I may need to till my no-till garden

[Lmbauer2017]

Updates!

This one is a bit delayed as I've been swamped at work! I got the plants in the ground last week. It's been raining off and on for the past couple weeks, and I'm not too confident on the texture of the soil I planted them in. It was like loose chunky mud... but I HAD to get them out of those pots. The pictures show them immediately after planting, but I gave them a huge dose of fish emulsion and they perked right up after a few hours. One week later they're still looking good and growing a bit! I haven't been home enough to get a good picture of them now, but I will post one tomorrow in the daylight.

P.S. - I plan on adding more boarder rocks along the rest of the garden (the curving part that's flooded) and raising it up with a lot of extra clay/dirt dug-up from the beginning of this project. Right now all of it is in a pile resting in my backyard. I've been amending it with whatever excess soil/compost/organic material. So hopefully it won't be pure clay when I do get around to using it.

 

[Lmbauer2017]

Here’s some pics of them today after a week of settling in. It’s lightly drizzled every day and kept everything nice and wet
Honestly they look better than I was expecting. Today we were planting some flowers around and I realized the whole area had a slight ammonia scent (like the bathroom of a gas station or dive bar) which I’d imagine is the soil not getting enough oxygen. I went around with the pitchfork again and tried to lift up some sections of soil. Not sure how much it does, but anything at this point would be better than nothing.

Anyways, I’ll keep y’all posted

 

[DirtMechanic]

Back to your question about when to broadfork, it is best when roots are growing just like aeration. You will damage fine roots and they need recovery time. You may find yourself working summer plant areas at different times than cool season plant areas as things go along.

 

[Lmbauer2017]

Howdy y’all!

This bed hasn’t been watered yet. It’s just so waterlogged. I wasn’t expecting much out of it though as I know the soil still has a way to go before becoming non-clay.

A couple tomato plants are showing a sign of either an iron deficiency or lack of oxygen… (my money is on the latter). I’m not sure if there’s much I can do about the lack of oxygen other than lightly broadforking near/underneath it. Any ideas?

 

[Chuck]

Howdy y’all!

This bed hasn’t been watered yet. It’s just so waterlogged. I wasn’t expecting much out of it though as I know the soil still has a way to go before becoming non-clay.

A couple tomato plants are showing a sign of either an iron deficiency or lack of oxygen… (my money is on the latter). I’m not sure if there’s much I can do about the lack of oxygen other than lightly broadforking near/underneath it. Any ideas?

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How much rain have you had to make you think they are getting too much water or a lack of oxygen. The only thing I would do is give the pepper plants either Liquid Iron or Chelated Iron as they look a little off. In picture #3 it shows a bright yellow color at the base of new growth. This is normal and the plant will grow out of it. Everything looks pretty good. Just hope you start getting the proper temperatures for fruit set on the tomatoes.

 

[Chuck]

Don't ever broadfork or even cultivate around large tomato plants as their roots extend a sizeable distance in all directions, at minimum out to the dripline, plus many feeder roots are just below the surface of the soil. If you want to aerate the root system of plants about the only way to do it is to mix hydrogen peroxide 50/50 with water and drench the area. I see no signs of the soil staying too wet.

 

[Lmbauer2017]

Don't ever broadfork or even cultivate around large tomato plants as their roots extend a sizeable distance in all directions, at minimum out to the dripline, plus many feeder roots are just below the surface of the soil. If you want to aerate the root system of plants about the only way to do it is to mix hydrogen peroxide 50/50 with water and drench the area. I see no signs of the soil staying too wet.

That’s comforting. So when I dig down a few inches it’s still moist. The last rain we had was that two weeks of pouring rain about 3-4 weeks ago. I remember now you showing me that the yellow goes away after they grow, but these look like they may be starting to shrivel (picture below is one dat later)? I’m going to set up my drip system soon. I put some chelated iron + hasta grow on that poor pepper plant in the front a few days ago so we’ll see if it perks up.

And yeah now that you mention it it’s probably not getting cool enough for tomatoes. I have ONE San marsano coming but that’s it. Very much anticipating this cold front coming in next week!

 

[Chuck]

I am sure that the yellowing shown in your latest picture is caused by a lack of iron. As your peppers are also showing the same thing I have to conclude that your base soil is lacking in iron. Lowe's has a product called IronPro which is made by Earth Sciences. It is OMRI listed so it is organic. I would get this and use it for all inground plantings.

 

[Lmbauer2017]

I am sure that the yellowing shown in your latest picture is caused by a lack of iron. As your peppers are also showing the same thing I have to conclude that your base soil is lacking in iron. Lowe's has a product called IronPro which is made by Earth Sciences. It is OMRI listed so it is organic. I would get this and use it for all inground plantings.

Interesting, ok I’ll check it out. Thanks!