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Posted: Oct/26/2009 6:09 PM PST
I live in PA. We are having a problem with our veggie garden soil. We have been mixing a dumptruck load of mushroom soil in our ground about every other year. We rototill twice a year, once in the beginning and once when done. This year we added nothing and the garden was just horrible. I know we had alot and I mean alot of rain, we probably only watered about 4 to 5 times. Our cucs were hard to grow, the zucchini basically rotten out, hardly no tomatoes to speak of other than the grape tomatoes. The only crops that did well were the beans and the corn. Our garden just doesn't seem to dry out. My husband dug down about 10 to 12 inches on Saturday and you could see the water just filling the hole. This garden is in the same place as its been for the past six years so we not talking different location here and we've had great harvests from it. I don't know if we should keep up with the mushroom soil or if we need more top top soil. It doesn't seem as if the ground is draining. Has anyone else had something like this happen or can you offer a suggestion, your thoughts. Thanks, we need some help. |
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Posted: Oct/27/2009 2:51 AM PST
maybe add some per-lite to fluff the soil and let some air into it, those plants are just drowning, if the roots can't breath they die, I had experience with the big tubs on the effects of to much water and too little Take a section and add a five gallon bucket for ten foot and till in ? this may be too expensive, look at that mushroom stuff if it's high in peat that wild hold water maybe too much, just trying to help Guilt Trip |
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Posted: Oct/27/2009 5:03 AM PST
Thanks for your suggestion. I'm willing to try anything, it was a very crapy year! |
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Posted: Oct/27/2009 6:14 PM PST
My two cents... It sounds like your ground is nutrient deficient and water logged. I don't think mushroom straw compost has many nutrients and tends to water log the ground. Don't know why it causes water retention but it has happened to some of my friends. I think it due to the fact that mushrooms need damp environment to grow, so there something in the medium they grow in that cause water retention. I'd recommend you use a good organic compost such as Gardener and Bloome products to enrich the soil. Website link. http://www.gbsoil.com/site4/products.htm I live in Seattle (rain and more rain city  )and had the same issue until I rot tiled in the Gardener and Bloome farmyard blend mix into my soil and mulch with the Harvest supreme. It helped like crazy. It loosed up the soil and provided tons of nutrients to the soil due to the manure component. Word of caution...Gardener and Bloome product tend to be expensive Once your veggies and in next summer also supplement the soil with good fertilizer such as Dr. Earth products. I'm not a organic gardner per say but for soil improvements try to go with organic and natural products and it really does help more the non-organics (i.e. Miracle gro, etc) products. |
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Posted: Oct/28/2009 2:41 PM PST
Thanks, I'll keep a copy of this for next year. |
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