Planting Some Calendula to, Hopefully, Combat Root Knot.
The latest homesteading competition from @kiaraantonoviche is Plant Some Seeds. I think she's decided to take it easy on us this time. I'm have to admit I didn't even attempt the last one! I could only really think of one skill I'd learnt since homesteading and I'm not sure butchering skills are comfortable viewing for everyone. Planting seeds seems like a much safer option.
Calendula seeds.
This summer I had some failed crops and pulled them up to find that previous my attempts at combating root knot nematode had been a complete and utter failure!
My cucumber plant affected by root knot.
So, after some more research with the help of a friend I'm trying a couple of new, approaches. It will be a bit of an experiment to see if they work.
My aim is to create optimal conditions for the nematode eggs to hatch, then starve them by not having any plants around for them to feed off. To do this I'll need to keep the ground completely free of living plants that they can feed off. One way is to keep digging over and removing anything growing, this will be the fallow approach and I'll take the opportunity to keep digging in compost and manure to improve the soil. My other approach will be to plant a crop that they either can't eat or which kills them when they burrow into the roots. Marigolds are known to be a good preventative for root knot nematodes. Unfortunately it's now autumn in the southern hemisphere and not the right time for them. However, it is the right time for calendula, which is in the marigold family. So I'm planting an area with that. I already threw some seeds down from my single plant in the front garden, but only odd ones have germinated. I'd like to get a good ground cover going so I'm putting some more seeds in from the packet.
One of the calendula seedlings.
I prepared the ground by digging the whole area over, removing any infested roots I could find and digging in the season's old mulch along with some well rotted horse manure. Then I re-mulched with straw from the rabbits cages which has the added nutrients they have contributed.
The planting area.
I actually just scattered the first lot of seeds on top of this then tried to mix the mulch about a bit to move them down to the soil, so this could be why not that many have germinated. Now I'm separating and replanting out those that have come up in clumps and adding more seeds, pushing them down a bit into the soil this time.
The risk with using calendula is that it might not work, depending on what type of nematode I have. If it's a type that can use the calendula as a host, instead of being killed by it, then I'll just be helping them through the winter. I'll also need to be fastidious about removing anything else that comes up amongst them so that the nematodes don't burrow into those roots instead.
Fingers crossed for a good calendula crop that I can use.
I know calendula has some great uses but helping to prevent root knot? WOW! That is great!
I still have to plant my calendula and now I'm thinking of where in the herb and flower bed it would do its best work.
This use remains to be seen. Apparently there are 5 different types of root knot nematode and it won't work on all of them. I'm hopeful for ours, though, because they haven't affected the marigolds, garlic or onions. Fingers crossed!
We love companion planting and appreciate your ingenuity with dealing with your nematode problems. Please let us know if this helps; we're interested! Resteemed this post @the-hearth :) thanks!
Thank you. I'll certainly let you know how it goes.
Sweet! Hopefully the calendula proves to be effective! Thank you for entering the #homesteadingchallenge - upvoted 100%!
Thank you. Fingers crossed!
Wow your garden looks beautiful! Great info too, calendula has so many uses! I was just listening to my permaculture videos the other day and they said certain helpful nematodes will kill off the pathogenic ones if your soil is balanced, so sounds like your on the right path with that as well. Dr Elaine Ingham is my next area of research, incredible resource!
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/drInghams_cv.html
Thank you. Often I don't always appreciate how good it looks to others because I'm looking at the damage done by pests or know what's going on close up and under the soil. At the moment I feel like my garden is failing in so many ways. Need to approach it as just learning opportunities.
I have come across quite a few mentions of helpful nematodes, but not in any of the Australian information and one article even said there was no real evidence of anything that will predate on the root knot ones. Whether it's just that nothing concrete has yet been found or Australia doesn't actually have anything like that, I'm not sure. It's certainly not going to hurt to improve the soil though!
Thank you for the link. I'll put aside some time to look at that.