Using Neem Cake for tomato root nematodes

Hi,

We have had two years of pretty pervasive crop failure. Tomatoes are the worst part because I'm an addict who always had plants 6-8 ft high with awesome yields. Researching recently I ran across a picture of what tomato plants in a field infected with root nematodes looked like and it was exactly like ours. Of course I never even thought of it because I compost and amend soil and never dreamed problem might be in soil. Also, soil testing for last 3 years has come back in perfect shape.

I know I should leave fallow/solarize but don't have that option. If I use neem cake and till it into soil at rate to treat for nematodes, do I need to wait several weeks to plant, or is 10 days enough? Can't find answer in neem cake information anywhere.....

Thanks!

Amazing - I see what you mean about no directions on timing - just lots of praise about how useful it is. You might consider doing a test plot or two with different application schedules. My hunch - and that's all it is - is that ten days should be adequate.

Sorry to be so long in responding - I've been away. By now you've undoubtedly decided on a course of action. I'd be iinterested in the results as your season progresses.

One other suggestion - the local chapter of Master Gardeners might have have had experience in this area.

Sorry for the late, late response. I also have a problem with RKN. There a few things that I have done with varying degrees of success. Last fall, I pulled up all my tomatoes roots and all and tossed them. Most of the nematodes and their eggs are found in the roots. This got rid of 95% of the population in oneshot. However, this left about 5% to overwinter. I didn't plant anything in my garden for 5 months and turned over the dirt every 3-4 weeks to starve out the rest.

Well, this worked pretty well. They did not spread to any other beds and were left in patches in the effected bed. I learned about this when some of my seedlings became severally stunted. When pulled they had several galls on their roots. I pulled them out and replaced them with marigolds. I did notice that the plants most effected were the ones not sorrounded by marigolds.

To further keep down the RKN, I put a layer of cheap shrimp (the kind you buy as flavoring) followed by mostly decomposed compost and straw. This seems to help the most along with weekly treatments of compost tea.

This fall I intend to plant some cereal rye in the beds. Rye is suppose to be a good supressor for RKN.

BTW, the nematodes were introduced by transplants from a local grocery store. Be careful about purchased plants. They can harbor nematodes, other pests and disease.

Addict,
Check with Calalily over on the No-til thread in the Organic Gardening forum. She's successfully used Neem Cake to control her nematode population and just posted on using it.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=8041246

Linda

Like Dbailey, I also pulled the tomato plants and burned them. The same is done with trap crops like corn and romaine lettuce (they get the root galls but the nematodes don't affect growth). I worked huge amounts of compost along with neem cake into the soil (especially where I wanted to plant figs, even though there was no evidence of nematodes in the fig area but figs are very susceptible). With the figs, I planted the same day. With the tomato beds I waited a few days, probably a week in one area, a month in the other. Plants were mulched after planting. I also planted marigolds around the tomatoes (transplants).

I planted the first tomatoes around first of October and had beautiful plants loaded with almost ripe fruit and we had a freak freeze in January. I pulled the tomato plants, much less evidence of nematodes, but still had some galls. I replanted mid January and had 6-8 ft tall plants and harvested quite a lot of fruit then the spider mites and hurricane Alex wiped out most of the plants. I'll be direct seeding in those two beds when I get home in next week. I'll keep everyone posted on how they do.

BTW, my nematodes also came in on transplants also, not a big box store but a local nursery. Of the 100+ raised beds I have, only those two areas have nematodes.