Thinking about using new soil this upcoming spring in all of my raided beds as a pest "reset"

[Meadowlark]

You're right about covering young plants with fine mesh but the solarization has become controversial.

LOL. Solarization has NEVER been controversial with me...rather it is an anathema. I would never use it, never recommend it, nor never wish to consume any veggies grown in solarized soil.

Further, I do not trust anyone who recommends it! It is an indiscriminate killer of soil. To say one will have "fewer problems" after using solarization reminds me of the now infamous medical practice of bleeding patients to "cure" what ails them.

I'm not big on covering with fine mesh either. It is largely ineffective, IMO and does not get to the "root" problem, no pun intended. Prevention is far better. Healthy, vital soils replete with organic matter from animal manures, cover crops, chop and drop, and green manure and rotated faithfully minimize any insect problems.

Amazing to see "solarization" and "mesh covering" recommended in the same post....and absolutely zero mention of building nutrient dense soil. Amazing!!

 

[redback]

I'll leave solarization and covers to cpp gardener who first mentioned them.
My response would be to cover the bed with manure and my homemade compost, to use yeast and lacto-bacillus inoculants on the soil and the seeds of future crops planted there and to plant a green manure crop. The idea would be to enrich the soil to such an extent that it has billions of microbes able to overwhelm the possible resident 'bad' bacteria.
I have permanent tomato trellises and to avoid resident nematodes affecting the crops I heavily top dress the soil each year six weeks before planting. I have a good crop of tomatoes this year.

Gardening has always changed, ideas change, methods change. Google makes no difference at all in my garden, but a chat over the fence sometimes does.

YouTube has been used to release news about the soil and our gut that we all should read or fall way behind the changing world. Look up Dr. C. Jones, Dr. Z. Bush and Dr. J White.

 

[Tetters]

I'll leave solarization and covers to cpp gardener who first mentioned them.
My response would be to cover the bed with manure and my homemade compost, to use yeast and lacto-bacillus inoculants on the soil and the seeds of future crops planted there and to plant a green manure crop. The idea would be to enrich the soil to such an extent that it has billions of microbes able to overwhelm the possible resident 'bad' bacteria.
I have permanent tomato trellises and to avoid resident nematodes affecting the crops I heavily top dress the soil each year six weeks before planting. I have a good crop of tomatoes this year.

YouTube has been used to release news about the soil and our gut that we all should read or fall way behind the changing world. Look up Dr. C. Jones, Dr. Z. Bush and Dr. J White.

No I shouldn't .

 

[gg_1899]

Thank you again, everyone. Last season - I should have posted images of whatever it was - getting my pepper plant leaves. I regret not doing so, this way I'd be starting this season knowing how to handle it right away.

I have done so with issues my cucumbers and some tomatoes had - and received valuable mitigation advice here.

 

[cpp gardener]

They both work and plants still grow just fine.
Just because you are terrified of traditional gardening practices that millions of people have used to raise billions of tons of healthy flavorful fruits and vegetables, doesn’t mean they don’t work or are dangerous in any way. You grow things your way and recommend your alternative methods and let others decide how they want to grow things without insults and denigration. Your way is NOT the ONLY way to grow plants. It’s your preferred way, period.

 

[Tetters]

Thank you again, everyone. Last season - I should have posted images of whatever it was - getting my pepper plant leaves. I regret not doing so, this way I'd be starting this season knowing how to handle it right away.

I have done so with issues my cucumbers and some tomatoes had - and received valuable mitigation advice here.

It is always so nice to read a thank you

 

[Oliver Buckle]

When I had a large wound in my leg last year the district nurses who came to dress it were horrified that the femoral surgeon had said to continue showering and bathing when they were trying to keep everything sterile. I mentioned this when I saw him and his response was "Nothing is sterile, perhaps in an autoclave, but take it out and thousands of bacteria and fungal spores will land on it within minutes". I reckon that is about right, solarization may kill off weed seeds, worms will retreat a bit deeper, and all the bacteria and other microscopic life will return within days so long as there is food for them.

 

[MiniOrchardDude]

I know there will always be things we wished we could grow. No matter what nature will fight you when you try and grow something that was not meant for you environment. If you are having issues with specific variety do a little research and look for something similar but has resistance to your environment. Insect problems are a given. Since you are aware you need to do some preventative maintenance. In your case I would recommend soaking the beds with neem oil before you plant anything in the spring. Do a little research on the ratio. Then spraying Spinosad on the crops since it seems to be concentrated on your bed. Spinosad I like to use on areas where insect gather. An example would be the strawberry patch, raspberries, blackberries. If you shake the leaves swarms of insects appear. Spinosad works great for those problems but there are only a certain amount of applications per year, think its 6 but dont remember off hand.

