[tomato] Mulches
Tom Eilers (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Sun, 21 Feb 1999 16:56:25 -0800
Howdy, been reading with interest the info about different types of
mulches. Tried different types over the years most without any
significant improvements. The spring here, is often accompanied by
serious winds, and despite hardening off efforts, plants used to get
beat up pretty bad. Last few years been using two gallon black pots,
which I get from a local flower shop, the pots are fairly thin plastic,
with no holes in the bottom. (I think they get cut flowers in them)
These pots I cut the bottoms out of, and bury them about half ways down
in the soil. The tomatos, inside the pot, barely reaches the rim, hence
they're protected from the wind, I feel the black pot, with the soil
piled up around it, provides additional heat. Anyway, this seems to be
working well for me, I used to take the pots off when the plants became
established but the last few years, just left them on, trenching around
them for irrigation. Of course the pots are re-usable, which is nice,
since I generally grow between 200 and 250 plants. Look forward to
reading more info on growing tomatos. Good luck, Tom