The best thing I've found for RKN here in the Florida panhandle is mustard greens. Grow them thick until they're big, then chop them up and work them into the soil. I learned this from Travis at Lazy Dog Farm 's youtube channel. I tried it last year and it killed the nematodes. Unfortunately, my yard is totally infested so they migrated back in. This fall, I intend to do two plantings and till them in. If you go to Travis' channel, he explains all the chemical stuff.
I live in Brevard (Grant) and you got some good advice, here’s what I’d add/change: Crop rotation if you can. She’s correct that the nightshades (peppers, tomatoes, etc) and okra likely brought them in, but if you grew any of those in that bed in the last year, they were already there. Plants all night shaded together in one bed in a season, all curbits and so on. Having fall/winter brassicas before spring tomatoes is very helpful! Crab meal works bc of the chitin, and when I plant a 20’ x 20’ bed of tomatoes I put a handful of organic conpost that includes it in the hole but that’s expensive compared to growing mustard greens and marigolds. Mustard is FAR better but you have to chop it up and instantly cover it (till or that’s when to add your compost to top off if u prefer no till) or it loses it’s efficacy . I would wait a month for the heat to break, plant a spicy mustard like Kodiak since you already have a RKN issue, and then hand chop or weeed eat right before putting compost on to biofumigate. I do this in the bed before I plant in ground potatoes and it works great!! The compost (adding organic matter) is also a great idea bc organic material is extremely effective too and obviously has other benefits. Don’t get discouraged, this stuff happens and it’s part of the process of learning. I lost a pile of potatoes last year to wire worms so I had to change my rotation plan just to combat them and not slow to build up in the soil. Cannot speak favorably enough though to high rotation, especially in raised beds. If you can, skip two years but at least a year to really reduce the pest and diseases that target specific plant groups! Good Luck!!!
thank you so much! this is great advice! I had two tomatoes in there last year and then followed that with eggplant and peppers and then sweet potatoes.. so now it makes sense that I found evidence of nematodes, lol.
Truly my pleasure, I’ve been the beneficiary of great advice myself! Another response mentioned Travis at Lazy Dog Farm, PHENOMENAL UA-camr to watch! Between he and his father at Hoss Tools, you can get decades worth of experience distilled down for you! Glad to have recently found your channel, I have some catching up to do!
What a bummer! Those were so big, too. Backyard Farmer Pat on UA-cam has a video about using beneficial predatory nematodes to kill the bad ones. BTW, she lives in Palm Bay.
@@SpaceCoastHarvest You're welcome. IFAS has several online resources on nematodes too, including one for the vegetable garden. I bet you've already checked those out though.
Make sure that your slips are not infested when you get them. Soil solarization on a small scale like that should be easy. Since you have raised beds you don't need to till, but in the hot weather you can flip the soil in the bed and leave it for a while to let the heat kill them. If you don't want to leave the soil fallow, you can grow RKN resistant crops or grow a different crop for a while that is not prone to them. Im surprised that you got them in a raised bed where you have full control of the planting soil though, did you use some soil from your yard in there or something?
Its a raised bed that has no bottom. There's also no landscape fabric or anything at the bottom. Its directly on top of the ground. Its filled with bulk raised garden bed soil and has been amended a few times with compost and mulch.. I guess they can get in since it's not sealed off in any way
Over the years I've read different things about Nematodes. One thing I remember reading is that you can purchase good Nematodes to get rid of the bad Nematodes. I know there are some vids on Utube about this.
Aww I hope you find a way to improve your wire worm and rodent issue :-( I'm working on my nematode problem, I think it will take quite a bit of time to get the soil back in balance
I have them in an inground bed which I discovered last year. I grow marigolds now in that bed, just pulled them before they flower to put in the bed. The only crop which seemed to thrive was Kohlrabi last winter. I just planted tromboncino squash and Lima Beans in there after I dug out a trench and added Land and Sea bagged soil and crab meal. I no longer grow Tomatoes nor Okra in that bed for they are magnets, however I have noticed they stunt other crops as well, tried cowpeas over the summer. The other thing suggested to me was to dig up the soil periodically over the summer for the nematodes will die when exposed to sunlight. Your sweet potatoes are huge, look fabulous, just use a potato peeler to remove the nematode damage, still edible.
