Our garden is on a nice slope (in se Indiana), I have about 100 tomato plants planted on the upper part, only a few have been mulched. We had a dry spell and I've been super busy, anyway, I've been waiting for rain, which we got, boy did we get rain. Around 4 1/2 inches, mostly Friday night and an inch by this morning. Should I mulch as soon as I can get into the garden or should I wait a few days? More rain is predicted for Tues and Wed. Last year we had a severe draught and the three summers before that we had too much rain then draught. Of course in Indiana, "they" say wait 5 minutes and the weather changes.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 18, 2000

Answers

I would mulch as soon as possible. Now, here's my question. Does a ceader or arborvitie mulch hurt tomatoes? Mine seem to be haveing some kind of black bruise that is slowly crawling all over them. Can't figure this one out. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), June 18, 2000.

Unless the ground is so soggy you'll sink in when you walk on it, mulch away! I usually throw some composted manure down around the plants, then use lawn clippings (grass, leaves, pine needles, etc. - whatever that gets cut and sucked up into the bagger) and / or straw, and apply it 4 to 6 inches deep.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), June 19, 2000.

My tomatoes don't have any fruits yet, I'm in Washington. Our tomatoe season is just starting. I'm talking about the stems, starting at the base and working its way up to the leaves. I do know that this will kill them, I'm just curious to find out if this is caused by the mulch I'm using. We had arborivitia that we had to take out, and we chiped up a lot of it. I've been using it as mulch since it was free. Now I'm not so sure this was a good idea. Thanks for the response, greenbeanman. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), June 19, 2000.

ASAP!! Wet ground it perfect! My tomato plants are inside bottomless and topless buckets and I put grass clippings all around the buckets and clear up to the rims. GL!!

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife@sws.nb.ca), June 20, 2000.

Actually, wet weather iS perfect. Sorry 'bout that.

-- Abigail F. (treeoflife @sws.nb.ca), June 20, 2000.

What part of Indiana are you from, Cindy? We are from Brown County, and the weather sounds like ours! We didn't get a start on the garden, since our son and daughter were in a truck wreck. They are doing better, but it set us back a bit. I got healthy, but leggy, tomato and pepper plants from the local greenhouse, and planted them a couple of weeks ago. I guess I should have pinched the tops back some, since they had tiny rootballs and foot tall tops. Anyway, I stripped off the bottom leaves and planted them up to their necks, and watered them twice a day during that dry spell. I'm glad we had that hose; they would have died without me keeping a very close eye on them. Then the rains came, and they churked right up and are looking GOOD now; I know I need to mulch, but rain is expected today, and the wheat is getting close to being ripe. I think I am going to see if I can get some wheat straw and put it down; our lawn has too many weeds in it, and lotsa weed seeds. Hubby has been bringing me home lots of old railroad ties; the railroad has been replacing them, and just leaves them besides the tracks. He got permission to scoop them up, and we are going to make more raised beds. There are MUCH less weeds in the raised beds we have, and it is so much easier to garden in raised beds, than to fight Brown County clay soil!

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), June 20, 2000.

leann, don't use the railroad ties for veg beds unless you know all of the creosote is out of them. It makes vegs grown next to them taste nasty. GL with the raised beds. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), June 22, 2000.