"Earl's Hole" Disaster

[hasshoes]

I really should not be gardening. Really.

I printed out "Earl's Hole Method" from GardenWeb back in January with plans for great succes. . . .

After back breaking work. . . I dug up tons of huge deep holes (someone asked me if I was planting trees), and then made raised beds on top (I was a bit confused about the "scatter the soil around the hole" directions. . . I thought it meant around the outside of the hole and then put the dirt back in and mix it. . . then I realized I'd have to amend the raised bed part too. . .)

Anyway, THE DISASTER: after driving all over and hitting literally 9 stores, I ended up using hordes of PEAT MOSS (sphagum) instead of peat HUMMUS thinking they were the same thing since the peat moss was the only thing I could ever find. . . and after adding hordes of it I just found out it's PH is like 3 or 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone told me the soil at the community gardens was ph5!!!!!! I think I'm going to kill myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know why I didn't do a soil test. . . maybe because last year I did it for morning glories and still killed them. . . .

I have only planted 10 (albiet spaced 36 inches apart in killer peat on high rows) tomatoes. . . should I rip them up and fix the soil? Is there any hope??? Anything I can do at all?

Someone please tell me I have not done all this work for nothing!! I grew these babies in my basement gosh darnit!!!

[bcday]

I used peat last year instead of peat humus. Everything did fine. No disasters.

I didn't do a soil test anytime before or after, so I didn't have any idea what I might have done to the pH, but the plants were happy.

[hunter]

I'll defer to the experts, but I think you could sweeten the soil with lime in order to raise the pH. Of course, you'd have to be sure to keep an eye on the pH so as not to swing the other way into alkalinity. Then you'd be left with basically a whole lotta seed starting mix, which really ain't that bad.

[hasshoes]

Originally Posted by hunter

I'll defer to the experts, but I think you could sweeten the soil with lime in order to raise the pH.

How do I do this?

How many limes per foot do I need?

Seriously though, how do I apply lime?

Thanks again!!!!!!!

[amideutch]

Here's a couple links that might help. Ami
http://www.umaine.edu/umext/potatopr...0%20Morris.pdf
http://www.thegardenhelper.com/acidsoil.html

[michael johnson]

The best way to apply lime to a garden is to broadcast it from a shovel in a sweeping arc movement,-but make sure you have your back to the wind, otherwise you will look a bit ghost like by the end of the session, and then just let the rain wash it into the soil.

There are several sorts of lime available, but if you are lucky enough to get your hands on some Dolomite lime use that as its the best, and contains other elements beneficial to the garden.

[dice]

If you have another soil test done, it will
tell you how much lime per 100 sq ft
(or per 1000 sq ft, or similar) to add,
if any, and what other nutrients your soil
needs.

If you prefer to guess, lime, dolomite lime,
and wood ash will normally all raise pH,
but no one can say for sure what your
particular mix of peat and native soil needs
to grow better tomatoes. (So whatever you
try, do it in moderation. A little bit of lime
or gypsum cultivated in is insurance against
blossom end rot when the fruit start to ripen,
too, independent of achieving a soil pH that
tomatoes are comfortable with.)

A good article on pH and container mixes:

http://www.oan.org/displaycommon.cfm...barticlenbr=20

[hasshoes]

On wikipedia, I read that spaghum peat moss sucks the calcium out of the soil. . . this will create blossom end rot, right? Is there anyway that I can add calcium? Will mashed up calcium pills work? (My cost per tomato presuming I get any is getting kind of ridiculous, and I have those sitting around. . .)

Seriously, I have very little sun space (I thought my plot was full sun,) so I have about 15 extra tomato plants. Would it be wiser to pull out the peated plants and re-amend the beds? I'd rather spend some extra time on this and have good tomatoes than be done with it and have a crop of ick or blossom end rot!!!

Thanks again, and ps. . . I'm growing organically. . .I don't know if this makes my poor choices potentially more fatal. . .

If I get any maters out of this I promise to share! ;0)

[feldon30]

I'm a little confused about "dug a bunch of holes" and then "raised beds". When I think of a raised bed I think I am ignoring the underlying soil and building up on top of it. I removed the grass and dug around a bit to break up the soil. I figure after a year or two, all of the improvements on top will work their way down.

