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Old 01-05-2005, 05:51 PM
simy1
 
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Frogleg,

besides the other remedies suggested in the Purdue paper, you may
consider making the bed with compostables, injected with an appropriate
mushroom spawn (www.fungi.com). The purpose is to see if juglone can be
made to decay faster. Fungi have the strongest enzymes, and they
happily break down even petroleum derivatives that might be polluting a
given soil.

In general, organic matter will help by speeding the decay of matter
that is already present, by providing needed nitrogen that is nearly
absent in the roots (even fungi need it), by breeding a host of decay
agents, and by improving the rate of mixing between topsoil and the
lower layers.

Ask for a fungus that will go deep in the soil, not one that likes to
live in dead wood (ink caps are one such species). Fungi have the
strongest enzymes, and they might break down your juglone faster. You
may also ask for plugs to inject directly in the largest exposed roots,
or in the stump. The fungus will then propagate down the roots. You get
the mushrooms once or twice a year of course.

Raised beds by themselves may be of limited help. A healthy tomato
plant will go down four feet in light soil (light soil, the paper says,
minimizes the juglone toxicity). On the other hand, if your soil is
heavy, tomato roots might stop at a lower depth.

You could also put only tolerant veggies there the first year, and the
tomatoes elsewhere. There are advantage in having separate gardening
areas, and this is one.