As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
George Herter was a Minnesota know it all. These are the people who think they know everything and in the end fall flat on their asses. Each state has them, and yesterday's George Herter is today's Cabela's is tomorrow's Jeff Bezos.
I have been studying the old English gardening methods as England was full of know it alls which ruined that nation too. They did pioneer though using that deadly greenhouse gas manure though which in chemical decomposition produced heat as a bi product, and by this in that cold worthless island could then grow tropical crops like cucumbers, tomatoes and melons.
In Herter's book, he actually writes of a tomatoe growing method which is interesting and is something to file away in your brains. I was not quick enough on the draw to try this method this spring, but there is always another year to try this for a number of crops.
Just remember that tomatoes like all vine crops have very short root systems which are compact.
This starts out with all things with labor and digging, which means after the first time you try this, the tasteless tomatoes in the grocery store will be much more appealing.
Herters says you dig a trench 20 inches deep. That is a lot of dirt, but then you rich people have roto tillers, loaders on tractors or can hire beaner nigs to do the work for you.
Into this trench one lines a 2 inch deep layer of corn cobs or stalks. Almost any rotting material will work as this is supposed to decompose and create heat. Personally, without trying this, I think 5 inches would be better for heat, and am wondering if the 2 inches are less heat, but a sort of sponge to feed water to the tomatoe.
Onto this Herter says place 3 inches of manure. This would not be rotted manure but fresh, which is probably that 5 inches I am speaking of, as the manure would rot, and produce methane, which is natural gas, which is a source of nitrogen which plants thrive on, and it would be trapped in the soil for root absorption and heat.
Herter states when the roots hit this manure layer they grow over night. I suspect it might be more of an issue of this methane permeating up into the soil and the roots absorbing it, along with having warm feet in the fermented matter which would raise Minnesota 58 degree soil temperatures to 68 degrees.
The 68 degrees would be the 4 inches of soil placed on top of this manure layer to protect the roots, as Herter mentions if you plant into this, the manure will rot the plant roots, which is what decomposing things do.
He states to use 12 inch tomatoe plants and to pinch the leaves off, except for the top leaves, and then plant the root and long stem into the trench, filling to the top.
I would leave a watering trench in this, but the reason for taking leaves off is that tomatoes have "hair" on their stems which grow into roots if buried.
As a side note, if you ever get some leggy worthless tomatoe plants, you can also just lay them down in a trench buried about 3 inches deep on their side and leave the top out. The entire stem will grow roots them.
This is something I intend on trying, perhaps this year yet as an experiment. It is just something in world going meltdown which is something to know, as eating grass will get old after the first few months, and with abandoned houses, you will have lots of glass for cold frames to grow food. Who knows when it will become Biblical and the clever gardener will be lining their trenches with Muslim or Mexican corpses. Then again maybe the clever Muslims and Mexicans will be lining their tomatoe trenches with white folks, as the white folks do not appear to have woken up to their own demise.
Nuff Said
agtG
