I have always heard that it is not a good idea to plant sweet corn and tomatoes together. My companion planting chart says that it is not a good combination also. So what happens if you plant a block of sweet corn next to a block of tomatoes? I am very small scale so when I say a block I'm talking about 8'x4' area for each in my back yard. How far apart should they be?
Sweet Corn and Tomatoes together...what happens?
Each needs thier personal space. Corn is very competitive and needs a lot more nitrogen than tomatoes. The block of corn should be at least three ft from the tomatoes. Both vary greatly in height depending on cultivar so just make every effort to plant the shorter on the sunny side so they will not be shaded by taller plants.
Ah! That explains why beans are considered a good companion for corn. Thank you Farmerdill. If I planted beans with the corn would that block be OK to grow tomaotes in next season?
Don't see why not.
Farmerdill, I thought I heard somewhere that the tobacco plant exuded something that was incompatible with corn. Is this just smoke and mirrors that someone blew my way??
I have no idea. I have not grown Tobacco for over 50 years. Back in the day Tobacco always had its designated patch. Part of that was because it is a heavy feeder and extremely demanding on the soil. Because of its heavy feeding, I would not think anything could be grown with it without a detriment to both. I know as a kid it had to be kept weeded. Chopping tobacco, I never chopped cotton, is not a pleasant job for a teenager.
I was thinking of Nicotiana - but them I'm wildly uninformed on annuals in comparison to many here. (And thanks for not getting me on the smoke and mirrors - LOL - I just realize what a hideous pun that was!)
Am I correct in remembering that squash was one of the "Three Sisters" of plants that were originally grown together here, with corn?
Squash, corn and beans, I believe.
My very first year ever gardening, I tried to do it, and wound up with a disaster. I planted too late in the spring, and didn't have enough water, so the corn died, the pole beans pulled the small stalks over, and the zucchini overran everything before finally drying out in the summer heat. Got nada from all my efforts, except the knowledge that I needed to learn a LOT more about what I was doing before trying it again!
Remember back when they did this, It was strong tall field corn ( most sweet corns have a hard time with weight) old type pole beans, and vining squash (usually winter types). They also did not use the dense plantings of today, so the plants had room.
See? This is what they mean by "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!" LOL That's me, just enough knowledge to get myself and my garden into trouble!
Thanks for clearing up some of my mistakes, Farmerdill!
You could still mix the three this way. Instead of straight rows make a three foot diameter circle and plant the corn in a circle row. Lay down a pattern of open space between plantings of corn. Put your bucket of compost in the form of a mulch inside the circle, of corn. Now the squash can crawl around between the corn. The matters can be along the Southeast and Western edge of the patch....or left to crawl the same as the squash. Actually mixing a planting in this way is a good way to confuse the bugs. Mother nature always plants a jungle of mixed plants.....never rows or large fields of one plant. To better the plan add carrots under and around the matters. Raddish and lettuce can be in and out before the running plants cover the ground with their canopy carpet.
docgipe - that sounds really neat. I'm going to doodle that up and see if I can talk my sis into trying that (she has 30 acres, she can spare me some room!). My little yard couldn't handle the corn. If I recall correctly, you can't have an eentsy stand of corn, and that's what I would have here. Now you're going to get peppered with other questions: How large is your middle compost pile? It sounds like that provides a great deal of the nutrients to get that garden kick-started - how do you fertilize during the season?
That's an excellent point on the bugs. I actually try to plant a "come and get it" plant my yard (depending on the pests in the neighborhood) we had a hollyhock for the japanese beetles this year and it worked like a charm. After it recuperated from the beetles, it drew all the leaf miners - a two-fer!
As I read your reply Farmerdill I started saying "But of course" to myself - they didn't have all the fancy hybrids we do.
You can still do it today. Biggest mistake is planting everything as if was the only plant. It takes the same space that it would take if you planted them seperately so you have to modify the spacings you have become accustumed to. I would also consider a sturdy large stalk corn like Stowell's Evergreen, Genuine Cornfield beans and a vining type squash.
The circle is filled with compost about two inches deep and I later add several inches of leaves. I do not do anything else for corn.
I use various teas including aerobic compost tea and aerobic earth worm casting teas to innoculate my whole garden with an army of biological content. This year for the first time I will make my aerobic teas as a blend including a new player...namely Bat Guano. It is this micro-herd that produces my fertilizer as the living members of my healthy soil make all the conversions. I manage to keep my organic content above 15%. A portion of that 15% is where my NPK comes from as produced by the available biology.
oooooo - OK, I see I have some planning to do! My sis has a lot of wonderful composting horse manure, and I've asked for a worm farm setup for Christmas, so over the holidays we'll sit down and figure out how to make this happen! Thank you!!