Great tips about the nematodes! Good thing we're heading into the cooler season where it sounds like I have some pretty good options for plants that aren't as susceptible. The sweet potatoes do look big.. maybe I should be a little more happy about the good harvest and a little less heartbroken, lol
I'm in west Ft Lauderdale area. It seems RKN and grubs are what I've run into with ever first planting in a new bed. I've used beneficial nematodes from Abrico Organics twice and things seem to have improved. Did my whole yard each time, focusing on the beds. Will probably do again this fall.
Great tip! I am putting together a video about my full plan and I think the beneficial will be part of it. The nerd in me is excited to make a plan, do it, and see if they improve 🤓
@@SpaceCoastHarvest FYI Arbico apparently has a sale through end of month on the beneficials. Happened to notice as I was going to order some more to spray before putting in my fall tomato transplants.
@@SpaceCoastHarvest I am planning that the roots are growing out a certain distance from the seedling. I also mix in blood meal, worm castings, bone mea, molassesl and coffee grounds, neem powder, etc. When I pulled the tomatoes up after the army worm invasion the root endings were more than 12 inches from the stemr of the tomato plants with minimal rkn's/. The root knot mematodes totally block the roots from water nutreint uptake. Another technigque is to solarize the soil for six months to kill off the rkn's. You could do this to the raised beds quit easily. Also, before the gnarly beetles decimated the sweet potatoes I was getting paper shopping bags full of huge sweet potatoes. There are ways to control the fkn's and when you do then gardening here Florida is amazing considering that I move here from winters that are below zero Colorado.
Even though you are discouraged with the RKN, you should take solace that they grew that large. I just harvested my sweet potatoes and none were larger than 5" long. But I'm going to give it another shot.
thank you for this! I hope your's end up getting bigger next time! They were in a REALLY sunny spot, so maybe that's the trick? Or lots of water.. I was watering with drip irrigation for 1 hour each day
@@SpaceCoastHarvest I started off watering them a lot but cut it down as it seemed like the soil stayed pretty wet. Sometimes I feel like the South Central Texas heat is too much for most anything to grow during the summer. So I'm hopeful this next batch will do better since it's cooling off. You have a knack for this Gardening thing and seeing your successes gives me hope. Keep it up!
Jen, so sorry to see your worst fears realized with those RKNs.What a beautiful crop! I don't think you mentioned solarization. That takes months, not sure if it is a cure or a deterrent. I had one known infestation of RKN in a 10 gallon pot. I dumped it into a spare yard cart and leave it in the sun. If rain is in the forecast, I take it into the garage. I stir the soil every few days. I figure about a month of Florida sun baking will kill those suckers, but likely everything else too... Your experiments as to what plants are RKN resistant will be closely followed by this household. Again, sorry for the outcome. Best of Luck! We are "rooting" for you...
I am considering solarization too, but undecided on it so far. I really would prefer to use the bed this season at least for things that nematodes don't like. There's a free online class from UF/IFAS that I started working through that has a section dedicated to nematode management. Hoping I'll learn and be able to share some insightful things from that
Over in Port Charlotte, I really, really add lots of organic matter to my gardens as well as planting rkn and wilt resistant varieties and gosh it really works. I finally had a nice harvest of tomatoes after prior seasons of zilch. The only problem was that army worms wrecked the tomato plants so bad I had to pull them. Next season I will spray Bt early.. But anyway, I had some kind of gnarly looking beetle decimate my sweet potatoes. Meanwhile, I have sweet potatoes spreading all over the garden and I don't know exactly how they spread around like that
I don't have a solution, but a question. Are the bottom of your beds closed off with a woven fabric? I also saw the Urban Harvest video. I solarized my one garden about 17 yrs ago, but never again. I have tried wood ash around baby brassicas to sufficate out the nematodes. Mostly, we just live peaceably together. I rotate.
It is a raised bed with no bottom. There's no cardboard or landscape fabric underneath either.. just bulk raised garden bed mix put directly on top of the ground... the top layer has lots of compost in it. I think I'm with you.. avoid solarization. I think its tough trying to figure out how to keep the soil healthy! I started an online course that UF/IFAS offers for free about brassicas and there's a whole section dedicated to nematode management. Hoping it helps solidify my approach. I'll share what I learn
Adding Kodak Brown Muster is the best as a chop it and dig it in to your soil, The French marigold works better then other marigold to control Root Knots. But the truth is you will always have to treat for them. I can go one or two years before I have to start all over again to control. Crab and lobster as well as Need cake will help but it will always be a battle for you.
