My wife raise tomatoes in animal water troughs, and last years crop was minimal re size, quantity and taste.
She has been told not to grow tomatoes this year in those troughs,
To avoid the expense of removing the topsoil, she was told to plant beans or a similar crop for this season/year.
What types or beans or “green plants” can restore the dirt she has in those troughs?
Thanks
Dave
LEGUMES. Beans, peas, cover crops such as hairy vetch clover and rye are all good helpers for soil, and compost should be added as well.
It is important to rotate heavy feeders such as tomatoes - every 3 years min. This helps fight diseases, and the soil depletion from planting the same thing year after year.
I rotate my plantings through Legumes, Leaves, Fruits, Roots.
Legumes help with the nitrogen, Leaves such as lettuce need high nitrogen. Fruits/Veggies such a tomatoes will not do well if nitrogen is too overpowering-need a bit more P,K in the ratio to N. Roots.
After the roots, I use one of the spaces for compost heap, which is added to other beds when the compost is ready and it’s time to plant.
In the fall, I plant legume cover crops to help restore the soil. The beds get a big addition from the compost heap before spring planting.
An addition of a compost and maybe even some peat moss might help before the legumes.
Another thing I do with the smaller containers that I use for plants, after the final harvest, I add the soil in them to the compost container to help with that, and then use it next spring.
Hope that helps.
In addition to beans or peas, I’d suggest adding some clean charcoal, compost, and a mycorhizal inoculant. That combination will help plants “mine” the soil more easily.
“What types or beans or “green plants” can restore the dirt she has in those troughs?”
the issue of growing tomatoes in the same dirt isn’t a matter of nutrients, which are easy to replace, but the fact that insects and diseases, ESPECIALLY diseases like rust, persist in the soil. always best to nuke the dirt, and then sterilize containers with something like a bleach solution ...