Topic: Next years Tomato bed.

[MikeB]

This has been taken from the Wiki and I'm posting it to remind people as it's that time of year.

==Grow Tomatoes Like Never Before==
 

This simple system, which works well for other vegetables too, was developed by scientists at U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland.
To grow tomatoes like never before, carefully follow these directions according to the given timetable:


September

The first step toward a bumper crop beyond your wildest dreams is taken in early September when you prepare permanent raised tomato beds. If you're trying this method for the first time, use an inoculum to establish the proper soil bacteria.

Seed the beds with hairy vetch, a winter-hardy legume that's becoming widely available. Do this about 2 months before winter freezeup. Seedlings will emerge within 1 week. When the first frost arrives, your plants will be 5 to 6 inches tall.

Above ground, these skinny little vines will form a mat, but underground is where the real magic happens. Down below, the root systems, all this time, have been growing into an extensive network. Foliage and root systems will be working together, above and below ground, to hold the soil firmly and stop erosion.

Below-freezing weather will cause the vetch vines to become dormant, but never fear. With the arrival of Spring, the vines will experience reinvigorated growth.

Now that wasn't too tough. And the good news is you’re finished until May. Go clean, sharpen, and oil your gardening tools. Maybe leaf through a gardening catalog or two. Take a nap…


May

By May, individual vines will be 4 or 5 feet long and form thick stands about 2 feet high. Now it's time to kill them.

Yes, I said kill them!

Determine your ideal planting time. The day before, go out and buy however many tomato seedlings you're prepared to cultivate.

Then mow the vetch (a high-speed flail mower is recommended) and leave the residue in place on the beds. For the next several months, the dead vines are going to form a nutritious organic blanket that will snuggle up to your tomato plants (keeping out weeds) and gradually break down into soil nutrients.

Tomorrow you'll transplant young tomato plants right through the mulch residue and into the underlying soil.

Moisture is vital, so you'll need to irrigate. Immediately after planting, install trickle irrigation lines on top of the vetch and 3 to 4 inches from the tomato row. Fix them in place with U-shaped wires.

Fertilizers? A good stand of vetch provides sufficient nitrogen to meet from half to all the nitrogen needed by tomatoes. As for phosphorus, potassium, and essential micronutrients, it's best to have your soil tested—and supplement according to the soil's specific needs.


June…and Beyond

During the first month after mowing, expect the vetch mulch to suppress weed emergence. After that, as the decomposition of the residue advances, weed seedlings are likely to emerge.

One herbicidal application of 0.5 pound active ingredient of metribuzin per acre should do the trick, applied 3 to 4 weeks after transplanting. (Your nursery professional can help compute the quantity needed for small applications.) This application will also kill any regrowth from the mowed vetch plants.

By summer's end, your tomato plants will bear an abundance of fruit, the organic mulch will decompose to a fare-thee-well, and the year will have come full circle.

Mow the old tomato plants and leave them in the field to decompose like the vetch mulch.

Now it's time to reseed with... you guessed it… more hairy vetch!

[Squashfan]

Where can you find hairy vetch seeds in the UK?  ???
And could we use another mulch, say mustard or beans?

[MikeB]

I could find several seed suppliers who supply vetch, but no one for hairy vetch. I'm afraid all I know is what is in the article, if you find out anything please let me/us know.

[supersprout]

FABULOUS post Mike, thank you. On the hunt for hairy vetch now - it says this is a leguminous Green Manure at http://www.doityourself.com/stry/tomatovetch. If so presumably squashfan is right and plan b would be to use another of the same type. But it's the principle I love, lazy gardening at its best ;D ;D

Later: oh I see it's also called hairy tare! :o
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=136

[MikeB]

But it's the principle I love, lazy gardening at its best ;D ;D

NO not you SS I would never have believed it ;D ;D

[supersprout]

ahem <sharpens little sickle> ;)

I'm going to experiment with Tares from OGC (hairy or not) - looks like Vetch and Tares refer to the same plant (quick, anyone knowing better post here!) But no irrigation, and mulch - not weedkiller - after June.

Won't hurt, will it?

sowing weeds will be almost as much fun as dumping straw on them ;D

[MikeB]

You think you've got problems, I found this article, put it in the Wiki, then totally forgot about it. It was only because I was looking for something else in the tomato section that I came across it again. The point is I've laid out the plot for next year and was only going to grow toms in the GH. Now I've got to do a total replan and I bet my overwintering veg is in the wrong place.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm going to rely on my usual grass mulch; that way I don't have to leave the beds fallow till the vetch has finished with them.

[dingerbell]

Is it only me or has anyone found a source of winter/hairy Tares seeds? How about someone with connections buying a bulk amount and we could then purchase smaller quantities???

[MikeB]

Is it only me or has anyone found a source of winter/hairy Tares seeds?

As SS said the organic gardening catologue sell them starting at GBP 1.20

[supersprout]

I believe OGC's are an smooth tare rather than an hairy tare ::)

[MikeB]

I believe OGC's are an smooth tare rather than an hairy tare ::)

Picky, Picky, Picky. ;D ;D

Short and slender, almost hairless. Leaflets 4-10 pairs, tendrils sometimes unbranched. Flowers 1-8 in cluster, pale lilac, 4-5mm; May-August. Pods downy.
A fairly uncommon vetch, and hard to find because it's small. Look for it among the grass at the start of the middle meadow

[Garden Manager]

Sounds great until you get to the part about mulching the soil with the old tomato plants. Tomato plats are notorious fro catching or at least harbouring fungal diseases (blight being just one of them). Surely by leaving the plants on the bedand mulching with them you are perpetuating any fungal problems mand storing up trouble for the following year? Of course you wouldnt leave blighted plants in situ but other lester fungal diseases can create havoc with a following crop too. You wouldnt grow 'fantastic tomatoes' in following years. Whatever happened to the idea of crop rotation?

Of course you could modify the technique (and if i tried it i probably would). By using a different bed each year (with the green manure applied previously) and removing the old plants when finished, you would avoid any disease problems.

The other issue i have with the technique is the green manure used. Apparently the vetch is a legume which fixes nitrogen in the soil. This would make the tomatoes grow vigourously with lots of leaves. But this is not what we grow them for is it? We grow them for the fruit, which will be discouraged if the plant has lots of nitrogen to grow stems and leaves. You would still have to apply regular doses of a tomato food (potassium rich to promote flowering).  Kind of begs the question why use a legume as a green manure prior to tomatoes doesnt it?