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What is the difference between red clay and gray clay? We live in or near a very limestone rich soil area. If I dig down deep enough, say over a foot, I start hitting gray clay that is very heavy.That and some pretty big rocks. We've worked the vegetable garden enough over the years so that it is easily turned over with a shovel. I'm adding several bags of composted cow manure to it this year and last fall tossed some left over peat moss from mulching onto it and worked it in. We used to work a lot of dried grass clippings as a mulch but with the new mulching lawn mowers, there is less grass to rake. I was going to put more peat moss on as a mulch after the tomatoes are planted in a few weeks. Are there any problems with that?
One last question. We got hit very late last summer( early September) by that late blight on our tomatoes and it wiped them out. We can't rotate the tomatoes and I see some sulfur powder and copper powder that is supposed to kill fungus. I'm hesitant to use anything new not knowing if it will be effective or not. In particular, what witll the sulfur do to the soil? Thanks.
Location: Went around the corner & now I'm lost!!!!
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I started composting late last year and it was a little fustrating waiting for the leaves,weeds, and grasses to break down but it was wonderfully rich compost when it was complete.
I have been using fertilizer such as corn gluten mixed with commercial feritlizer (3:1) and I am considering using fish heads,scales and inner organs because a local storei in the area throws this away quite frequently. How can is utilize these fish organs in the soil without attracting neighborhood vermin and causing a "stink"?
You are very right...and you are doing the right thing for your garden. I have said this before, and I'll say it again...nothing softens clay like manure. If you can find some stable droppings and till it into that clay during the fall , you will have a much "softer" ground come spring.
I also mulch with pine straw...keeps the weeds down and I rake it out of the woods behind my house...free stuff.
Forgive me...but I am a manure nut. It cures a lot of ills.
Thanks. I forgot to mention that I have three dogs who make daily contributions to my compost pile.
What is the difference between red clay and gray clay? We live in or near a very limestone rich soil area. If I dig down deep enough, say over a foot, I start hitting gray clay that is very heavy.That and some pretty big rocks. We've worked the vegetable garden enough over the years so that it is easily turned over with a shovel. I'm adding several bags of composted cow manure to it this year and last fall tossed some left over peat moss from mulching onto it and worked it in. We used to work a lot of dried grass clippings as a mulch but with the new mulching lawn mowers, there is less grass to rake. I was going to put more peat moss on as a mulch after the tomatoes are planted in a few weeks. Are there any problems with that?
One last question. We got hit very late last summer( early September) by that late blight on our tomatoes and it wiped them out. We can't rotate the tomatoes and I see some sulfur powder and copper powder that is supposed to kill fungus. I'm hesitant to use anything new not knowing if it will be effective or not. In particular, what witll the sulfur do to the soil? Thanks.
Red clay is usually red because of the iron in it. I would be very carefull with sulfur. If you use it remember that sulfur will turn to sulfuric acid in your soil after about three months. Have your soil tested to see how much to use. When you use sulfur, mix it with plenty of peat moss. Peat moss is also acidic, fifty pounds per thousand square feet will lower the PH about a point. Peat works slower than flowers of sulfur and it has the advantage of increasing the workability of your soil. It makes it "soft and fluffy" over time. You might try some fetilizer for acid loving plants. If your PH is too high it wont hurt a bit. Miracid plant food is avalible at just about any Wal Mart.
Sulfur is usually used to lower the PH of the soil...I think you would waste your money putting it on tomato plants.
As for your tomatoes see if you can find a variety that is resistant to blight, they are coming out all the time with new resitant varieties. Find out exactly what kind of disease it was and get a resistant variety.
You didn't use any weed killer in your yard last summer did you?
That stuff can kill a tomato from a long way off.
PS...mix a little sand with your peat moss mulch (or wood chips)...so water can drain through it...if not it will crust and the water will just run off of it.
I started composting late last year and it was a little fustrating waiting for the leaves,weeds, and grasses to break down but it was wonderfully rich compost when it was complete.
I have been using fertilizer such as corn gluten mixed with commercial feritlizer (3:1) and I am considering using fish heads,scales and inner organs because a local storei in the area throws this away quite frequently. How can is utilize these fish organs in the soil without attracting neighborhood vermin and causing a "stink"?
Bury the fish guts and stuff about a foot deep under the place you plan to grow corn...But any way you use it...bury it
If you like manure, according to an old article in TMEN, you can make your own... no, not that way!
Put your grass clippings in a large plastic trash bag, add water and some urine for nitrogen, and let it sit in the sun for a couple of weeks. If the proportions are about right and there is enough heat, voila - manure. All you are doing is partly recreating what happens in a cows stomachs.
If you like manure, according to an old article in TMEN, you can make your own... no, not that way!
Put your grass clippings in a large plastic trash bag, add water and some urine for nitrogen, and let it sit in the sun for a couple of weeks. If the proportions are about right and there is enough heat, voila - manure. All you are doing is partly recreating what happens in a cows stomachs.
Thanks for the advice ... but I think I would rather get it from a cow, goat, chicken, rabbit...rather than urinating in a bag. I'll just compost and use a nitrogen fertilizer.
Location: Went around the corner & now I'm lost!!!!
1,544 posts, read 3,545,145 times
Reputation: 1241
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dusty Rhodes
Thanks. I forgot to mention that I have three dogs who make daily contributions to my compost pile.
Common sense tells me all manure breaks down to useful chemical nutrients for soil but I didn't think you could add your dog's dung to a vegetable garden...or can you? I take my akita's poop and bury it around the other plants in the yard but not in the garden.
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