Yeah, that's what I'm gathering too. Basically just figure out how to manage them so they don't affect the crops too much but they'll always be there. I will find a time to try the mustards. The thing about a cover crop is the time it takes to let it grow, then chop/drop/till in before I can use the bed for other things. Maybe I can grow things the nematodes don't like and use the crab meal and compost tips now and push off the cover cropping until summertime next year. I'm still thinking it through..
Some crops are far more prone to root knot nematode damage than others. Okra is one that UCLA and UF use for their baseline testing on the little guys. From personal experience, it seems to get bad in the organic-matter-heavy beds, verses when grown in pure sand, or in a sand-filled bucket. Crop rotation is a good safeguard, and also growing varieties with a level of resistance to the nematodes. Marigolds are a fun cover for the garden in the off-season, although most of the bed will be unusable (I believe the root zone of marigold is where the anti-nematode compounds have been found). In Florida "no more than 100 days in the ground" is a rule for sweet potatos, I wonder if this is why?
That is interesting! I have never heard the "no more than 100 days in the ground" rule for sweet potatoes. There are lots of options i'm learning about for nematodes, I'll be sure to share what I'm doing along the way :-)
Don’t leave them in so long. That’s what I have learned . I don’t give them more than 4 months. They are not that big, but it means no critters of any kind get to them. I also over seed the bed. I also grow other tall crops around it. Kind of like the 3 sisters style. ❤ BTW my garden is I’m Kissimmee.
Oh interesting! I hadn’t heard that about harvesting around 4 months to avoid them. Glad to hear you’re in Kissimmee! I used to live on the east side of Orlando a few years ago
I'm not far from you and last year wireworms got most of my sweet potatoes. These were in ground tho. Kind of expecting the same this yr as it's almost impossible to get every single root out and they just grew back
I just realized how hard it is to get all the roots up too.. I tried to get the all up but they just keep going... and going... and going.. lol. I hope your harvest ends up ok this year!
We have been battling them for years. We tried solarization, and that got us one year, but I prefer not to do that again. Not all my beds have them, so i keep the susceptable things in the healthy beds, and stick the brassicas and onions in the bad ones. They are a fact of life here, so we just deal the best we can. Good luck t you.
@@SpaceCoastHarvest i find that sometimes i'll have to look for videos of foreigners/ immigrants who have a knowledge of certain foods growth habits, and can explain the safe and not-safe parts, and how to prepare them. not to mention a lot of newer online articles are AI now, which is strange.
Take a deep breath and relax. Yes, you had some RKN but you also got a good crop of sweet potatoes. Just do not go back with a crop that attracts RKN such as okra, peppers or cantaloupes. If you plant tomatoes make sure they are RKN resistant. You could grow corn or onions which do not suffer from RKN. I had a cantaloupe that I pulled up and discovered it had pretty bad RKN damage. However, a couple of volunteer tomatoes right beside them did not have any damage. I pulled them up thinking they had nematodes also.
Ive had some small amount i saw on my red potatoes but didn't know what is was. But the potato plants were grown as a second batch with not much amendament to the soil between plantings, so i wonder if thats why. So are your sweet potatoes Edible with that all on them? Or did you have to throw them out? Mine im growing now are not due till October and their in a raised bed. So far there looking good
I finally learned they are still edible! I'll just need to cut off the infected part after the sweet potatoes cure indoors for 2 weeks. Good luck with yours, I hope they turn out well!
I saw that too.. it’s called solarization. I’m not sure I’ll use that technique because I heard it will also kill off the beneficial insects/microbes. But I may have to resort to it if other methods don’t work!
Crab and shrimp meal have chitin and when you prepare to plant ,put a good amount. They say it repels rkn. Someone said yellow and brown mustard help repel them. I had this problem last year with okra in a grow bag. I pulled them out and planted a different mustard. It worked well. They say French marigolds are the ones that you’re supposed to plant, harvest, and then drop in the soil. I don’t know about that since I haven’t tried it. Don’t give up! I’ll link a helpful video in a comment under my comment.
Sorry for your bad harvest. I don't think anyone enjoys seeing someone lose a crop because of garden pest. I am curious about the area where you had the marigolds planted. Did the fare any better than the non marigold area?
