Post Hole Digger And Dry Farming Tomatoes This Season

 
This year I'll be trying an experiment in a portion of my tomato garden.
Instead of double digging the whole patch,  I'll simply use a post hole
digger and dig down about two and a half foot deep where each plant will
be placed.  When I replace the soil,  it will be nice and lose to this
depth.  This should allow the roots to deep!   I will also give dry
farming a try using Early Girl tomatoes which I understand lend
themselves very well to this practice.  Dry farming is said to cut size
and yield a bit but gives the fruit a tremendous flavor as well as
texture.  I will use 6 -8 plants for this experiment.  Has anyone else
ever practiced or had any experience with dry farming?  Any advice will
indeed be helpful :)

Rich from PA

 On Wed, 6 Apr 2011 10:26:44 -0400, White_Noise_1@webtv.net (EVP MAN)
wrote:


Digging with a hand powered post hole digger to that depth is a lot of
hard labor, especially if you hit large rocks or clay... and I see no
point to your experiment, tomato plant roots need to be encouraged to
grow laterally, not deeply.  If you feel you need better soil and want
a little extra depth after normal tilling plant in a built up mound of
extra rich top soil.  But tilling to about 12" is more than adequate
for a vegetable garden, and certainly for tomatoes which are not a
root crop.  And since roots take the path of least resistance I think
all you'll accomplish by planting tomatoes in a deep narrow hole is
have rootbound plants.
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010137veg.roots/010137ch26.html

 
Hi Brooklyn :)  The post hole digger I have will dig to that depth in
less than 5 minutes a hole.  It also digs an 8" diameter hole.  Most of
the roots on plants I pulled from past seasons ever exceeded more than
about 6" so hopefully they won't become root bound.  The reason I call
it an experiment is because this test will only be done on a very small
portion of my plants as I stated, 6-8 plants.  My research also shows
that dry farming lends itself extremely well to clay soil which I have.
The clay holds moisture and by withholding some water,  you force the
roots to go deeper and also your not washing nutrients from the soil
near as much as normal watering.

Rich

 On Apr 6, 8:40 am, White_Nois...@webtv.net (EVP MAN) wrote:

Looking for more comments on "dry farming".  Water is so ****ing
expensive here (So Cal coastal) that if I can save a little...!   (Of
course I do not water heavily after blooms appear; interested in how
the "dry farming" concept would apply to my area (which is basically a
desert, turned into a megalopolis (sp?) by imported water.

HB

 On 4/6/2011 7:32 PM, Higgs Boson wrote:

When I lived in Central Texas, I had the best gardens ever once I
figured out drip irrigation.  It did take a couple of years for me to
get smart.)  I bought commercial farm "drip tape" with built-in emitters
and i built a manifold for it using rigid plastic conduit (because it is
UV stabilized and white PVC pipe is not.)  It used very little water,
and the water did not get on the foliage. I was even able to grow beets
and broccoli and other cool-season crops in the 100+ degree summers.

Now I live in Minnesota and have a much smaller garden, and I haven't
figured out how to deal with the short growing seasons, marauding
rabbits, and herbicide drift from the neighbors.  Hot dry weather and
bermudagrass were easy. ;-)

-Bob