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Post by jerseycub on May 22, 2010 16:47:55 GMT -6
These are some pictures of how we prep our rows for planting tomatoes and peppers with compost. I cut deep furrows and we fill them with finished compost. you can see here the row is filled with compost And this side before we filled the furrow.
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Post by Compost Pharmer on May 23, 2010 20:36:15 GMT -6
Looking good there JC. I say that compost is the best amendment you can add to your garden. It feeds the soil, and the soil feeds the plants.
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Post by jerseycub on May 24, 2010 5:09:02 GMT -6
This season is the heaviest I have ever amended the soil in one place. It's an experiment to see if this heavy feeding helps the tomatoes and peppers. I did the same thing with the potatoes we planted this season.
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Post by BestoFour on May 26, 2010 19:41:53 GMT -6
You'll have to keep us posted on the results.
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Post by jerseycub on May 27, 2010 16:08:43 GMT -6
Well so far the potatoes are growing like crazy and green as can be. The plants are about ten inches tall.
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Post by Christy on May 28, 2010 8:46:00 GMT -6
cool JC. I bet your plant do great! I just brought home some buckets to make compost containers out of, figure easier to carry n there free lol.
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Post by jerseycub on May 28, 2010 10:35:16 GMT -6
cool JC. I bet your plant do great! I just brought home some buckets to make compost containers out of, figure easier to carry n there free lol. That's my motto christy. "If it's free it's for me" .
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Post by Christy on May 28, 2010 12:22:37 GMT -6
haha Good motto JC. We get those big 10gal buckets of laundry soap, softener,ect at work to hook up on the big washmachine. I noticed they kept tossing them away. crazy! you'd think the Co would reuse them. anyho Im gonna bring them home from now on n use for compost. less trash in the earth n more compost phor me haha. wootwoot! i may paint them black to attract the sun. gotta get a drill to drill holes in it...
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Post by jerseycub on May 30, 2010 5:11:19 GMT -6
That's a great idea christy and definitely a good thing for recycling the use of those containers. Everybody wins when we do things like that.
Ruth and I planted most of our tomatoes and peppers yesterday in those two rows we amended with compost...so ill start taking pictures of there progress.
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Post by Rita on May 30, 2010 5:21:14 GMT -6
OK I missed this somehow .. Looks great JC!! I wish I had more area but do the best with what I have .. I compost just about everything .. and use it in my garden each spring .. Christy I like your idea of the buckets ... free is always a good thing
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Post by Christy on May 31, 2010 14:44:32 GMT -6
I bet they do great JC! just like your potatoes.
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 2, 2010 7:35:54 GMT -6
We will see how the tomatoes do. I will tell ya this they definitely were not in that good of shape when I planted them, so if they do well it was definitely the soil.
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Post by Christy on Jun 3, 2010 3:44:19 GMT -6
cool let us know how they do. i was thinking about this lastnight, some of us have a later start putting our gardens in because of our weather. and no room to start them indoors so will be a good idea to get the plants growing faster n better. how much is "to much"? is there a "to much" for composting/feeding plants ?
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 3, 2010 7:05:15 GMT -6
cool let us know how they do. i was thinking about this lastnight, some of us have a later start putting our gardens in because of our weather. and no room to start them indoors so will be a good idea to get the plants growing faster n better. how much is "to much"? is there a "to much" for composting/feeding plants ? christy as far as to much compost I really don't know. This is a new experiment for me too. I do believe you should only use well rotted compost, and not fresh. The plants are doing ok so far.
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Post by Pharmer Phil on Jun 3, 2010 7:54:49 GMT -6
I tried straight well rotted compost once for a couple pumpkin plants, using only the compost for the hills... I gotta say it wasn't what I thought would happen, they took a long time to germinate, then, they started slow...but, after a few rains they took off! I thought they'd jump out of that compost like Jacks Beanstalk
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Post by Compost Pharmer on Jun 3, 2010 19:50:24 GMT -6
Yes it is possible to have to much compost in your garden. If you over do it, you will have great looking plants with very little fruit. One guy down here who is a general manager of a farm store did just that. He would take home the broken bags of organic amendments and spread on his garden spot. Last year he said he had the best looking garden but very little fruit on the plants. So he had his soil tested and was told that he had the most organic soil that had been tested by the lab. He was told to back off on adding any more amendments to the soil. I'll see this year if his garden is better then last year.