So slips 1 & 2 were right near the marigolds and had some nematode damage but still had pretty good sized tubers. Slip 3 that was far away from the marigolds had very little (if any) nematode evidence but they also didn't even form into tubers, they still just looked like big roots. I know in the video I said the stem was smaller because slip 3 had been planted about 2 weeks later than the other ones, but I went back and looked at the dates on my videos and it was actually 6 weeks later that I planted slip 3. So I probably harvested them a little early and also, that spot in the garden probably gets the most shade from the house
I think a container in general would be better. It was hard to harvest out of a raised bed and would probably also be hard to harvest out of the ground because you can't really tell if you got all the roots out. In a container or grow bag, you could just dump the contents out onto a tarp and you'd be sure you got them all. The downside to a grow bag is that they tend to dry out pretty quickly
WTH! I don't know anything about RKN. Are those spuds still edible? If YES, are nematodes a good source of protein?😄 Would have been a tremendous harvest otherwise. Maybe you can just trim that part off before cooking. I wonder if freezing weather kills them off. Not that that matters for you in Florida. I was counting on receiving a sweet potato pie from you for Thanksgiving!!! Oh well, next year.....
lol! I did finally figure out that they are still edible! I will peel off the bad parts after they cure for 2 weeks inside in the closet. I was pretty happy with their size actually. And lol! I would've sent you a pie!
I don't see the problem. The sweet potatoes are bumpy, but are they still edible? Is the damage just to the skin, or does it extend into the potato flesh? I think all you have to do is peel those, yes? Which you would do anyway.
They are still edible as long as I peel that part off. The bigger problem is that root knot nematodes will majorly stunt the growth of a lot of other crops if I put them in that soil. There are some ways to minimize how much damage they do, so I'll be trying some of those methods
I've seen good evidence that indicates that growing mustard greens to chop, drop, and turn into the top layer or cover with compost for the spring season. Gardening is a character-building hobby. Wishing you the best in your next season. I'll be doing the same in an attempt to clear up some beds with RKN that I'm dealing with.
After Observation Experiments Respect Research , Surveys .A Community up to 7500 Ok Better Than big cities Neighborhood like yours Neighborhood A 🎁 Gift to learn to help Neighborhood Credit Unions Non- interest base.
![Turn ONE Sweet Potato Into 100 LBS Of Sweet Potatoes By Growing SWEET POTATO SLIPS! [Complete Guide]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0igp5IzO21g/mqdefault.jpg)
![Turn ONE Sweet Potato Into 100 LBS Of Sweet Potatoes By Growing SWEET POTATO SLIPS! [Complete Guide]](/img/tr.png)
The best thing I've found for RKN here in the Florida panhandle is mustard greens. Grow them thick until they're big, then chop them up and work them into the soil. I learned this from Travis at Lazy Dog Farm 's youtube channel. I tried it last year and it killed the nematodes. Unfortunately, my yard is totally infested so they migrated back in. This fall, I intend to do two plantings and till them in. If you go to Travis' channel, he explains all the chemical stuff.
thank you! I'm going to find that video and watch it. The idea of a cover crop to manage the nematodes is pretty fascinating
@@SpaceCoastHarvest It's called biofumigation.
I live in Brevard (Grant) and you got some good advice, here’s what I’d add/change:
Crop rotation if you can. She’s correct that the nightshades (peppers, tomatoes, etc) and okra likely brought them in, but if you grew any of those in that bed in the last year, they were already there. Plants all night shaded together in one bed in a season, all curbits and so on. Having fall/winter brassicas before spring tomatoes is very helpful!
Crab meal works bc of the chitin, and when I plant a 20’ x 20’ bed of tomatoes I put a handful of organic conpost that includes it in the hole but that’s expensive compared to growing mustard greens and marigolds. Mustard is FAR better but you have to chop it up and instantly cover it (till or that’s when to add your compost to top off if u prefer no till) or it loses it’s efficacy . I would wait a month for the heat to break, plant a spicy mustard like Kodiak since you already have a RKN issue, and then hand chop or weeed eat right before putting compost on to biofumigate. I do this in the bed before I plant in ground potatoes and it works great!!
The compost (adding organic matter) is also a great idea bc organic material is extremely effective too and obviously has other benefits.