You also mentioned removing leaves. Is it insect damage or fungal? I have fungal problems on all my pepper plants. I spray copper on all hot and sweet peppers as a preventative maintenance. Since then all my peppers produce abundantly every year. Copper is by far my favorite spray. Since I have been using it for preventative maintenance all my plants survive until frost.

I have to admit that I have had so many failures early on. Most people would have given up with all I went through early on. However over time I found ways to fix a problem, then another and so on. 12 years later I am way more successful and have just about all the fruits that will grow for zone 5. As an example I went through 4 varierty blackberries. Failed 3 times but the 4th was a charm. Process of elimination. Some produced only on second year canes. So it took about 4 years for me to get blackberries. Now I get way more than me and the birds can eat.

I also suggest taking a walk around your entire garden every day. I inspect every tree, bush, canes, vines and beds to look for problems early on. It takes a bit of time but it is so satisfying watching a seed grow into food.

MOD

 

[Meadowlark]

... all the bacteria and other microscopic life will return within days so long as there is food for them.

Science does not agree with this. According to the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, the re-invasion of the solarized soil usually takes about 3-4 months

Have you actually tried to grow something "within days" of solarizing the soil?

 

[cpp gardener]

Perhaps adding compost and manure right after removing the plastic will inoculate the soil and jump-start the micro-biome. Otherwise 3-4 months really isn't that much time to regrow the micro-organisms.

 

[Tetters]

Using poisons kills good insects as well as naughty ones. Leaving these problems generally to nature might be a better idea - it's what I like to do. Over the years it has surprised me just how well nature is equipped to take care of things.
Gardening organically most certainly is the most beneficial way to go.
Putting any poisons on food crops is asking for trouble, and we have enough of that already.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

No, it isn't something I have ever done, too tight to buy plastic But earth is a jolly good insulator, I am surprised it would get hot deep enough that working the soil wouldn't bring a fresh lot up. Was that solarised and then left undisturbed to be tested regularly? And as cpp says anything added would bring things with it. It also might be different in England, sunlight can be a rarity in the months you want the ground bare, I reckon it would get hotter deeper in Florida.
The truth is that I just don't know, and there are probably factors I have not thought of.

Sorry, replying to Meadowlark.

 

[MiniOrchardDude]

Using poisons kills good insects as well as naughty ones. Leaving these problems generally to nature might be a better idea - it's what I like to do. Over the years it has surprised me just how well nature is equipped to take care of things.
Gardening organically most certainly is the most beneficial way to go.
Putting any poisons on food crops is asking for trouble, and we have enough of that already.

I disagree with that statement. He has left it alone and look where it has gotten him. If you dont solve the problem early on it will get worse. When I only had about 10 fruit trees they were fine. No insect spray and no bugs in the fruit. Now that I have over 50 fruit trees I have been fighting an infestation for the last 2 years. If I would have sprayed lightly back then I would not be fighting this. I got better control this year but the war is not over. Nature will not solve an issue I created by adding trees that dont necessarily belong in my area. Especially if it is fungus related. It will be there year after year. You just need to suppress it since it won't go away.

I totally agree with you on poisons but Spinosad is totally safe so is neem. They are both organic and you can harvest the same day you spray.

MOD

 

[gg_1899]

IYou also mentioned removing leaves. Is it insect damage or fungal? I have fungal problems on all my pepper plants. I spray copper on all hot and sweet peppers as a preventative maintenance. Since then all my peppers produce abundantly every year. Copper is by far my favorite spray. Since I have been using it for preventative maintenance all my plants survive until frost.

I feel a bit ashamed I did not snap a picture of the damage on the pepper leaves. There were seemingly so many issues that i just left that out while trying to remedy the issue. I don't know whether it was insect or fungai.

The advice about the Copper spray - duly noted.

I'm going to rotate my cucumber bed to a new one this season, it will require some work as it's a "nice setup", but i guess it's also nice for the Oriental beetle attacking it. (so far it was mitigated with neem seed oil, but the past season was just too much, too soon - attack wise.

 

[cpp gardener]

It’s a good idea to rotate crops to reduce insect and disease issues as long as you rotate in something from a different family. So, no squash, melons or pumpkins where you grew cucumbers.