ok

you have to plant into the mulch only - dont dig the hole down into the old
soil You cannot plant into the previous soil, because that is where the
diseases are
and
you have to make sure the mulch covers all of the area around the tomato - I
just cover the entire garden, when it does rain the water splashes the soil
onto the plant causing further damage.

This year my plants are healthy as usual (except for the darn deer!!)

I dont think it matters where you get the mulch from the city or a mulch
company.

now for some tomato planting basics.

1 - use the wall o waters - it just gets the plants off to a healthy start
2 - when planting strip off all but the top leaves and bury the plant to
that depth - the exposed stem will grow roots
3 - make sure you have plenty of dolomitic lime as well. 3-4 handfulls in
the hole and 3-4 around the plant after planting
4 - same thing with a time release fertilizer 3-4 in hole, 3-4 around
plant - when you put in the hole, mix with the mulch then plant the plant.

Note - you can trench a tomato instead of digging a hole - if the plant is
tall dig a trench and lay in sideways instead, since the roots are closer to
the top they will be warmer and grow quicker than if planted deep down.

Now that does not mean that your plants did not come with the disease from
the grower,

I get my plants from Craig at the farmer market, or I grow them myself and
dont have the wilt problem.

I gave up growing any wilt resitant varieties becuase they do not taste as
good as the heirlooms - so all of my plants are all heirloom plants.

tomatolord




"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Well, we always use leaf mulch--this year we had a deep layer of maybe
4-6 inches. I was afraid it was too much! Anyway, it did not seem to
reduce the wilt; quite the contrary... but it sure kept weeds at bay.
We get it from MulchMasters.

If plastic doesn't kill the microbes unless it's left there all
summer, how will burying them in nice, nutritious mulch kill them? I
am curious about how your plan works,
O Tomatolord. And will be grateful if it does.

Cheers
Sue

On Tue, 5 Aug 2003 11:27:28 -0600, "Tomatolord"
wrote:

I never till in fall AFTER it has gotten cold - only to till garden
debris
and to make the garden look a little nicer.

Some years I did not till and it did not make any real difference.

The idea is to bury the existing "soil" where the tomato's lived so you
cover the bacteria as well.

Also worms will leave if you till in the spring when they are coming up
into
the soil
and
I dont want to do too much work...
and
Its quick and easy

Tomatolord


wrote in message
...
In article , Tomatolord
wrote:
The dreaded wilt is a soil borne disease - you have 3 options

1 - plant in a different area every year - sometimes not real
practical

2 - solarization - like you said black or clear plastic but it has to
be
over the summer so you will lose one year

3 replace all soil with leaf mulch each year - which is what I do and
I
never have the wilt problems - just lay down a layer of leaf mulch
from
the
raleigh recycling center off of buffaloe road - DO NOT till it in,
just
plant right into the mulch


I have been curious about this method. Do you till in the mulch in the
fall or do you just never till your tomato area anymore?

tomato holes - can be from the stink bug - they stick there mouths in
and
suck out the juice, they look like triangles with legs. Birds can
peck
at
the red fruits as well, so put a few red christmas balls around after
a
few
pecks at those things they give up on the real ones.

Peppers are doing great!! mine are by the road side and they get
plenty
of
heat and sun and they are sort of decorative as well.

dont know about the cukes

And our fig is doing well - the 5 year for it now

Tomatolord


"Siouxzi" wrote in message
...
Sigh... last year we had a wilt problem, but this year it's
horrible.
We got a fair crop of nice tomatoes, but there are still a lot of
fruit on the vines, and most of the plants have gone completely
brown
and wilted... or nearly so.

I've planted a lot of different heritage varieties and a few
commercial ones. The Lemon Boys are most prolific, but they've
succumbed also. Hardly got any brandywines. :^(

1) What shall we do next year? Will the wilt virus be even more
plentiful in our garden soil, and attack all our plants even more
effectively?
Would it help to cover both raised beds with black plastic?--can you
kill the pathogen with heat?

I'm ready to try anything--I can't bear the thought of no or few
tomatoes next year. We've finally got a scaffolding system that
works
fairly well, and an idea of how many plants we can handle... I'd
like
next season to be the best yet!

2) Also, most of the tomatoes have holes pecked or bored in
them--usually one hole per tomato. What's up with that? I don't
recall
this being a big problem last year... is it birds? It has ruined so
many fruits--they get damaged before they're ripe, and usually rot
sets in so that it's mush by the time it's ripe enough to pick...

Our cucumbers suck big time. I don't remember the variety, I think
that they were advertised as "burpless" (like I care!). But the
grow
fat and round with thick skins and prickles, they taste bitter when
they're small and green, but then they rapidly turn bloated and
yellow, and with huge unpalatable seeds.

3) Can't we grow those nice long, crunchy British seedless cukes?
If
so, how?

Thanks, and hope your garden is looking better than ours. We are
hardly getting any peppers either. Something's going on... but we
are
getting tons of those little tiny sweet tomatillos--I love them. And
our fig tree has really taken off this year--looking forward to ripe
fruit in a few weeks!

Sue





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