Preparing soil for vegetable garden

I planted a garden last year for the first time ever! I used to have ducks and made them a pond 8' x 8' so we drained that. Then we added some dry horse manure that we had gotten from one of our neighbors. Now the duck pen has become a chicken pen, so I raked up all of that and added it to the horse manure and raked it all together. Let me tell you, I had the largest zucchini I have ever seen in my life! We also had planted the cherry tomatoes, and regular squash that just kept growing. I made fried zucchini until it was coming out of our ears!

This year I am planting Kale, Zucchini, Watermelon, and Cucumbers. We will see how that goes!

First a question. Are you growing them in pots, or in the soil? That's important to know and from your first post I'm not sure of the answer as you speak of using "potting soil for pots."

There are two answers depending on which you're using. I'll deal with pots first. If you're growing those plants in pots you'll want to replace the potting mix each year with a potting mix made for plants and add nothing to it. Those mixes come ready to go and need no additions. Anything you add to them will make them too heavy and inhibit draining which can lead to more problems. Before potting the plants up, you'll want to thoroughly wash the pots with a mild bleach solution (10%) to kill any disease causing organisms that may be lurking. Tomatoes and peppers are very closely related (as are eggplants) and reusing soil/pots for those plants without cleaning it can lead to trouble as any diseases or pests will be there waiting for your new crop when you plant it.

If you're planting in the soil, you really want to rotate crops and especially crops of the same family. Tomatoes and peppers are very closely related and thus vulnerable to the same pests/diseases. Ideally you'd move where you plant those plants each year. Planting the same crop in the same spot for year after year will yield the results you're getting. In a perfect world about now you'd have a pea, lettuce, cabbage or other cold tolerant crop in that spot, then when they're ready for harvest you'd plant beans or something not related to tomatoes in that soil and plant your tomatoes and peppers someplace where they haven't been grown for at least one full year, and preferably longer. Crop rotation is very important and can improve the soil quality if you rotate in a lot of legumes that are nitrogen fixing plants. They will add little globs of fertilizer to the soil for you so the next crop will get off to a head start. Always planting the exact same plants in the exact same soil makes life too easy for the diseases and pests. Rotating crops and growing crops unrelated to one another in the same spot from year to year will keep your problems to a minimum.

If you absolutely have no choice and must plant those plants in the same location, then you'll want to consider some form of soil sterilization to try and kill any pests/disease organisms in the soil. There are toxic chemical combinations that can be used, but they're more reserved for commercial growers. Using plastic sheeting to heat the soil to a high temp before planting can be moderately effective also though it can take a while. Solarization typically requires tilling the soil deeply, watering it so it's moist to a depth of about a foot, then covering it with clear plastic sheeting sealed to the ground at the edges and leaving it in full sun for a month or so to heat the soil mass and kill off any hostile organisms.

Can you rotate the crops? I would in addition to adding compost to the soil (1st at the beginning of the growing season-- put it into the soil in April and 2nd time again in mid July.) This helps feed your plants when they are rapidly growing.

Do you do good garden clean up at the end of the growing season? Removal of leaves and stems that might have gotten diseased should be removed to trash and not composted.

With tomatoes and peppers, I would also add Epsom salts to the soil as these plants can remove a lot of magnesium for their growing. I usually add Epsom salts twice a year at the same time as the compost is added.

Nothing like animal manure, I used rabbit droppings because I had six, all fixed, mixed into the soil to grow anything better, and composted food scraps and leaves. I never had to feed the veges or plants, because this was their food.

Thanks so very much for all your feedback.

Unfortunately, I do not have a very large garden so I cannot rotate my crops. I have about 6 beds and we plant mostly tomatoes, I use 4 for the tomatoes, 1 for cuks, and 1 for onions.

I use large long flower pots for the peppers and use potting soil. Gardenman, you said not to add manure or anything else (usually add a little manure and some bone meal) but I will leave this out this year and see how it goes.

JustJazzmom I have used Epsome salt around my roses but not on my tomatoes or peppers, I will definately give this a try.

Wish I had some horses chickens in my town but we don't as I know this makes terrific manure.

Also, should I add lime to my tomato beds and rototill that in? And should I use the organic tomato food they sell at the garden center?

On 3/31/2015 loveour4leggedfriends said:

Thanks so very much for all your feedback.

Unfortunately, I do not have a very large garden so I cannot rotate my crops. I have about 6 beds and we plant mostly tomatoes, I use 4 for the tomatoes, 1 for cuks, and 1 for onions.

I use large long flower pots for the peppers and use potting soil. Gardenman, you said not to add manure or anything else (usually add a little manure and some bone meal) but I will leave this out this year and see how it goes.

JustJazzmom I have used Epsome salt around my roses but not on my tomatoes or peppers, I will definately give this a try.

Wish I had some horses chickens in my town but we don't as I know this makes terrific manure.

Also, should I add lime to my tomato beds and rototill that in? And should I use the organic tomato food they sell at the garden center?

Chicken maneur can be bought in bags, if you are so inclined

I have grown tomatoes in pots with potting soil. If they are in the ground, then manure is good.