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Originally Posted by paradajky
Hi there, bumping up this old thread because I think I've figured out what's going on.
We tried planting a variety of non-tomatoes in this part of the garden in 2022, and nothing grew at all! Frustrating.
Going to run a soil analysis later, but suspicions are the soil is empty of any nitrogen, same as pre-season 2021.
This weekend I removed the stunted, dead plants, and as I worked my hands in the soil, there was a massive maze of roots. Heavy, strong, living network of roots.. I remember cutting through a bunch of roots when I first did the double-till thing in 2021, but didn't think much of it then.
Something's growing in and pulling the nutrients out, creating too much competition and the fruits/veggies can't grow. Could be the nearby trees.
Thoughts? Ideas how to overcome this?
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Hello Paradajky,
what sort of trees are they? The worst case would be if they were wall nut trees. Juglans nigra, but Juglans regia wouldn't be good news either. Most probably they aren't. Wall nut trees produce juglone, which is sort of natural herbicide. It works in a different way from classic herbicide sprays though: it accumulates in the plant and kills it only after the poison levels reach a certain limit. And of course, any tree deprives the soil of nutrients and water.
There's a wall nut tree in my garden. It's Juglans regia and I'd like to keep it as my wife is a wall nut freak. The patch some 5 meters from the trunk is absolutely hopeless - nothing grows well there. And tomatoes at double the distance seem to be crippled in comparison to those in different locations.
My solution to the problem is a raised patch, impenetrably insulated from the ground (strong plastic foil?). I don't want to damage the wall nut tree's roots too much, but at the same time I don't want to give up growing veggies in that sunny position. I believe that could work even if the trees are of a different sort. It's my task for this winter.
Milan HP