Return to the Rocky Mountain Gardening Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
Posted by carob z6 Utah (My Page) on Wed, Jun 3, 09 at 14:39
| This is my first year doing a square foot garden following Mel Bartholomew's book. I followed his instructions to the letter but it has done quit poorly. I believe it might be due to the mulch I used which was a mulch containing 5 different types of organic matter (recommended to me at IFA for people doing square foot gardening). My plants just refused to hardly grow for over a month. So I decided to start fertilizing as a last effort to see if that would help. They started doing a little better but now the soil has started to sprout a fungi looking stuff. I've tried to download a photo of it but can't figure out how to do it so I will try to describe it..it's bowl shaped with kind of wavy edges and tannish gray in color. They start out tiny but get to be about 3". I'm wondering if this is harmful to the vegetables...is it a symptom of diseased or bad soil? Has anyone else had these problems...it sounds like most people have instant success!! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
- Posted by jnfr z5b CO (My Page) on
Wed, Jun 3, 09 at 14:49
| Doesn't sound like anything familiar to me. A picture would be good. Where did you get your soil? You might have gotten something that was already seeded or growing in your soil. |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
| I participate on the SFG forum and AFAICT this lack of fertility issue is quite common. You should use a fert supplement at least the first year - more N around your leaf crops but not tomatoes and more PK and some dolomite lime/Ca supplement around toms and peps. Cut back on the N when it gets really hot. Fungi in the mix is no big deal. Gray shrooms are generally not edible. Now if it sounded like morels, I'd be over to your house for a 'consult' PDQ! Dan |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
| How often are you watering, Carob? Skybird |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
- Posted by carob z6 Utah (My Page) on
Wed, Jun 3, 09 at 21:14
Thanks so much for the responses. I esp. appreciate the help from Dan about fertilizing. I was under the impression that one of the benefits with this type of gardening was no fertilizing would be necessary. But that's what started giving my veggies a new life. I only used the general purpose Miracle Grow but now I'm going to pick up the more specific supplements Dan mentioned and hopefully that will pull us through.
About the fungi...sorry but I'm sure they're not morels...if that were the case I might just forget about the vegetables and go into morel gardening full time! Skybird asked about watering and I wondered the same thing so I did cut back on that a little but they're still popping up and I don't think I can really water any less. But it sounds like I don't need to worry about too much. |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
| Hi again, I couldn’t think of the name of it when I did my first post, but when I read your description, until I got to the color, it sounded like you were describing liverwort Does this look at all like what you have? Here’s some more info about it. What kind of soil did you use? You should be able to go long enough between waterings to leave the surface dry out. Too much water could possibly be one of the causes of your plants not thriving from the beginning. Remember that small plants use very little water, and that leaving the surface dry—down to approximately where the bottom of the existing roots are—will help draw the roots down more deeply into the soil, and a good, healthy root system produces good, healthy plants. We had considerable problems with liverwort when I was at Paulino’s, especially with the small pots which needed daily watering once the plants were big enough to sell, and they were planted in sterile potting soil and were in full sun, so it can grow anywhere. If it is liverwort, you definitely want to remove it from the surface of the soil. This would be less likely in open soil, but in pots it can get so thick that it chokes out and kills the plants. And since it spreads by spores, and even more easily by something called gemmae (tiny clones that wash off when watering), if you don’t try to get rid of it now while there’s a small infestation, you’ll probably never get rid of it. Welcome to RMG! Let us know how your garden is doing over the summer! Skybird |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
| I can see the liverwort, but didn't immediately think of it because that is seeeeerrrr-ious overwatering. Nonetheless, to be more detailed, I'd get some Dolomite lime, some greensand, and an organic fert like a 5-3-3 for fall. Then I'd double-dig the whole shebang with the lime and greensand and fert after all the crops were in. Take your peas/beans/legumes and turn them over in the operation. Cover your beds so the wind doesn't strip them of the nummy-nums. It has taken me two years to get my beds to where I'll compare them to any soil as far as tilth, fertility, etc goes. This place is hard to get going, but once you figure out how to overcome the challenges, it is very rewarding. And my soil is a great combination of fluffy/OM/WHC/fertility. Our current scheme to keep the soil in place is the seed germination mats from Lowe's on Havana - 4x50' and we need two layers. The better half thinks they look better so there you go. Great moisture retention but the soil temps don't raise and the legumes suffer in germination... Dan |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
| Oh, whoops. Hit the wrong button. Gardens Alive! has this product that purports to give you some critters in a mix that help the soil biota/rhizosphere. Not sure about the claim, but last fall signed up for a catalogue and they sent a $25 coupon, so the stuff turned out to be free as I found it hard to find something to buy there. So I turned it in. Anyway, there needs to be critters in the soil - worms, bacteria, etc. You can go to the MIL's garden and take a few pounds of her soil and incorporate it into your garden (and make something for her in fall from the garden as thanx) or you can purchase this Gardens Alive! product to get critters in your soil. Next time you pass by a bait shop, buy $10 worth of worms - best money you'll spend (don't buy their fert). Dan |
RE: fungus? in square foot gardening
| | |
- Posted by carob z6 Utah (My Page) on
Thu, Jun 4, 09 at 11:55
Skybird: Thanks for your input. I'm sure the fungus I have isn't liverwort because that's green and mine is more of a tan or actually gold color and it's not flat but comes up into a bowl shape. Wish my son was here to help me put my photos on!
Dan: You've given me a lot of good info...thank you! Being new at all this some of it I understand and some I don't. However, you've introduced me to the Square Foot Gardening Forum which I wasn't aware of before...that's where I should have posted this question to start with :) So tonight when I have some time I'm going to go to that forum and hopefully learn a little more about some of these things you're talking about. Then I'll probably have a new set of questions! |
|
|
|
|
