06-21-03 Bio-Intensive Gardening

Answers questions about large volume composting, aging chicken manure, staking or sprawling tomatoes in the garden; with a reminder on rotating the crops and the great value on chickens on the homestead...

We use several tons of compost in our gardens per year, so it is almost impossible for us to make all of our own. We are fortunate enough to have a cotton ginning operation not to far from our place where we can get all of the cotton burr compost we want. Cotton burr compost is among the very best compost you can get for your soil. We haul several loads per season and then we mix it with our home made compost as well as the manure and old hay from the chicken pens. It is a good idea to allow the chicken manure to age for about 30 days before planting. This keeps it from burning the new plants. Chicken manure is high in nitrogen.

We throw all of our scraps and vegetation from the gardens into the chicken pens. In the process of eating what they want from these scraps etc., the chickens shred up the vines and also add manure to it. This is really the best type of compost you can get and you do not have to turn it. For the homesteaders that do not yet have chickens, I recommend them very highly. Look at the benefits you receive from them. They compost your scraps and vegetation. They supply you with eggs. They supply you with meat. They are fun to watch in the evenings. Also if you have a rooster, you have an alarm you never have to set.

When we plant our tomatoes we space them about 3 feet apart in raised beds. Three feet looks like a long way apart when you first plant them, but if tended well, they will fill the space in between. The beds are covered with compost first to a depth of about 6 inches. We dig down about 8 to 10 inches. In this hole we place a trowel full of our special blossom end rot formula, cover it with 2 inches of compost and then plant the tomato plant on top of that. It is helpful when planting tomato plants that you remove all of the leaves except for the top 2 or 3. Also if you lay the plant on it's side when planting and cover up all but the leaves you left on, you will have a better root system. The blossom end rot formula is as follows: One shovel full of compost. To this add one tablespoon of epsom salts, and one tablespoon of calcium. Mix well and then add one trowel full to each tomato planting hole. Be sure to cover this mixture with about 2 inches of compost before planting the tomato plant in the hole. You should not have problems with blossom end rot for the entire season.

For our indeterminate tomato plants we use stakes for supports. When our plants get up to about 1 foot, we drive in a stake that is about 5 feet long. This stake is placed 6 inches from the plant on the prevailing wind side. When the plant reaches 18 inches, we start tying them to these stakes. I have found that the best material to tie up the plant with is old bed sheets that are ripped in strips. Tie the plants about every 6 to 10 inches up the stake the rest of the season as the plant grows.

For the determinate type of tomato, we do not stake them, we let them sprawl. Another thing to remember about tomatoes, or really any garden plant, never plant the same family group in the same place the next year. One of the best things you can do for your garden is to rotate the crops.

It is also helpful if you follow heavy feeding plants like corn, melons, pumpkins, etc. with a crop of peas or beans. Even if you do not have enough season left to get a harvest of the peas or beans, they will help build your soil up for the next season. They are also great for enriching the soil with nitrogen. Green pea and bean plants also add humus to the soil.

Happy gardening.

Byron Tumlinson

T-N-T Farm