Reboot my container garden from a Fusarium wilt.
July 29, 2012 9:26 AM
Reboot my container garden from a Fusarium wilt.
My tomato-heavy balcony container garden has been rocked by a Fusarium wilt. Basification and reduced water have allowed me to get some fruit out, but it's not going to last much longer. The only real 'treatment' that I found is to not plant susceptible species for 3 years or sterilize everything. What can I replace them with right now which
a) is not susceptible to Fusarium
b) will quickly provide attractive foliage
c) can be obtained without going to a specialty store?
My tomato-heavy balcony container garden has been rocked by a Fusarium wilt. Basification and reduced water have allowed me to get some fruit out, but it's not going to last much longer. The only real 'treatment' that I found is to not plant susceptible species for 3 years or sterilize everything. What can I replace them with right now which
a) is not susceptible to Fusarium
b) will quickly provide attractive foliage
c) can be obtained without going to a specialty store?
I prune as much as is feasible, especially if they're indeterminate tomatoes. Keep the plants from touching each other and keep each plant from turning into a tangled jungle. I feed the plants extra-well (extra compost, liquid seaweed are both miracle drugs) and keep the tomato factory going as long as I can; it's possible to turn things around for awhile.
Afterward, solarize your soil and plant some cool-season crops that don't so much share diseases with nightshades. Greens, lettuces, beans (if you have a trellis), herbs, there's TONS of stuff to start in the late summer to give you fall crops. I find delicious things to be highly attractive, I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but cooking greens like mustards and kales and chards really are awfully pretty foliage.
posted by desuetude at 11:42 PM on July 29, 2012
Afterward, solarize your soil and plant some cool-season crops that don't so much share diseases with nightshades. Greens, lettuces, beans (if you have a trellis), herbs, there's TONS of stuff to start in the late summer to give you fall crops. I find delicious things to be highly attractive, I know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but cooking greens like mustards and kales and chards really are awfully pretty foliage.
posted by desuetude at 11:42 PM on July 29, 2012
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posted by acrasis at 2:51 PM on July 29, 2012