What Did You Learn This Past Season?

Cole_Robbie · December 31, 2016

I grow in black dirt that I dig out of our cow field, mostly where the old hay bales have decomposed. I never did get it tested, but it works great all by itself. I don't add fertilizer. When I try to inject chem ferts through the drip irrigation, the plants get leaf curl and look burned, even with tiny amounts. It's black because of the humates, which are nutrient uptake accelerators. I really think that having a high humate content changes everything. Plants don't require nearly the nutrients that they are supposed to. They grow faster, and they also use water more efficiently, surviving water stress much better.

And as for my answer to the thread's title question, I learned that I need to spray preventatively for disease. By growing in the same place, I am just accumulating more disease spores each year.

December 31, 2016	#11
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	I grow in black dirt that I dig out of our cow field, mostly where the old hay bales have decomposed. I never did get it tested, but it works great all by itself. I don't add fertilizer. When I try to inject chem ferts through the drip irrigation, the plants get leaf curl and look burned, even with tiny amounts. It's black because of the humates, which are nutrient uptake accelerators. I really think that having a high humate content changes everything. Plants don't require nearly the nutrients that they are supposed to. They grow faster, and they also use water more efficiently, surviving water stress much better. And as for my answer to the thread's title question, I learned that I need to spray preventatively for disease. By growing in the same place, I am just accumulating more disease spores each year.