You really do not need much tea base to make lots of aerobic tea. I use a blend of my finished compost (3 cups), purchased earth worm casts (1 cup), purchased bat guano (1 cup). With the bases we need food (six ounces of black strap molasses). I add one ounce of 30% humic acid and four ounces of fish oil. There are other additives during the last two hours depending on what I have or feel I may need. I use various meals (one cup full) to augment the basic aerobic teas. I pump the air to this vigerously for about 18 hrs. in about forty gallons of water held at 76 degrees. When a tan froth collects on top of the water and peaks I am finished. The tea must go onto the patch within three hours to remain at peak. The reason for this is that the expanded micro-herd will run out of food very quickly when at their highest expanded count. My method of distribution is very scientific.....(a $79.00 contractors sump pump, a hose and with thumb over hose end). :) Works for me. Just don't get in my way at that point. It takes about fifteen minutes to distribute forty gallons. I clean my equipment and spray the cleaning water where ever I happen to be standing at that moment....usually onto the compost piles.
My neighbors stand in line for their gallon or so while refering to me as a snake oil doctor. The key is they can see the value and they do want more. I used to sell a bit of this but that gets into issues that I do not wish to enter into. My close friends get a bit for free. Some even help me make it.
There's a small but enthusiastic aerated compost tea revolution going on here too. We always try to get the tea out as soon as possible, but our main concern is that the oxygen content will drop and start the "switchers" producing anearobic toxins. I heard about the bat guano being a good fungal food. Does it work that way for you, docgipe?
I have been using aerobic teas for many years. The secrets of excellent teas are two fold. One excelent home made compost plus native soil contains all of the goodness we seek to grow into giant proportions. Excellent compost contains more than enough earthworm casts to serve as an earthworm cast base. Therefore compost should be a very basic good blend of mixed plant life both green and brown, mixed manures, micro-minerals, small amounts of fish oil, dehydrated kelp and or alapha meal. This is of course at the begining of a pile. The compost pile will not be compost until it is fully converted to finished compost. The carbs can be any sugar base but cattle feed grade black strap molasses brings with it a healthy ballance of trace minerals and carbon. Black Strap Molasses is as good a booster as any other commercial booster.
The above will deliver in oxygen satruated water at 76 degrees finished aeroated tea containing:
little or no NPK, all bacteria (ballanced), all fungi (ballenced). The term all refers to each local content of bacteria and fungi. I believe it may even be dangerous to introduce that which may not be a part of any local biology unless it comes from a tested commercial source. Thats it for bacteria and fungi. Secondly you will increase in a ballanced way higher life forms from amoeba to neematodes. You all ready have most if not all of these living biological players in the soil but possibly not in great numbers and possibly not ballanced.
When at the peak of the biological expansion there will be a tan froth floating on the surface. With out very expensive testing this is the eyeball way to see success. This is asperation from the biological life you have just enabled to be greatly expanded. With one exception that froth will be there to say "hey boss I am ready to apply". The one exception is over use of fish oil which may prevent the maximum over all expansion of life.
This is aerobic compost tea 101. It is the best aerobic tea hands down no further questions.
All other teas are fine in their own purpose. Bat Guano is always in my tea but it is only another manure. I can not remember and can not go read my label but I think it is perhaps the best of all manures.
One of the best designed tea brewers may be seen on the web sight of North Country Organics. Look for and read about the Bobolator. It is easy to clean which is the most important factor after knowing that the design and compressor will produce all of the above in a safe and sane manor. They also have boosters and compost tea quality compost. I advise all to start with the basic formula as seen on that site and to use purchased enough elements to make and innoculate your soil and compost piles one time. After that you will have it all in your own local patch ..........unless you wipe it out with non-biodegradable manufactured poison salts.
To be most effective the organic content of your soil should be up to fifteen percent by soil test. It seems clear to me that one would understand to maintain an army of great numbers the mess hall must be established to feed the army.
This brings us back to organic fertilizers, compost, leaves and a cover crop as standard opperating proceedure.
All other process in tea proceedures are already anaerobic. Aerobic tea not placed within three hours will already be moving towards anaerobic. This is the starvation of the biological life. It seem that the good guys go first. That may not make sense but that is the way it happens. In due time all aerobic teas will return to anerobic.
Bat Guano will make an excellent aerobic tea. It will however not even approach the whole biological family or value of the above compost tea. Manure is only one of the elements in excellent compost tea.
Sorry I am Dutch. I can not begin a discussion without raising and waving my arms too. :) Hope this helps you grasp tea concepts.
This message was edited Dec 21, 2007 4:23 PM
This message was edited Dec 21, 2007 4:27 PM
Good info, docgipe. A great point being made is that synergy comes into play when making compost teas, i.e., no one product is best but rather a blend of several is what you are looking for.
For those of you interested in an easy home-made aeration kit, as well as more info in laymens terms, the following link is a great place to start:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/388148/
Thanks for the input, docgipe!
Shoe
Thank you, docgipe - experimenting with compost tea is on my list for 2008, but I wasn't sure how to start - thanks for pointing me in the right direction. 15% organic matter in the soil -- that will be quite an accomplishment here in the desert where we average less than 1%. My raised beds have been in existance 2 seasons, now, however, so with mulch and compost, perhaps we are getting close... I am not Dutch, but I too, am taken over with arm waving and perhaps an overly loud voice when captured by the spirit - thanks for your enthusiasm!
Boy will that Nevada sand pop when it gets some organic support! I firmly belive that life begins when all life is rotted out and returned to the existing soil.
Great read, I enjoyed it!