Aransas County Planting Schedule

     Here's some information on Aransas County planting schedule and an article on tomato diseases and solarization found by one of our Directors, Joseph Lenertz.  Be sure to check with a Director before pulling up your tomatoes because fertilization, insect, wind, and water problems can look like bacterial & viral disease but can be treated.  Also before solarizing, contact a Director as we can help with weed and Bermuda grass issues at the same time.

• Ways to prevent tomato diseases

Take steps to keep diseases away or reduce their severity.

• Rotate crops

Many bacteria, fungi, and viruses can survive years in the soil. Reduce incidence when you plant tomatoes no more than once every three years in the same spot. Avoid planting other Solanaceous crops (members of the same family as tomatoes, including potato, pepper, and eggplant) in the same area, too – they are susceptible to many of the same diseases as tomatoes.

• Improve soil

Before planting, add a good amount of compost or organic matter to the home garden to improve the soil. Extra nutrients and aeration grow stronger plants which can resist infection.  (ACCG recommends cotton burr compost, available at Adams, Bloomers and other local nurseries).

• Plant disease-resistant tomato varieties

Many hybrid tomato varieties are bred specifically to resist particular diseases. Plant disease-resistant varieties to have the healthiest crop possible. Tomato disease-resistant codes are listed on seed or seedling packets in capital letters. They include:
V = Verticillium Wilt
F = Fusarium Wilt
N = Nematodes
A = Alternaria
T = Tobacco Mosaic Virus
St = Stemphylium (Gray Leaf Spot)
TSWV = Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus

• Don’t under-water or over-water

Keep tomatoes on a regular watering schedule to help them stay healthy and strong. Avoid over-watering which can lead to consistently wet conditions – the perfect environment for many bacteria, fungi, and viruses to multiply.  (ACCG reminds gardeners that hand-watering is not necessary once seeds or transplants are established).

• Destroy infected plants

If you allow infected plants to over-winter in the garden or if you throw them on the compost pile, there’s a good chance disease will spread to other plants or multiply in the soil. Throw away or burn infected plants.

• Solarize the soil

Bacteria, fungi, and viruses can live for several years in the home garden. Treat infected soil to destroy as many of them as possible. One way is to make your own solarizing tarp. The tarp spread out over the selected garden plot collects heat from the summer sun, raising soil temperature high enough to kill disease-spreading organisms. It is most effective when put into place during the hottest part of the summer.
To make and set up a solarizing tarp, first till the selected garden area. Dig a low trench around its circumference. Leave your grid in place and turned on.  Cover the area (over the grid) with a sheet of clear plastic 1-4 mm thick, allowing plastic edges to extend into perimeter trench. Back fill the trench to secure the plastic. Leave the plastic in place for 6-8 weeks.  The sun heats to soil to destroy bacteria and other organisms. Solarizing infected soil can make it usable for the next season’s crop even though it means the selected area cannot be cultivated during the peak of the current summer.