16-03-2004, 06:02 PM
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My Garden Has Petered Out
(pc macdonald) wrote in message . com...
After I moved into this home I began growing tomatoes every summer in
two different locations.
Our soil is predominantly clay. Every year I would turn over the
soil, add ammendments such as peat moss, sand and vermiculite. I
would also add a 50 pound sack of that material that breaks up clay
(sorry, can't remember name.)
For the first ten years I got wonderful tomatoes, fertilizing at first
with a KMart fish emulsion fertilizer, and later with Miracle Grow. I
plant in basins to conserve water, but give the garden a serious
flooding at least once per month. We also get 15 to 20" of rain each
season, so I'm not concerned about fertilizer salt buildup.
Over time I started getting less and less fruit. Lots less. It
seemed to get worse the season after I put a five gallon bucket of
fireplace ash onto the soil prior to turning it over. I did that two
or three years in a row. My yield dropped to practically nothing.
The guy at the local farm supply store didn't think that the ashes had
much to do with the problem.
I suspected nematodes so I sterilized the soil with the Vapam trick,
watered the soil and left it covered for over a month. No difference.
My yield dwindled to a single tomato on six scrawny plants.
I can grow basil, parsely, thyme, lavender, rosemary, peppermint,
chives. No tomatoes, no eggplant, no squash. I didn't even bother to
plant a garden last season, the first time in over 25 years.
May I solicit some suggestions?
This may be a well-planned troll. But in case it is not, my guess is
that the pH or nutrient profile have gone way out of whack. Probably
no earthworms either. Soil test, add what is missing, if anything,
then add one foot of leaves, then wait for some balance to be
restored. If the soil is too alkaline (which it might, given that wood
ash has a pH of 10.4), you can still grow some veggies, such as chard
or beet, that will grow up to a pH of 8. Potatoes will do well if the
soil is too acid.
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