Don’t get discouraged, this stuff happens and it’s part of the process of learning. I lost a pile of potatoes last year to wire worms so I had to change my rotation plan just to combat them and not slow to build up in the soil. Cannot speak favorably enough though to high rotation, especially in raised beds. If you can, skip two years but at least a year to really reduce the pest and diseases that target specific plant groups!
Good Luck!!!
What great advice!
thank you so much! this is great advice! I had two tomatoes in there last year and then followed that with eggplant and peppers and then sweet potatoes.. so now it makes sense that I found evidence of nematodes, lol.
Truly my pleasure, I’ve been the beneficiary of great advice myself! Another response mentioned Travis at Lazy Dog Farm, PHENOMENAL UA-camr to watch! Between he and his father at Hoss Tools, you can get decades worth of experience distilled down for you!
Glad to have recently found your channel, I have some catching up to do!
New friend here from Growing My Own.
welcome! I subbed to your channel, you have such a productive garden!
nice harvest!
What a bummer! Those were so big, too. Backyard Farmer Pat on UA-cam has a video about using beneficial predatory nematodes to kill the bad ones. BTW, she lives in Palm Bay.
Thank you! I will check out that channel. I am going to binge watch videos about nematode management now, lol
Hi there, that's correct.❤
@@SpaceCoastHarvest You're welcome. IFAS has several online resources on nematodes too, including one for the vegetable garden. I bet you've already checked those out though.
Make sure that your slips are not infested when you get them. Soil solarization on a small scale like that should be easy. Since you have raised beds you don't need to till, but in the hot weather you can flip the soil in the bed and leave it for a while to let the heat kill them. If you don't want to leave the soil fallow, you can grow RKN resistant crops or grow a different crop for a while that is not prone to them. Im surprised that you got them in a raised bed where you have full control of the planting soil though, did you use some soil from your yard in there or something?
Its a raised bed that has no bottom. There's also no landscape fabric or anything at the bottom. Its directly on top of the ground. Its filled with bulk raised garden bed soil and has been amended a few times with compost and mulch.. I guess they can get in since it's not sealed off in any way
@@SpaceCoastHarvestGotcha. Well anyway, good luck! They are a challenging problem, but one that can be managed
So sorry this happened. Can you still consume your sweet potato harvest? Thank you so much for sharing.
Actually yes! I learned that I can just cut/peel off the bad parts after I cure them indoors for 2 weeks
Over the years I've read different things about Nematodes. One thing I remember reading is that you can purchase good Nematodes to get rid of the bad Nematodes. I know there are some vids on Utube about this.
I have heard about this too and may do it!
I know how you feel,i have wire worms and rodents that destroyed some of my potatoes every year .. hope you were able to solve the problem.
Aww I hope you find a way to improve your wire worm and rodent issue :-( I'm working on my nematode problem, I think it will take quite a bit of time to get the soil back in balance
I have them in an inground bed which I discovered last year. I grow marigolds now in that bed, just pulled them before they flower to put in the bed. The only crop which seemed to thrive was Kohlrabi last winter. I just planted tromboncino squash and Lima Beans in there after I dug out a trench and added Land and Sea bagged soil and crab meal. I no longer grow Tomatoes nor Okra in that bed for they are magnets, however I have noticed they stunt other crops as well, tried cowpeas over the summer.
The other thing suggested to me was to dig up the soil periodically over the summer for the nematodes will die when exposed to sunlight. Your sweet potatoes are huge, look fabulous, just use a potato peeler to remove the nematode damage, still edible.
Great tips about the nematodes! Good thing we're heading into the cooler season where it sounds like I have some pretty good options for plants that aren't as susceptible. The sweet potatoes do look big.. maybe I should be a little more happy about the good harvest and a little less heartbroken, lol
I'm in west Ft Lauderdale area. It seems RKN and grubs are what I've run into with ever first planting in a new bed. I've used beneficial nematodes from Abrico Organics twice and things seem to have improved. Did my whole yard each time, focusing on the beds. Will probably do again this fall.
Great tip! I am putting together a video about my full plan and I think the beneficial will be part of it. The nerd in me is excited to make a plan, do it, and see if they improve 🤓
@@SpaceCoastHarvest FYI Arbico apparently has a sale through end of month on the beneficials. Happened to notice as I was going to order some more to spray before putting in my fall tomato transplants.
