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grow tomatoes without irrigation or fertilizer | (Read 2914 times) |
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 5600
missoula, montana
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April 28, 2010, 04:52:31 PM |
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So I think that this would come from a combination of things. The right guild, plus a collection of techniques to reduce water needs.
Just to kinda prime the pump, a hugelkultur bed about six feet tall should cover most of the water needs. Maybe in combination with a couple of tap rooted shrubs. While the hugelkultur beds would also cover a lot of the nutrient needs, some calcium accumulators might be of some benefit. And maybe some legumes.
What else?
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« Last Edit: May 07, 2010, 09:48:09 AM by paul wheaton »
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Emile Spore
Posts: 246
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April 29, 2010, 01:13:17 AM |
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if you can plant the transplants super early in a heated greenhouse, and get them about a foot tall before it's time to set them out, then stick them 6 or so inches down, just make sure that a full stalk with most of the leaves is exposed. The plant will root out all along the underground stalk and be on a great start to needing no irrigation!
Buckwheat accumulates P, stamps out most other weeds, is a useful food and doesn't get as tall as tomatoes, plus it is fairly long tap rooted, though not on the list of long tap rooted plants. It would make a nice nurse crop that can easily get flattened by a rank tomato or quickly pulled and mulched. It's a great way to start a new garden bed where you are worried about weeds coming back and don't care to pull them all out!
Dandelion is the calcium accumulator you are looking for or is it Fava Beans? Fava Beans are another nice nurse crop, make a great salad and punch through good mulch, are ready at a different time of year than tomatoes, in some climates you can even get a double crop from each planting, one in the fall and one in the spring! Dandelion will do a laughable job at competing with tomato, not much need to think here with this one!
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Brenda Groth
Administrator
Posts: 1860
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April 29, 2010, 09:18:32 AM |
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i have a plan to put some of my tomato transplants into a new raised hugelkulture bed this year..we'll see how that goes here in Michigan. The bed however does have some compost and some composted manure in it..so "without fertilizer" will not apply.
generally i plantall my tomatos in my greenhouse here in Michigan..but this will be an experiement for me here to plant them out in the new bed
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 5600
missoula, montana
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April 30, 2010, 09:58:07 AM |
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Remember that book called "carrots love tomatoes"? Maybe Toby's book could be called "tomatoes love dandelions".
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wyldthang
Posts: 241
Coast Range, Oregon
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May 05, 2010, 12:08:10 PM |
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I do get pretty close to the no fertilizer/no water(at least I think so)--I mulch heavily with chopped weeds/grass(native stuff) and put a half cup of powdered eggshell in the hole. I water deeply, at the base of the plant once a week when it's hot(August, 90's-100's). I dont' add or make compost otherwise.
One summer was wet enough(usually it doesn't rain July-September) I watered twice.
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My Blog, Natural History and Forest Gardening www.dzonoquaswhistle.blogspot.com"Listen everybody, to what I gotta say, there's hope for tomorrow, if we wake up today!" Ted Nugent "Suck Marrow" Henry D Thoreau |
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Emile Spore
Posts: 246
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May 05, 2010, 02:51:27 PM |
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Remember that book called " carrots love tomatoes"? Maybe Toby's book could be called "tomatoes love dandelions".
I feel like dandelions would be useful with most of the taller types of crops, if not alone for their ability to suppress other weeds.
I remember before I heard of permaculture, trying to convince my old boss that there was no point in pulling the dandelions around the rasberry bushes
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Joel Hollingsworth
Posts: 1623
zone 10: Oakland, CA
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May 06, 2010, 02:13:50 AM |
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If the neighbors' many-decades-old sewer pipe runs under the plot, tomato roots might seek out any cracks in it, and escape any need for (intentional) irrigation or fertilizer.
Soil here is heavy enough that what I've read strongly favors building up the field capacity, by finding species of plant that leave organic matter as many feet down as possible. That won't get you as far with sandy soil, but I think it might work for me.
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"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 5600
missoula, montana
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May 07, 2010, 09:54:16 AM |
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I predict .... that if you had a six foot tall hugelkultur bed that was three years old, and you planted tomato seeds right into the soil (no transplanting) and once the plant got a foot high, you laid down four inches of hay all around the plant (but six inches away) ..... and you had ... say ... a great big oak tree 15 feet to the north of the tomato .... and .... some onions, carrots, marigolds, peas, dandelions and buckwheat growing near the tomato plant.
All of these things .... I predict that this tomato plant would be in the top 5% of health, productivity and flavor for all of the tomato plants grown within 10 miles. Without irrigation or fertilizer.
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Emile Spore
Posts: 246
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May 07, 2010, 10:31:44 AM |
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I predict .... that if you had a six foot tall hugelkultur bed that was three years old, and you planted tomato seeds right into the soil (no transplanting) and once the plant got a foot high, you laid down four inches of hay all around the plant (but six inches away) ..... and you had ... say ... a great big oak tree 15 feet to the north of the tomato .... and .... some onions, carrots, marigolds, peas, dandelions and buckwheat growing near the tomato plant.
All of these things .... I predict that this tomato plant would be in the top 5% of health, productivity and flavor for all of the tomato plants grown within 10 miles. Without irrigation or fertilizer.
I agree, though I am not sure that it would even need that much. Depends on the climate but tomatoes can get by on very little... I mean my old boss's tomatoes would volunteer in the pea patch (we used the same trellis for tomatoes one year followed by peas the next to avoid moving the fence around too much).
They would produce good tomatoes, though a bit later and this was in upstate new york. They tasted quite good too.
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 articles by paul wheaton: [diatomaceous earth] [raising chickens] [lawn care] [Sepp Holzer] [cast iron] [flea control]
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