San Marzanos for 2012

[petef]

Pete - Very nice garden. What is the mulch you use? Is it just to keep moisture in? I usually do a top dressing of compost on the tomatoes around July, if I mulched would I need to move it out of the way and then recover?

John

John, the mulch is from the local recycling center, it's composted leaves.
It serves to keep the weeds from growing and keep the moisture in so that less watering is required.
I'm planning to buy a shredder so that I can make my own mulch in the future.

Check out this beast..
Harbor Freight Leaf Shredder 1-3-2011

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKTXL9Jp9Y" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWKTXL9Jp9Y</a>

---pete---

[dellavecchia]

Excellent idea. I have a ton of leaves in the fall, so it could work out nicely. Now I just need to buy another machine

John

[bfguilford]

We've been mulching with straw for the past 2 years, and it does a good job of keeping the weeds down and the moisture up. Just another option. Before that, my wife was the one who wanted to buy a leaf mulcher... go figure.

Barry

[petef]

Pete - Find some organic composted or dehydrated manure at Home Depot or Lowes. In the morning fill 1/4 of a gallon can with the compost. I also give it two tablespoons of natural fish emulsion. Fill the can with water to the top and stir. Let it sit in the sun for the day. In the evening strain through a sieve into a a heavy duty spray bottle, and spray the plants lightly all over the leaves. Do not do this in the full sun as it will burn the plants. Use the leftover tea to water your peppers, eggplants and cucumbers - those plants just love this kind of treatment. You can also just water the tomatoes as well. Once every two weeks.

John

I was talking with someone about spraying the "manure tea" solution on my tomato plants. They cautioned me about contaminating my tomatoes with E.coli bacteria. Remember, the recent news stories about E.coli contaminated veggies? That scared me a bit and caused me to do some research on the topic and I found an informative article at the link below. From what I read, the composted manure would be safest because the high temperatures involved would kill most of the E.coli bacteria. I don't see any guarantees that ALL the E.coli would be killed. I'm also not sure about the levels of E.Coli in dehydrated manure, because the article does not mention that. With all this in mind, I'm reluctant to use this treatment on my plants now.

Preventing E. coli From Garden to Plate
Especially, read the section.. Manure Management
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09369.html/

See what you think.

---pete---

[dellavecchia]

I was talking with someone about spraying the "manure tea" solution on my tomato plants. They cautioned me about contaminating my tomatoes with E.coli bacteria. Remember, the recent news stories about E.coli contaminated veggies? That scared me a bit and caused me to do some research on the topic and I found an informative article at the link below. From what I read, the composted manure would be safest because the high temperatures involved would kill most of the E.coli bacteria. I don't see any guarantees that ALL the E.coli would be killed. I'm also not sure about the levels of E.Coli in dehydrated manure, because the article does not mention that. With all this in mind, I'm reluctant to use this treatment on my plants now.

Preventing E. coli From Garden to Plate
Especially, read the section.. Manure Management
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09369.html/

See what you think.

---pete---

Pete - I am not using fresh manure. I am using a composted, dehydrated product made for mass production.

John

[petef]

Pete - I am not using fresh manure. I am using a composted, dehydrated product made for mass production.

John

Yes, I understood that. I was just pointing out the dangers in the rare case that the composted manure was not processed properly by the manufacturer resulting in small amouts of E.coli or other unhealthy bacteria.

I'm also thinking, just to be extra safe, on any plants sprayed with the tea manure, it would be best to cook the tomatoes as opposed to eating them raw. Then reserve a few plants by NOT spraying them and use those for raw tomato consumption.

---pete---

[dellavecchia]

Yes, I understood that. I was just pointing out the dangers in the rare case that the composted manure was not processed properly by the manufacturer resulting in small amouts of E.coli or other unhealthy bacteria.

I'm also thinking, just to be extra safe, on any plants sprayed with the tea manure, it would be best to cook the tomatoes as opposed to eating them raw. Then reserve a few plants by NOT spraying them and use those for raw tomato consumption.

---pete---

Pete - yes, I am only doing this for SM which will be canned. E coli is naturally occurring and the canning process is supposed to take care of it. I read that compost tea or fish tea will accomplish the same task in regards to blight, so I might switch to that. Now you have me suspicious of the product I am using.

John

[norma427]

John and petef,

I did post at Reply 144 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10762.msg102131.html#msg102131 that in 2010 I used sterilized manure to add to my soil, before I planted my tomato plants.  It didn’t seem to harm them in adding it to the soil.  I did eat many of the tomatoes raw and so did other members of my family.  I don’t know if adding the manure to the soil is different than applying it after the plants are growing.  Last year I applied Alpaca and Donkey composted manure as I posted at Reply 169 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10535.msg137302.html#msg137302  The Alpaca and Donkey composted manure added before the tomatoes and veggies were planted didn’t seem to hurt the tomatoes when eating them raw either.

Maybe I also should rethink about using manure.

Norma

[dellavecchia]

Norma - my wife's uncle lives in rural New Hampshire, and he has a garden that dwarfs my backyard. He has been gardening for 40 plus years and has been feeding 4 generations of family members off his produce. He puts nearly fresh horse manure in the soil, as has generations before him. No one has ever become sick with e coli. I think the problem Pete and I are discussing is applying the manure directly to fruit on the plant, which brings up some issues about actually eating the fruit.

John

[norma427]

Norma - my wife's uncle lives in rural New Hampshire, and he has a garden that dwarfs my backyard. He has been gardening for 40 plus years and has been feeding 4 generations of family members off his produce. He puts nearly fresh horse manure in the soil, as has generations before him. No one has ever become sick with e coli. I think the problem Pete and I are discussing is applying the manure directly to fruit on the plant, which brings up some issues about actually eating the fruit.

John

John,

Thanks for posting about your uncle and his garden that he applies nearly fresh manure.  I can understand now that you both are concerned about e coli when applying the manure tea (or what ever it is called) directly on the leaves or plants and then that might bring up some issues of e coli.  

I know farmers in my area do apply fresh manure in their fields all the time before planting.  That is why we have that “fresh air smell” around my area many times.  

Good luck with your garden, it sure looks fantastic!   I can not imagine tending to a garden that is as big as your uncles.
 

Norma

[bfguilford]

I used composted manure for years, and still do... just less of it. I always found that pig manure was best for growing tomatoes, and always had a hard time finding it. I talked to a guy who produced composted manure a couple of years ago, and he told me that the key is to get the temperature high enough in the compost to kill off the nasties (although I can't remember what he said his threshold was).

I also have to say that the Neptune's Harvest (fish/kelp) seems to be really working this year (first year I've tried it, and I was pretty skeptical).

Barry