As for what to fill the raised beds with, I have not even heard of "peat hummus", but I've never gone looking for it. I have seen coconut husks or coco peat. I ended up filling my raised beds with about 50% sandy topsoil, 35% compost, and 15% peat moss. Unfortunately, building and filling raised beds is expensive. If your soil is not likely to hold a lot of water from rainstorms, you may be able to get away with digging down a few inches and building a few inches up. In Houston, we get too much rain, so you really need a full 8-12" of raised bed.

As for the hole method, I transferred the 1 cubic foot of soil into a wheelbarrow and mixed all the ingredients into that soil and put it back in the ground, then planted the tomato plants right in the middle of the rich "ball" of soil. This way the plants have immediate access to the nutrients they need.

I did add a handful (2/3 cup) of pelletized lime in addition to the other ingredients mentioned by Earl to counteract the pH of the peat moss.

Gardening is all about the details.

[Suze]

I believe peat humus is just more decomposed or composted than peat. They sell it in bags at Lowe's/HD.

[hasshoes]

Originally Posted by feldon30

I'm a little confused about "dug a bunch of holes" and then "raised beds".

That's okay Feldon. . . I was a little confused too ;0). . . gardening without dinner is not a good thing!

I didn't have the printed exact instructions with me (or a proper blood sugar level, so I missed the part that said "after you have raised beds. . . make the Earl's hole. . . and I was thinking about what I read from Laurel's Organic Heirlooms that said to amend the soil as deep as you could, and then build raised amended soil. . . so I basicallly have Earl's hole UNDER an amended raised bed (which I put tons of peat in :0( )

My big concern is that peat moss has a ph of 3 or 4 (bad for maters) while the recipe called for peat hummus which is a ph of 7. . . Won't my tomatoes die/not grow right if the ph ends up being lower than 5??!!!! The soil was tested by someone else prior to planting (and me adding the peat moss) and it was ph5, so now it should be ph4. . . .

Can anyone tell me if having a low ph will kill my tomatoes? I don't see how a ph two numbers below the suggestion could be a good thing. . .
thanks again :0(
heather. . . on a mission to create the world's most expensive tomato!!!!

[CLa]

I'd say better to have a slightly acid soil for tomatoes verses basic. Don't add too much lime if you can help it. In fact the peat moss doesn't break down over night. But when it does breakdown, it will be mixing in to the rest of your ground soil I'm guessing which will raise the pH. Yeah 3 or 4 is kind of acidic, but I bet them maters wouldn't have any problems in 5+. I like the idea of trial an error. If you really want to know how they will do, then just make sure you have a fair amount of nutrients, fertilizer or compost etc, and see how it goes. If your beds are now over 70% peat moss. Well you could add some lime, but if you do then revert back to some tables or something on how much per square foot or something. Hope things work out for you)

[Worth1]

I wouldn't worry to much the chlorine in your water is a base so it should raise the ph.

Worth

[dice]

" The soil was tested by someone else prior to planting (and me adding the peat moss) and it was ph5, so now it should be ph4. . . ."

I've read pH 5.2 for peat, and "as low as 3.5" elsewhere.
My guess would be that the mixed soil and peat is still
close to pH 5. (Actual pH of peat probably depends on
how wet the bog where it came from was for how much
of the year.)

So sprinkle some pelletized or powdered lime or dolomite
around and don't sweat it. Too little is better than
too much, so don't be generous with it.

http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Garden_Lime.php
says to add 2-3 lbs per square yard to raise organic
or peat soils from pH 5.5 to 6.5. That is 9 square feet,
so figure around 25 lbs per 100 sq. ft. (That might not
be enough for optimum pH, but it probably won't be
too much, which is harder to fix than too little.)

[Earl]

hasshoes,
I'm sorry you're having a problem. When you say 'tons' of peat exactly how much are you talking about? What size bales of peat did you buy? How much of a bale did you put in each hole? May not be as bad as you think, but more precise info is needed.

"Raised-bed" can mean different things to different folks, to me it means 3-4 feet across with borders of wood--boards, landscape timbers, crossties etc. Lots of ways to prepare the bed for planting, according to condition of soil.

If I can help you through this crisis I'll do whatever I can. We all make mistakes, so put it behind you and let's get on with getting you some nice tomatoes. :-)