Kevin Miller wrote:


What effect would ALOT of rain have on tomatos?

I've read the other responses and I am curious how well-founded the concerns
about nutrient leaching are.

"A lot of rain" also translates into "a lack of sunlight" and "a severe test
of the drainage / aeration" of a plot.

I use 24/7 weep irrigation ( http://www.irrigro.com/ ), but have worked my
soil to the point where it has a high percentage of organic matter in it
and I think my nutrient loss is negligible ... at worse.

I think the issue of too much rain is more likely to be poor drainage than
nutrient loss. I note that rain forests get gobs of rain ... but grow
fantastic amounts and varieties of vegetation. Drowning of feeder roots
will keep nutrients from being taken up just as surely as a lack of
available nutrients would. Poor drainage also increases the mortality of
earthworms (etc) who would have improved the drainage if they had lived
long enough.

I can not, even by discharging my hose directly onto an area for several
minutes at a time, form a puddle on my soil that lasts more than 10-15
seconds or so. I cannot force my earthworms to the soil surface. My soil
(clay, sand and compost) is never crusty, either ... it is now August 9 and
yesterday I was digging in my soil with my fingers to transplant a marigold
that was being shaded out by the tomatoes to a better spot with more light.
The hardest part of the digging was working my way through a mat of roots
running through the mulch layer.

I got the same rains everyone else (in southeastern Michigan) got but my
soil is loose 4' deep with baled straw in the bottom 2 feet and compost
mulched onto the top few inches. As the straw decays, the soil settles and
this settling is made up with compost mulch. In essence, I have great
drainage / aeration and readily penetrable soil for the first 4' of depth.
My plants don't believe in either droughts or floods.

I put in a huge amount of effort to get this garden started, but it is
paying off. I planted Mortgage Lifter tomatoes (from seed) on April 19 and
they are now about 6' tall (trellised) and quite heavy with large green
fruit. We had some cool nights when the fruit was first being set so I have
some cat-facing ... but no splitting anywhere. Last year my Early Girls and
Better Boys both went a full 10' with one Early Girl topping out at 11.5'
(a foot and a half taller than the trellis). The National Pickling cukes,
planted the same day, are at the 10' mark and growing like crazy. So far,
they have given us 20 qts of pickles and a couple yellow footballs (hidden
cukes that got too ripe). Last years garlic and onions are out of the
ground and dried for storage. Last years rather coarse compost mulch has
mellowed into something very fine that looks like I ground and sifted it.
As beds come bare, I am working the mulch into the top foot or so with the
intention of re-applying a fresh top layer as soon as they are replanted. I
am getting ready to make some serious changes to the garden so I am letting
beds get bare ... something I would not otherwise do.

I got the same rains others got but, looking out my window, I see no
evidence of significant nutrient leaching; only a 'rain-forest-garden'
growing in Detroit.


Bill
--
Zone 5b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.