@@TheEwarts oh thank you so much! I will take advantage of it!
Also, I bought a 50 lb. bag of crab shell meal and I add a cup of it to each seedling when I plan thiem.
oh wow, a cup of it to each seedling? That's more than I was expecting to use, but very helpful to know!
@@SpaceCoastHarvest I am planning that the roots are growing out a certain distance from the seedling. I also mix in blood meal, worm castings, bone mea, molassesl and coffee grounds, neem powder, etc. When I pulled the tomatoes up after the army worm invasion the root endings were more than 12 inches from the stemr of the tomato plants with minimal rkn's/. The root knot mematodes totally block the roots from water nutreint uptake.
Another technigque is to solarize the soil for six months to kill off the rkn's. You could do this to the raised beds quit easily. Also, before the gnarly beetles decimated the sweet potatoes I was getting paper shopping bags full of huge sweet potatoes. There are ways to control the fkn's and when you do then gardening here Florida is amazing considering that I move here from winters that are below zero Colorado.
Even though you are discouraged with the RKN, you should take solace that they grew that large. I just harvested my sweet potatoes and none were larger than 5" long. But I'm going to give it another shot.
thank you for this! I hope your's end up getting bigger next time! They were in a REALLY sunny spot, so maybe that's the trick? Or lots of water.. I was watering with drip irrigation for 1 hour each day
@@SpaceCoastHarvest I started off watering them a lot but cut it down as it seemed like the soil stayed pretty wet. Sometimes I feel like the South Central Texas heat is too much for most anything to grow during the summer. So I'm hopeful this next batch will do better since it's cooling off.
You have a knack for this Gardening thing and seeing your successes gives me hope. Keep it up!
Jen, so sorry to see your worst fears realized with those RKNs.What a beautiful crop! I don't think you mentioned solarization. That takes months, not sure if it is a cure or a deterrent. I had one known infestation of RKN in a 10 gallon pot. I dumped it into a spare yard cart and leave it in the sun. If rain is in the forecast, I take it into the garage. I stir the soil every few days. I figure about a month of Florida sun baking will kill those suckers, but likely everything else too... Your experiments as to what plants are RKN resistant will be closely followed by this household. Again, sorry for the outcome. Best of Luck! We are "rooting" for you...
I am considering solarization too, but undecided on it so far. I really would prefer to use the bed this season at least for things that nematodes don't like. There's a free online class from UF/IFAS that I started working through that has a section dedicated to nematode management. Hoping I'll learn and be able to share some insightful things from that
Down US 1 from US! Love that area!
glad you found the channel! I love finding nearby gardeners
Over in Port Charlotte, I really, really add lots of organic matter to my gardens as well as planting rkn and wilt resistant varieties and gosh it really works. I finally had a nice harvest of tomatoes after prior seasons of zilch. The only problem was that army worms wrecked the tomato plants so bad I had to pull them. Next season I will spray Bt early.. But anyway, I had some kind of gnarly looking beetle decimate my sweet potatoes. Meanwhile, I have sweet potatoes spreading all over the garden and I don't know exactly how they spread around like that
I'm so glad to hear you are managing the rkns! Sorry to hear about the worms! It seems those worms can wreak havoc on plants pretty quickly
I don't have a solution, but a question. Are the bottom of your beds closed off with a woven fabric? I also saw the Urban Harvest video. I solarized my one garden about 17 yrs ago, but never again. I have tried wood ash around baby brassicas to sufficate out the nematodes. Mostly, we just live peaceably together. I rotate.
It is a raised bed with no bottom. There's no cardboard or landscape fabric underneath either.. just bulk raised garden bed mix put directly on top of the ground... the top layer has lots of compost in it. I think I'm with you.. avoid solarization. I think its tough trying to figure out how to keep the soil healthy! I started an online course that UF/IFAS offers for free about brassicas and there's a whole section dedicated to nematode management. Hoping it helps solidify my approach. I'll share what I learn
Adding Kodak Brown Muster is the best as a chop it and dig it in to your soil, The French marigold works better then other marigold to control Root Knots. But the truth is you will always have to treat for them. I can go one or two years before I have to start all over again to control. Crab and lobster as well as Need cake will help but it will always be a battle for you.
