Posts Tagged: wood chips
Wilting Tomatoes
Help for the Home Gardener from the Contra Costa Master Gardener Help Desk
Client's Problem and Questions:
Client called (early September) and left a phone message that the her community garden colleague's tomatoes, although now 4 feet tall, set some fruit, but that the plant had suddenly started to turn yellow and appears that the plants won't surive. CCMG Help Desk responded with both a phone call and an email.
CCMG Help Desk Response:
As I mentioned in the phone message that I left for you this morning, the information in your phone message about the tomato problem your community garden colleague has experienced wasn't sufficiently detailed to allow us to diagnose the problem. You mentioned that the tomato had grown about four feet tall and had set some fruit, but that the leaves on the plant suddenly started turning yellow and it now appears that the plant won't survive.
Yellow leaves on tomatoes is associated with many different problems, including lack of nutrients, excess salts in the soil or in irrigation water, toxicity in the soil from nearby walnut trees, and many different plant diseases. You report that the plant had been growing well and producing fruit and declined very rapidly leads me to suspect that the cause may have been a vascular wilt disease.
There is nothing that can be done for plants that have Verticillium or Fusarium wilts. Plants that die should be removed and destroyed. Put the diseased plant refuse in the garbage. Don't compost it since doing so could contaminate the compost with the fungal spores. Crop rotation is of limited value as the vascular wilt fungi may survive in the soil for several years.
You can learn more about Verticillium and Fusarium wilts at these websites: http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783100911.html and http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r783101011.html.
One other word of caution about something you mentioned in your phone message. You indicated that you are using free wood chip mulch from a tree service company in your community garden plot. You said that your plants are growing well and look beautiful, but you didn't mention whether you are growing vegetables or ornamental plants. We don't recommend the use of wood chip mulch in vegetable gardens. Using such mulches for vegetables leads to two different problems. One is that wood chips, if dug in, and as they haven't been fully decomposed, will rob much of the nitrogen from the soils. This depletion of a critical nutrient can affect some ornamentals. It is particularly a challenge for heavy feeders such as tomatoes. If your colleague was using wood chips as compost for her tomatoes, it's possible that one of the problems for her tomatoes was a lack of nitrogen which would also lead to yellowing of the leaves.
The other problem with using wood chip mulch in vegetable gardens is that such gardens need to be replanted after each growing season. The wood chips really get in the way when you're trying to prepare the planting beds, add compost, etc. It is not a good idea to simply work them into the soil since they will continue to decompose, using up the available nitrogen in the process.
A better mulch to use for vegetable gardens would be weed free straw or dried leaves.
Hope that this information is helpful to you and your colleague.
Contra Costa Master Gardeners Help Desk
Editor's Note: The Contra Costa Master Gardener Help Desk is available year-round to answer your gardening questions. Except for a few holidays, we're open every week, Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to Noon at 75 Santa Barbara Road, 2d Floor, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.
We can also be reached via telephone: (925) 646-6586, email: ccmg@ucanr.edu, and we are on the web at http://ccmg.ucanr.edu/
Homegrown/Backyard Oyster Mushroom Cultivation-Part II
Last month, I blogged about cultivating oyster mushrooms in the backyard by inoculating a cylindrical plastic bag containing straw, with mushroom spawn. I am happy to report that my mushroom log project was a success and have enjoyed literally, the fruits of my labor.
This month, I will be discussing another simple method of cultivating culinary mushrooms in your backyard. The variety that I am currently experimenting with is Stropharia rugosoannulata, commonly known as the wine cap mushroom. Although creating the substrate and environment to grow wine cap mushrooms is fairly simple and straight-forward, it may not be until a year or more before you know whether you are successful (contrast this with cultivating oyster mushrooms discussed last month, which will mature fully in a month or less from the time you assemble the mushroom log).
Below are instructions on how to cultivate wine cap mushrooms at home.
Materials List:
1. Large piece of corrugated cardboard (e.g. from a shipping box or grab several boxes from a warehouse store);
2. A large basin, clean garbage can, or plastic tote with which to hold water to soak the cardboard;
3. Wood chips (can be obtained from local arborist looking to dispose of his/her tree waste);
4. Wine cap mushroom spawn (can be purchased on-line); and
5. 1 to 2 plastic kitchen trash bags.
Directions:
Creating Cardboard Spawn
Step 1: Soak cardboard for 30 minutes until the cardboard layers separate easily to reveal the corrugated layer.
Step 2: Shake off excess water from cardboard. Cardboard should be damp, but not dripping wet. Separate cardboard by tearing back top layer to reveal the corrugated layer.
Step 3: Sprinkle and distribute the spawn all over the cardboard until a uniform, thin layer forms.
Step 4: Roll up the cardboard at the short-end so that it resembles a scroll. Note that the moisture level in the cardboard is similar to a wrung-out sponge or something close to it. Place the rolled-up inoculated cardboard into a kitchen trash bag, keeping the bag open so that the inoculated cardboard can breathe.
Step 5: Leave the plastic bag containing the rolled-up cardboard in a warm place (i.e., room temperature), out of direct light. Check every couple of days to see whether your cardboard is still sufficiently moist (moisture will evaporate over time). If the cardboard has dried out some, just spray some water on it, enough to keep it moist.
Step 6: After 2 weeks, the cardboard should be fully colonized. You can tell by unrolling the “scroll” and examining the cardboard for white mycelium threads, which form various spider web-like patterns. When it is fully colonized, transplant it outdoors in a shady spot by layering it between woodchip layers (directions to follow).
Creating a Woodchip Bed Using Cardboard Spawn
Step 1: Soak wood chips in clean water until thoroughly saturated.
Step 2: Choose a shady place in your garden and rake aside the topsoil in that spot.
Step 3: Set down one layer of your inoculated wet cardboard.
Step 4: Shovel a layer of wood chips 1-2 inches deep on top of the inoculated wet cardboard.
Step 5: Set down another layer of your inoculated wet cardboard on top of the wood chip bed (think of creating lasagna layers, alternating between your inoculated wet cardboard and wood chip layers).
Step 6: Finish the bed by shoveling another layer of wood chips on top of your inoculated wet cardboard.
Step 7: During the course of the year, keep your wood chip bed moist but not overly saturated. Avoid having water pool or puddle in or around the wood chips.
Step 8: Wait the year for results.
Finished product after assembling "lasagna" consisting of alternating between layers of wood chips and wet cardboard inoculated with mycelium spawn. (photo by Betty Homer)