Re: [tomato] Questions about soil

Tantrika (Tomato@GlobalGarden.com)
Sat, 03 Jul 1999 13:49:33 -0700 

At 01:09 PM 7/3/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear Tantrika,
>
>The fact you have plentiful earthworms is indeed a good sign.  You mentioned
>crabmeat and seaweed reducing acidity... have you tested the pH of your
>soil?

no, and I may not need to use that stuff.  I just know that where we got
the llama manure from there were a lot of redwoods, so I'm thinking it
might have affected the PH a bit.  However if my plants get weird looking
I'll do a ph test...What is a good ph for tomatoes?

>
>Have you had any diseases on your plants to contend with?  Do the bugs leave
>your plants alone?

no diseases yet (second year on this property)  I've had a few slug attacks
and something occassionally munches the leaves of plants but not terribly
badly I think I've lost one pepper plant. had gyspy moth caterpillars last
year but since I got them with BT, they've not returned.

We have a LOT of ladybugs in the yard, so I take that as a good sign as well.

I put out beer for the slugs and eventually the plants are big enough not
to be attacked.
In some ways it almost looks like the slug attack made some of them hardier.

>
>It sounds like you have plenty of organic material going in that soil...
>probably a good reason for the worms to be there.  Worm castings make great
>fertilizer too!

I have that in my potting soil, I should probably add some into the beds as
well, but I bet there's some in there cuz...well there's worms <g>

  My wife dug up a worm where we have roses that was 1/2 inch
>thick... I've never seen the likes of it.  I'm still kicking myself for not
>taking a picture of that critter.

WOWOW....Big puppy!  Bet it did a lot of nice things for your roses!


>
>Here it is July 3 rd and we really haven't had a hot day yet this year.
>This spring seems to be really prolonged here in Spokane this year.  My
>Raspberries are starting to ripen up.  I'm going to have the best crop of
>berries this year than in the past 18 years.  I had to put up bird netting

I'm getting all kinds of loganberries in right now.... gonna make preserves
from them ;)  The birds aren't bothering them that much, i'm rather
surprised, considering they got them all last year, but I go out every
morning and pick the ripe ones.  THough i probably should put netting up.
We keep FORGETTING to buy it when we go to the store! <g>

Regards,
Joy