Battling Rootknot Nematodes

[GoDawgs]

Bill, thanks for the advice!

Originally Posted by b54red

Add lots of organic matter and add peat to the soil as it will also help retain moisture.

But will that raise the pH too much?

Originally Posted by b54red

If you can till in some fresh horse manure it seems to cause a definite drop in nematode populations.

The guy who owns the pasture next to the garden has brought his horses there for the summer. I just have to go shovel it up. Assuming this would go into a fallow bed to age.

Originally Posted by b54red

Good luck because if my experience is any indicator you are in for a long and never ending battle; but one that you can win with persistent soil building and mulching.

Yep, a never ending battle. I'm curious to see how the beds sown with hemp last summer do this year. The extra tilling under the hot summer sun has seemed to help too but I worry about disturbing the soil structure that much.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Bill, thanks for the advice!



But will that raise the pH too much?



The guy who owns the pasture next to the garden has brought his horses there for the summer. I just have to go shovel it up. Assuming this would go into a fallow bed to age.



Yep, a never ending battle. I'm curious to see how the beds sown with hemp last summer do this year. The extra tilling under the hot summer sun has seemed to help too but I worry about disturbing the soil structure that much.

For the best results with horse manure you want to use it as fresh as possible but not during the summer growing season. I found that tilling in fresh horse manure (not composted) in the fall and letting whatever is in it that bothers nematodes work resulted in far fewer problems with them the next year. You will definitely have to deal with more weeds unless the pasture has been sprayed with 2-4-D or some other pasture herbicide. In that case definitely don't use manure from those horses. I got mine from a guy who stabled horses for training and didn't let them out much in his pasture which he didn't spray. The bad part was shoveling it out of the stalls. It didn't have too many weeds but a lot of oats, rye, corn and wheat came popping up.

Peat will not raise your ph but it may lower it a bit as will pine bark fines and cottonseed meal. Three things I add every time there is space in my beds for more. The combination has given me soil that is loamy, rich, well aerated and full of wrigglers with only minor nematode problems. 30 years ago it looked like I was pulling potatoes when I pulled up most things like tomatoes, okra, cucumbers and squash.

It took some years of constant amending to get my soil where it is now. I can no longer use cow or horse manure because of my high phosphate levels from adding them to my soil for so many years so I use a bit of chicken manure when I can get it.

Bill