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shankins123

My garden soil must hate me :(

shankins123
8 years ago

My soil must be loaded with fusarium and/or verticillium
fungal spores. I start out with such wonderful tomato plants each year, healthy
and happy, mulched and watered only by individual upside-down 2-liter plastic
bottles. No splash, unless it's from the rain, but they are mulched well! (for mulches I've used partially-composted materials/leaves, cottonseed hulls, shredded paper, etc.)
I have not had what I would consider to be any sort of decent harvest in
the 8 years since I've been back in OKC. I've had better years
than others, but I'm about done.
I've tried vigilantly spraying with 3-in-1 sprays (hoping to treat this, as
well as the spider mites that hit as soon as the plants are weakened) and to no
avail. I've tried rotating between my 8X8 garden and my 2 4X8s....I don't
grow all that many plants - 12 tomatoes at best, in addition to other smaller crops. The three beds I have are all raised beds and they drain well.
What should I do? I've thought of: 1) pull out all of the soil and replace it (but I add compost and leaves, etc., every year and it's pretty wonderful to work), 2) cover with water-permeable weed cloth (but if the fungal spores are already in the soil, won't they be taken up into the plants anyway?), 3) plant only VF resistant varieties (resistant - not completely protected against, and that means no potentially-wonderful heirlooms), 4) plant only in a few containers here and there in other parts of the yard for the next 4-5 years, hoping that the diseases die out...???

Suggestions?

Sharon

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