On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:13:26 -0700, Billy
wrote:

ry Farming Early Girl is recommended.
:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Girl

The thing about dry farming them is this:

My soil is pretty heavily clay. I dig a trench that's about 2 feet deep,
around 30 inches wide and around 10 feet long. I stop digging when I
encounter standing water. Once I get that deep it's not only hard to get
more mud out, it just doesn't seem to make sense because I'm seeing a
pool of water. I don't know if it's at all feasible to get down to 3
feet depth. Never tried beyond about 2 feet.

So, although I hear that tomatoes are deep rooted and can send roots
down up to 6 feet, I figure mine aren't going to be able to get down
below 2 feet. They could maybe get into the clay soil, but there
wouldn't be much point, because my compost rich soil stops at about 2
feet. Thus, I figure their wouldn't be much point in their sending roots
down further just for water that wouldn't be wresting nutrients out of
sourrounding soil. If I don't water, the compost won't continue to
deteriorate and give up nutrients. My compost looks better this year,
but there's still a lot of potential nutrients that won't be available
to the roots unless there's a certain level of moisture in the soil.
This is why I water some, usually once a week, what I figure will get
all the soil wet down to the 2 foot level. That's been my thinking, far
from scientific.

Dan


Email: dmusicant at pacbell dot net