This year I am doing hot composting in an attempt to kill the weed seeds so I will have less weeds in the garden next year. So far one bin has gotten up to 160 F and the other 2 bins have hit 150 F.
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Post by Christy on Jun 3, 2010 21:31:25 GMT -6
Thamks CP! ill try not to over do it when i get my compost started. haha Phil I was hoping for the beanstalk thing! lol least with this you can phind out how much you can add JC. i might try this next year to see what the composting limit would be. I could take a couple of plants and add a small- med- large amount to 3 plants n see what it dose.
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 4, 2010 8:48:07 GMT -6
Well lets see. I dug furrows about 10" deep by 6" wide at the top. and filled that with finished compost, I haven't added any more then that, we dug threw that to plant the tomatoes so that soil is a bit mixed. Also when I formed the hilled rows I side dressed with organic fertilizer, I know that the plants will send roots threw the compost so there will be other nutrients supplied to the plants.
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Post by Christy on Jun 5, 2010 19:02:10 GMT -6
sounds good JC,
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 6, 2010 12:58:48 GMT -6
I will tell everyone this those sorry looking tomato plants are as green and healthy as can be rite now, Ill take a few pics in a day or so. The peppers that I planted do not look as good and I'm not sure why. I have harvested 15lbs of garlic scapes so far, and sold 6.5#s and a few jars of pesto. Just finished doing all the weeding in the onion patch and leeks.
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Post by Christy on Jun 21, 2010 17:28:33 GMT -6
awesome your tomatoes are doing good. hope your peppers perk up.
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 22, 2010 11:43:54 GMT -6
My tomatoes are looking excellent, they are growing strong and full of blooms, if they continue growing like this they will be the best tomatoes I have ever grown. Ill post some pictures in a few days.
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 22, 2010 15:35:00 GMT -6
Here are a few pictures I took this afternoon or the tomatoes. They are growing fast. These are the smaller plants at the beginning of the row.
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Post by Songbird on Jun 26, 2010 22:38:56 GMT -6
What's the purpose of the newspapers, Jersey?
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 27, 2010 8:15:29 GMT -6
What's the purpose of the newspapers, Jersey? Tomato plants like to keep up on the local news Honestly though Ruth put the news paper down as mulch to keep the weeds down and hold in the moisture..
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Post by Compost Pharmer on Jun 27, 2010 18:10:16 GMT -6
I put down newspaper as well. On to of the paper I put the grass cllipping s for mulch. the paper does keep down the weeds. The ones that grow through the paper and mulch, I just pull out and lay on the mulch.
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Post by jerseycub on Jun 28, 2010 16:25:48 GMT -6
I put down newspaper as well. On to of the paper I put the grass cllipping s for mulch. the paper does keep down the weeds. The ones that grow through the paper and mulch, I just pull out and lay on the mulch. We just put down straw mulch today to cover the news paper, then I soaked everything really well.
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Post by redneckplanter on Mar 27, 2012 23:54:28 GMT -6
maters looooooove compost.
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Post by Pharmer Phil on Mar 31, 2012 8:17:19 GMT -6
maters looooooove compost. Yes they do RNP...most everything does...wish I had mechanical means to produce more...tractor with a blade would ROCK
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Post by MinnMike on Dec 2, 2013 9:49:48 GMT -6
Anyone do indoor composting in winter ? I am getting ready to try this for the first time. Have been saving up peels, eggshells, coffee grounds/filters and am about to start shredding newspapers. My plan is to use an old plastic garbage can in my (warmish ~50) basement with the shredded paper, kitchen wastes and a little of my good garden soil to prime (inoculate) it. I know it will be slow but that's OK. Any comments,tips or helpful hints ? I don't really want to mess with worms. Too late to dig em and too cheap to buy em.--mike
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