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Old April 7, 2008   #12
bryanccfshr
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: Farmington, Nm
Posts: 450
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All of these are good suggestions. How to grow organic?
Organic gardening is a cultural practice. The key is building the soil by adding organic amendments and rock powders for minerals and texture and to minimize damage to soil organisms, encourage beneficial insects by growing attractive plants nearby and not spraying toxic pesticides )even organic ones) unless you recognize a problem) .

A good spray to use regularly on your tomatoes to encourage good vigor, add micronutrients and through health and vigor help them resist insect damage is te following that I use.. a modification of garret juice.
to 1 gallon of water add 1 Tbsps maxicrop liquid seaweed, 4 tbsp of horticultural molasses, 1 tbsp of apple cider vineger. Spray this once a week to the top and bottom of the leaves when the temps are below 80 and the sun is obscured.
This year I am expirimenting with Neem oil in that spray for additional disease protection.
For additional nutrition add a little fish emulsion now and then.

For good soil buuilding you need to stick to "do no harm" by not adding harsh high salt fertilizers and growing a crop and mulching you are building up the health of the soil, by adding addtional organic matter you are building fertility.

Keep sod grass a good distance from you plantigs to prevent insects such as leafhoppers and thrips from having an easy time reaching the tom plants and reporoducing.

Read alot on organic practices. I recomend you google, Malcolm Beck, Howard Garret (aka the dirt doctor) and a unique library out of australia that has free E-books such as "the plowmans folly" and a nice book about earthworms by Darwin. I can't recall the title at this website (it is on my thumb drive that I lost) but a quick google search for these topics should lead you there. Worth the search becasue there are maybe a hundred or more free E books available.
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