grass, leaves, and table scraps). Earl, why do you add composted manure and composted peat? Once they are composted, aren't they similar. I went looking for the manure and all I could find was composted manure/humus mix. Could I replace with only that? Has anyone you tried the cock-a-doodle-doo chicken manure product?

Looking forward to some whoppers,
TBT

Thank you Earl!

I'll be using the hole method this yr.

I'm expanding quite a bit. Last yr. 14 plants, this yr. 40ish.

Since a good number of those will be in new ground, the hole method makes wonderful sense as a way to get prime soil conditions where you need it in one yr. for less $$ than what it would take to upgrade the entire garden site and as pointed out, less weeding.

I'm wondering if one used a 4' plant spacing with a 4' row spacing and next yr. you put the holes between the previous, would it be enough to protect agaisnt nematodes n such? Sort've a quasi rotation?
The yr. after scooch the row over 2' and start again. Of course you couldn't till it but you shouldn't need to. After 4 yrs, you're out of rotation spots but you'd have a very nice site for the rest of the vegies.

Can't say I have those problems cause family tradition requires a 3 yr. crop rotation cycle but with such an expansion, I'm thinkin I need to make the space stretch as far as possible. I'm no soil scientist. I don't even play one on TV. More of a "Good enough for Grampa, good enough for me" kinda thing.

P.S. At another site, yrs ago, I tried something from an OG mag. It was billed as an old french technique. Dug out a small patch, maybe 10' by 16' about 2.5' deep, filled to top with oak leaves, probably some horse manure, then put the soil back in. It was a bear to till for two seasons but after that it was an amazingly productive site. If I was that age again ...

I'm using this method for a few of my plants in the ground. I am curious though, what do you do next year? Use the same hole and throw away the stuff in there? Amend the hole?

Thanks

I see Earl's Hole Method as a guide line for what may be needed in soil.

There is no say to know what to add if you don't know what's needed and the only way to find out what's needed is to take a sample and mail it to your county extension service for a complete test.

Example: Earl's Method call for Epson Salts which elevates Magnesium in the soil. Your soil may already be high in Magnesium. This is one of the components of a complete soil test.

Earl's Method call for bone meal and this adds Phophorus, same as above.

Soil tests also give a fertilizer recommendation.

The PH is tested and a recommendation for lime or aluminium sulfate is included.

Soil test cost about $7.00 per sample.

Good luck.

John

For water retention I use Polymer Water Gels/Crystals. They continuosly absorb and release water until they naturaly break down in the soil after 7 years. So I just add every thing else Earl's mentioned, minus the Peat + Organic Compost.

Time to dig for the coming spring plantings. Superbowl and digging what more could a man ask for?

northernmich how was the snow this year?

George

Great thread, full of useful information for all of us newbies to growing tomatoes, so bumping it up!

Indeed a great thread. Earl's method used here last year and the results were exceptional. Had one control plant (non-Earl's) and it didn't come close to the production. This year that soil is black and possibly won't need so much attention. Worms everywhere too.

Bump

Bump. It's tomato planting time in the midwest and I'm thinking someone will find this helpful. I know this method really helped to increase my production.

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Bump

Awesome tomato cultivation method. A must read for people cursed with poor soils.

Really enjoying this thread, but I have a question. If you add all that every year to raised beds, aren't the beds overflowing? Where does all the dirt go?
I am just starting my seeds today.

"Really enjoying this thread, but I have a question. If you add all that every year to raised beds, aren't the beds overflowing? Where does all the dirt go?"

This is part of the reason I don't do raised beds, I just make mounded rows. I don't do Earl's method (though it sounds really good), but you'll run into the same issues on any regime that requires you to add amendments annually. Typically, the organic matter breaks down significantly, but over time you'll be building up more and more soil. I set my rows pretty far apart and the more soil I get, over time, makes my mounds taller and a bit wider.

Wow, that's a lot of cost and work. I have very well drained but nutrient poor sandy soil. I have gotten huge harvests with much less cost and work by composting all my leaves and grass with added ash from the firepit, and amending the soil in a bed with it, then mulching with a combination of compost and wood chips. On the older beds that I have been doing this for a few years, usually all I have to do is rake in last year's mulch/compost mixture and all is good. The only thing I usually add is some epsom salts.

I know I am years late on this post but just found it I do something similar to Earl and it works I plant a cover crop of winter rye in the fall and in the spring till it in along with about 40 pounds of 10-10-10 fertilzer this is for a 25feet by 40feet garden. I cover entire garden in black 6 mil plastic and bury edges with dirt, Plant my tomatoes 3feet apart in rows 4ffet a part . I dig a hole about 10 inches or so and in each hole I put 2 aspirin 1 cup of kelp meal, 1 cup bone meal, 1/4 cup Tomatoes Alive Plus and 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt put some dirt over all that and bury plants up to first set of leaves. I plant mostly Big Beef tomatoes with a few celebity.Total of 100 plants I get big plants with big yields of tomatoes. I also use Concrete wire cages . Gardening is work but I love watching things grow. I do not know if this will wiork for you but I have been doing it this way for over 25 years. my soil ph is 6.5 to 6.7

Jeep: Do you sell your tomatoes? I think your method is interesting enough that it would be worthy of its own thread. There are only a couple of questions I have. I wonder how you avoid compacting the ground growing in a 25-foot-wide garden? Have you never had problems with verticillium or fusarium using the same ground for tomatoes for so many years? Your methods remind me of the kinds of gardens I grew up with, and I am no spring chicken. Gardening "wisdom" has changed over the years, but I think all of us could learn from 25 years of success. I do encourage you to start your own thread.

Hello Ohiofem.
To avoid compacting garden I am continually adding manure and compost and stay out of garden as much as I can. I just added about 2 yards of a sort of green manure from a farmer in Vermont who has a machine that squeezes all the wetness out of itand it is heated to 110 degrees when it comes off the conveyor it is very lite and hot.I also plant winter rye after season.
I have very little vericillium orfusiarm wilt as I keeep bottom branches cut off and spray with Soap Shield with 3 aspirin added per 2 gallon spraycontainer every 2 weeks www.plantea.com/plant-aspirin.htm plus 2 under each tomato
It works so I do not question why.I also plant corn in same place but till in all the stalks and plant to winter rye. I have planted Bodacious for 30 years but have stated last 3 years growing MIRAI which is excellent.I have over 400 garlic in about 12 inches high. Peppers are the only thing that does not like to be planted in same ground I get these little larve of I think it is called Pepper fly that eats roots of plant so I rotate my peppers.
I am no spring chicken either Iam 68 and gardening is how I relax I have learned over the years some things work and some things do not. I can remember when I was in my early 20's when my tomato garden was just sticks with brown vines hanging from the sticks. 4 years ago we had bad late blight here in NY I mixed up Funginol, Soap shield and Surround and sprayed ever other day with this concoction and only lost about 10 plants out of over 110.
Yes I sold about 15 bushell last year canned 100 quarts and gave away many. Yes I am retired.

Bump for another Spring.

JUST ADD ROCK DUST AND COMPOST (NO FERTILIZER BUT MAYBE SEAWEED PRODUCTS, KELP ETC...MIX WITH GARDEN SOIL, SAVE MONEY...REW

I want to try this (Earl's method)

What's the easiest (and cheapest) way of testing my soil...one of those little kits? Are they accurate enough?

Thanks!

Is Earl still around?