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Originally Posted by Barb_FL
Good Season - Chuck.
Nematodes: I am not seeing any evidence of nematodes or pot worms after pulling my plants from earthboxes and containers (root pouches). What I did on my root pouches is lightly cover crab shells on the bottom and mix a small amount of crab shells within the mix. I even did this on some of my earthboxes during the sterilizing process.
I use Neptunes Harvest Crab Shells. First couple times I bought the 4 lb bag, but then went with the 12 lb bucket. It lasts a long time. It is just crushed crab shells and smells just like it so I'm sure the real thing would work just as well.
All of my EBs are on casters or mover's dollies so Pot worms were my biggest issues. I felt like they were eating the roots of plants.
I elevate all of my tomato plants including the ones on the pool deck.
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I am a huge believer in the sterilizing the soil. It is especially easy with the earthboxes. I removed the top layer/fertilizer strip first so I could pack with more mix. It is a HUGE LOAF. On some EB, I also mixed dolomite and crab shells during the process thinking it would have more time to break down before the plant needed it.
I also did a lot of sterilizing in just the bags and elevated on the wooden pallets.
For bags I used 42 gallon Husky 3 mil Contractor Clean Up bags in both the black and clear. For Black, HomeDepot has the best price. The Clear Bags costs twice as much and I purchased them from Amazon. As Marsha said the temperature in the clear bag easily reached 145 deep down. It was hard for the black to reach 120. I even tested one EB with doubling the black bags and didn't elevate the temperatures at all.
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Barb,
Thanks for a lot of good information.
I know you like to grow Broccoli and I noticed in one of the big box stores yesterday that Bonnie has Lieutenant Broccoli variety plants for sale this season. Lieutenant appears to have done well in trials. I have Lieutenant plants growing in cups now. The plants have done very well and it looks like Lieutenant is going to be a good variety here in Central Florida. Date to Maturity from transplants is said to be 55 days, about the same as Premium Crop.
Larry