flyingbrass, I've seen some of the same articles that say the biggest problem in the arid soils of Az are low in phosphorus and they are alkaline... so last year is the first time using the spot that my garden is located in and I started with about 30lbs of soft rock phosphate for about a 2000sq ft area and about 5lbs of sulfur.... since then I've used a lot of horse manure, straw and Christmas tree mulch to help loosen it up ... and for fertilizer I use cottonseed meal, alfala pellets, bone meal and blood meal.. so far I've been very pleased with the (new for me) organic gardening...
I lost six tomato plants this year to some sort of wilt out of 32 plants that I started with... this is more than I've ever lost before, but right now everything seems stable and I've actually got some fruit setting on about half of the plants .. the temps here are above 105 every day, but the monsoons are coming within a couple of days , I hope! As for watering, I water for 30minutes at 6am and again at 1pm each day with an hour or two once each week.
desertlzbn, I'm really sorry to hear about all the tomato problems ... really hope you get some this fall. It seems that when it rains it pours .. to quote an old saying.
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Hangin on for dear life!
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