My Garden Has Petered Out
 

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?

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

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?

Unless you have a buildup of some of soil borne disease, I would suspect that
your soil is depleted. As a simple test, buy a couple of highly disease
resistant tomato plants dig a planting hole large enough to hold a bag of
composted cow manure, mix the manue with the soil and plant the tomatoes. If
they grow, then you can experiment with heirlooms or other less resistant
tomatoe cultivars.

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

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?

Unless you have a buildup of some of soil borne disease, I would suspect that
your soil is depleted. As a simple test, buy a couple of highly disease
resistant tomato plants dig a planting hole large enough to hold a bag of
composted cow manure, mix the manue with the soil and plant the tomatoes. If
they grow, then you can experiment with heirlooms or other less resistant
tomatoe cultivars.

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

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?

Unless you have a buildup of some of soil borne disease, I would suspect that
your soil is depleted. As a simple test, buy a couple of highly disease
resistant tomato plants dig a planting hole large enough to hold a bag of
composted cow manure, mix the manue with the soil and plant the tomatoes. If
they grow, then you can experiment with heirlooms or other less resistant
tomatoe cultivars.

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

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?

Unless you have a buildup of some of soil borne disease, I would suspect that
your soil is depleted. As a simple test, buy a couple of highly disease
resistant tomato plants dig a planting hole large enough to hold a bag of
composted cow manure, mix the manue with the soil and plant the tomatoes. If
they grow, then you can experiment with heirlooms or other less resistant
tomatoe cultivars.

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

Take a soil sample and have the county agent test it and tell him you
want to grow tomatoes.

(FarmerDill) wrote in message ...

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?

Unless you have a buildup of some of soil borne disease, I would suspect that
your soil is depleted. As a simple test, buy a couple of highly disease
resistant tomato plants dig a planting hole large enough to hold a bag of
composted cow manure, mix the manue with the soil and plant the tomatoes. If
they grow, then you can experiment with heirlooms or other less resistant
tomatoe cultivars.

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

Take a soil sample and have the county agent test it and tell him you
want to grow tomatoes.

(FarmerDill) wrote in message ...

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?

Unless you have a buildup of some of soil borne disease, I would suspect that
your soil is depleted. As a simple test, buy a couple of highly disease
resistant tomato plants dig a planting hole large enough to hold a bag of
composted cow manure, mix the manue with the soil and plant the tomatoes. If
they grow, then you can experiment with heirlooms or other less resistant
tomatoe cultivars.

My Garden Has Petered Out
 

I agree with getting a soil test. You have added a heck of a lot of stuff,
including some things that may not be needed (for example, gypsum - breaks up
clay, but I gardened for many years in clay soil without ever adding it).