Hi:
We began the season strong and once into July and August, evident the plants were failing. I've posted about both container and in-ground garden troubles to tomatoville, and this specific post is about our in-ground situation. You can read
the history I've posted since 2021 here.
Removing the dead plants, I dug into the soil, and yep, as I discovered last year, horrible root problem from.. who knows what. So many roots. Likely this is causing the problems. Also kind of odd after all the amendments over the years, most broke down and the clay soil is still a very hard clay.
I don't know what to do next. These are some options I can think of:
1. give up and just buy tomatoes from the market
2. Try to make another bed (this would mean weeks of back-breaking work)
3. Try a cover crop again
4. compost the heck out of it over winter
5. herbicide drench for the winter, let rest for 2024, grow in 2025
6. ???
The enclosed pictures show the extent of the roots from two beds we typically try to grow from (first pic is one bed, the second two are the other bed). The excessive roots in one picture are after I run my hand in an arc in the dirt a few times collecting whatever rakes between my fingers.
Thoughts?