Soil Questions

Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:47 am

Howdy!
I am in USDA Zone 8 ( Houston area) and have some questions regarding my fall garden. I have a raised bed garden that I put in place this past spring. I had a nice crop of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini and basil. Since a few plants are done and I have some space I am going to do a fall planting. I picked up some cow manure fertilizer and was going to mix it with the soil before I do a new planting. Any other thoughts on any soil amendments for the fall?

Does anyone have any thoughts things that I should NOT plant where my tomatoes were? I have heard a few things regarding what should not be planted where tomatoes were and was hoping to get some real advice;)

Thanks!

Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:11 am

I just wanted to comment on manure. I am fairly new gardener and found out that when using manure it is advised to allow 90-120 pass before harvesting any crop. Any fruits/veggies that will grow and ripen outside the soil within 90 days, and anything growing below the soil 120 days. It has something to do with health reasons.

For this reason I decided not to use anything with manure in it. Manure is fine if say you lay it down a few months in advance. Compost and/or worm castings are some good things to add to the soil. Someone told me about something called Azomite, I am gonna give it a try. Some people add things like alfalfa meal, soy meal, cottenseed meal, green sand etc.

I made a topic about it titled " Who here uses fertilizers?" Check it out.

As for your other questions don't plant anything in the Solanaceae family. Some people still plant Solanaceae crops where others were previous. But if you had problems with disease it is a huge risk. Unfortunately I don't have much garden space so I will be planting tomatoes again where tomatoes were previously.

Fri Sep 09, 2011 4:40 am

Isn't the 90/120 day recommendation for raw manure?

Fri Sep 09, 2011 6:23 am

Probably. I really don't know much about it. I returned some fertilizer I had because it had chicken manure in it and had a warning on the package.

Fri Sep 09, 2011 11:06 am

Yes, I think the recommendation on waiting is about fresh manure, not well aged composted manure.

I think the main things you don't want to plant where your tomatoes were is more tomatoes or other things in the nightshade (solanaceae) family -- peppers (bell or chili), potatoes, eggplant.

I'm not a great one to ask about soil amendments, because I'm a very simple gardener. All I ever add to my soil is compost and mulch, lots of both. Seems to do fine. Is it possible I could get bigger, showier, or more productive plants if I worked harder at soil amending? Sure, but what I do works for me...