Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

A garden is only as good as the ground that it's planted in. Discussion forum for the many ways to improve the soil where we plant our gardens.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old March 1, 2013   #106
Annie
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Katy, Texas 77493
Posts: 67
Default

Have you ever tried using wheat hay or rice straw for mulch. I use rice straw and it works beautifully, then you can just turn it under instead of having to remove bark. Annie
Annie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 1, 2013   #107
z_willus_d
Tomatovillian™
 
z_willus_d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
Posts: 1,313
Default

Hi Annie, I know that some of the best fertilizers are based on molasses, so I bet they're right. It provides a good source of K. I was going to use rice straw for my mulching last year, but I couldn't locate a place to buy it for a decent price. I ended up going for the more manageable redwood chips, which breakdown slower. I'm not sure they're any better or worse for mulching a tomato garden though.
z_willus_d is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 2, 2013   #108
Annie
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Katy, Texas 77493
Posts: 67
Default

Too bad you arn't near a rice field, a friend of my grandson brings us big round bales FREE, ain't that nice, not much else free except rabbit poop. I am going to put a little of the molasses in my beds and see what happens. Can you get wheat mulch free. We can also buy large amounts of mulch, ground up leaves and bark that is also great. I don't really like the chips because they don't break down as well. See about mulch. Annie
Annie is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 3, 2013   #109
z_willus_d
Tomatovillian™
 
z_willus_d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
Posts: 1,313
Default

Annie, I had written up a decent response, but it was sent to the null void by this website and my lousy laptop hotkeys. In short, I'd prefer to use a more biodegradable mulch (assuming no weeds or pesticides), but I live with what I have access to here. I like that the wood bark doesn't require repurchasing every season. It's kind of a pain to deal with at the start of each season, but no more so than reacquiring another load of mulch I suppose.

Good luck with the season. (I'm a bit down at the moment, as my one-and-a-half year old son just ripped in half the 3rd healthy (healthiest in fact) tomato graft I've managed to muster in over fifty lost causes. Just waltzed over to the closet where I had them setting under lights and struck it down with the hand of Zeus. It was a beautiful looking Van Wert, and what gets me is it snapped in half not on the graft union (no that was too strong and well made), but rather lower down on the would-be vigorous Maxifort rootstock stem. Oh well, the sacrifices we must make with our "babies" for our children.
-naysen
z_willus_d is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 3, 2013   #110
Crandrew
Tomatovillian™
 
Crandrew's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: asdf
Posts: 1,202
Default

Naysen- sorry to hear about baby Hercules and his workout routine not the same but I've been battling a raccoon and he has so far outsmarted me.
Crandrew is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 3, 2013   #111
Deborah
Riding The Crazy Train Again
 
Deborah's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: San Marcos, California
Posts: 2,562
Default

Naysen, take heart-this could be one of those things you laugh about in 10 years. OK, 50 years...
Deborah is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 4, 2013   #112
z_willus_d
Tomatovillian™
 
z_willus_d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
Posts: 1,313
Default

It's hard to be made a such a sweetheart. He was just trying to copy me. He had a small bottle of Burpee Fish/Seaweed fert in hand as the implement of destruction. He's seen me watering from a small water-bottle, and I guess that fert bottle was close enough. Sadly, he lacks the fine motor skills for such an operation.

I think I'm already laughing a bit.
z_willus_d is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 4, 2013   #113
Crandrew
Tomatovillian™
 
Crandrew's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: asdf
Posts: 1,202
Default

Haha Bam Bam?
Crandrew is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 3, 2013   #114
lakelady
Tomatovillian™
 
lakelady's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: northern NJ zone 6b
Posts: 1,862
Default

Naysen, I hope your plants are doing well this season! Your little son reminds me of when mine were that small. They walked like Godzilla and crushed anything in their path lol

At least he did it with gusto!
__________________
Antoniette
lakelady is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 4, 2013   #115
z_willus_d
Tomatovillian™
 
z_willus_d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
Posts: 1,313
Default

Hi Antoniette,

Yes, he runs around with the impulses of a destructive Godzilla but with the motor skills of Frankenstein. Even if he wanted to "be soft with the "plant-plants," he'd find it a hard procedure. He's slowly getting better though. Trying to teach him how to pick a flower (if he must) w/out destroying the pedals before he gets to his mother for delivery.

Anyway, I hope you have a fine season as well.
-naysen
z_willus_d is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 6, 2013   #116
Crandrew
Tomatovillian™
 
Crandrew's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: asdf
Posts: 1,202
Default

You have to have some pics of the plants by now. When you get a chance I would love to see the progress.
Crandrew is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 6, 2013   #117
z_willus_d
Tomatovillian™
 
z_willus_d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
Posts: 1,313
Default

Andrew, yes, I need to post here. If you're curious about where I was at around a week back, you can checkout this thread:
http://www.tomatoville.com/showpost....&postcount=320

Best,
Naysen
z_willus_d is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 6, 2013   #118
Crandrew
Tomatovillian™
 
Crandrew's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: asdf
Posts: 1,202
Default

Oh it looks fantastic! What a wonderful start to the season. Good luck
Crandrew is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 6, 2013   #119
Tracydr
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina, zone 7
Posts: 3,207
Default

Be careful with rice hulls, though. They seemed to do bad things to my garden. I think they raise the pH, a bunch. So much nothing would grow where I dumped them.
Tracydr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 7, 2013   #120
z_willus_d
Tomatovillian™
 
z_willus_d's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Eastern Suburb of Sacramento, CA
Posts: 1,313
Default

Tracy, I'm not using rice hulls in my garden.
z_willus_d is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 01:26 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★