View Single Post
Old February 18, 2015   #32
Redbaron
Tomatovillian™
 
Redbaron's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 4,488
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by bower View Post
Scott, I'm wondering what you're doing with the tomato plant biomass at the end of season?

I know I end up with a huge compost pile every year, to consume the nutrients locked up in those big plants and turn them back into soil. Great producers of biomass, for sure, but problematic to return it directly to the soil without a good hot composting to get rid of any diseased plant residues.

If the plants themselves or an equivalent amount of compost weren't returned to the original bed, it would explain a lower return the second year, IMO, as the sheer mass of the tomato plants represents a large withdrawal of nutrients.... Just a thought.

Congratulations on the beginning of year three! And on the new partners/sponsors or what I should call em - interested parties contributing one or another kind of help.
Yes Bower I compost them. I have a bagging mower that collects it along with the grass clippings. Then I make two types of compost, hot and cool. Hot for the left over biomass and cool for fungally dominate wood chip compost.

Here is the set up near the house. I also have a bigger one at plot 2. I also have a huge pile of wood chips that came from trimming trees. This is not an outside input. Those trees were all from this land I will be growing in. You can see in the pic, the tops of trees cut off. The electric company had to do some trimming, so I asked them to leave me the chips! Also, for those interested, here is what the beds look like in winter.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Compost bins.jpg (124.1 KB, 244 views)
File Type: jpg Beds.jpg (95.5 KB, 244 views)
File Type: jpg wood chips.jpg (139.3 KB, 244 views)
__________________
Scott

AKA The Redbaron

"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted & thoughtless labour; & of looking at plants & animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system."
Bill Mollison
co-founder of permaculture

Last edited by Redbaron; February 18, 2015 at 05:50 PM.
Redbaron is offline   Reply With Quote