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| Since I started vegetable gardening, I have used chopped leaves and grass from my yard as mulch. It's free and can be turned into the soil at the end of the season. It's my primary source of organic matter to amend the soil. Last year I had fungal and bacterial diseases on my tomatoes. I have also noticed leaf diseases on shrubs and trees in my yard and throughout our neighborhood. Is it wise to use grass and leaf clippings under my tomatoes this year or am I increasing the risk of reinfecting my tomatoes from over-wintered disease spores? I have taken other recommended precautions against disease - better spacing, pruning, preventative sprays since day of plant out. I just want to make sure I'm using the best mulch to prevent/ delay disease as well. :) |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Keep in mind that first, the spores of the most common tomato diseases are also airborne so even if you were to use only some sort of sterile conditions to grow in, if the plants are exposed to the open air they can get infected. Thus the recommendation to begin fungicide sprays from day 1 of plant out. Second, the spores can overwinter in some zones with mild winters but only on live plant tissue. Dead leaves, mowed and dried grasses wouldn't offer much life-support. So is it 100% risk-free? No, but the benefits to the plants from all your mulch far outweigh any risks associated with using them. Dave Edited to add - we are talking fungus spores. Bacteria and the diseases they cause are a different matter. |
This post was edited by digdirt on Thu, May 8, 14 at 14:15
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- Posted by cold_weather_is_evil Tucson 9a/b desert (My Page) on Thu, May 8, 14 at 14:24
| This isn't really a tomato answer. There are (broadly) two sorts of mulch. Three, if you count shredded rubber and that dyed stuff from Scotts, but let's not right now. A wet flat mulch "coats' the soil and is much more active in all respects than dry airy mulch. The airy type does a bit better job of insulating the dirt from moisture loss and heat gain, and the first (yours) does a better job of composting itself sooner. Since you know it's entirely possible that what you're now doing isn't working and is possibly causing you problems, then change things around by composting away from the plants and adding it in after breakdown, not before. What you use instead of that as a mulch is sort of a wide open topic. |
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| Thanks for the replies! I have three beds of tomatoes, so I may try a different mulch in each of them and see of there is any noticeable difference. I'll continue to add leaves and grass to all of them in the fall, but use it as mulch in only one bed this summer. I'll try hay or straw in the second and wood chips over newspaper in the third bed. |
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| I'd choose straw over hay. Hay can contain a number of different weed seeds that would just love to germinate in your nice rich soil. Cardboard under straw is awesome. Edie |
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