Yeah, that's what I'm gathering too. Basically just figure out how to manage them so they don't affect the crops too much but they'll always be there. I will find a time to try the mustards. The thing about a cover crop is the time it takes to let it grow, then chop/drop/till in before I can use the bed for other things. Maybe I can grow things the nematodes don't like and use the crab meal and compost tips now and push off the cover cropping until summertime next year. I'm still thinking it through..
Some crops are far more prone to root knot nematode damage than others. Okra is one that UCLA and UF use for their baseline testing on the little guys. From personal experience, it seems to get bad in the organic-matter-heavy beds, verses when grown in pure sand, or in a sand-filled bucket. Crop rotation is a good safeguard, and also growing varieties with a level of resistance to the nematodes. Marigolds are a fun cover for the garden in the off-season, although most of the bed will be unusable (I believe the root zone of marigold is where the anti-nematode compounds have been found). In Florida "no more than 100 days in the ground" is a rule for sweet potatos, I wonder if this is why?
That is interesting! I have never heard the "no more than 100 days in the ground" rule for sweet potatoes. There are lots of options i'm learning about for nematodes, I'll be sure to share what I'm doing along the way :-)
Don’t leave them in so long. That’s what I have learned . I don’t give them more than 4 months. They are not that big, but it means no critters of any kind get to them. I also over seed the bed. I also grow other tall crops around it. Kind of like the 3 sisters style. ❤ BTW my garden is I’m Kissimmee.
Oh interesting! I hadn’t heard that about harvesting around 4 months to avoid them. Glad to hear you’re in Kissimmee! I used to live on the east side of Orlando a few years ago
You needto plant some Trifecta Mustard in your planting area and then till it in. This will take care of those nematodes.
several people have mentioned mustard! I will give it a shot!
I'm not far from you and last year wireworms got most of my sweet potatoes. These were in ground tho. Kind of expecting the same this yr as it's almost impossible to get every single root out and they just grew back
I just realized how hard it is to get all the roots up too.. I tried to get the all up but they just keep going... and going... and going.. lol. I hope your harvest ends up ok this year!
We have been battling them for years. We tried solarization, and that got us one year, but I prefer not to do that again. Not all my beds have them, so i keep the susceptable things in the healthy beds, and stick the brassicas and onions in the bad ones. They are a fact of life here, so we just deal the best we can. Good luck t you.
Oh, and you can still eat them, just peel them
From what I've seen and read so far, I agree. I hope they don't cause us too many headaches
thank you! I was trying to google this and it was surprisingly hard to find the answer to that question
@@SpaceCoastHarvest i find that sometimes i'll have to look for videos of foreigners/ immigrants who have a knowledge of certain foods growth habits, and can explain the safe and not-safe parts, and how to prepare them. not to mention a lot of newer online articles are AI now, which is strange.
Take a deep breath and relax. Yes, you had some RKN but you also got a good crop of sweet potatoes. Just do not go back with a crop that attracts RKN such as okra, peppers or cantaloupes. If you plant tomatoes make sure they are RKN resistant. You could grow corn or onions which do not suffer from RKN. I had a cantaloupe that I pulled up and discovered it had pretty bad RKN damage. However, a couple of volunteer tomatoes right beside them did not have any damage. I pulled them up thinking they had nematodes also.
interesting that the tomatoes didn't have damage! I will definitely try to plant things that deter nematodes, or at least don't attract them
gorgeous woman
Ive had some small amount i saw on my red potatoes but didn't know what is was. But the potato plants were grown as a second batch with not much amendament to the soil between plantings, so i wonder if thats why.
So are your sweet potatoes Edible with that all on them?
Or did you have to throw them out?
Mine im growing now are not due till October and their in a raised bed. So far there looking good
I finally learned they are still edible! I'll just need to cut off the infected part after the sweet potatoes cure indoors for 2 weeks. Good luck with yours, I hope they turn out well!
I watched a video that said something about putting down plastic in summer on the bed… said it gets rid of this problem (not sure).
I saw that too.. it’s called solarization. I’m not sure I’ll use that technique because I heard it will also kill off the beneficial insects/microbes. But I may have to resort to it if other methods don’t work!
Crab and shrimp meal have chitin and when you prepare to plant ,put a good amount. They say it repels rkn. Someone said yellow and brown mustard help repel them. I had this problem last year with okra in a grow bag. I pulled them out and planted a different mustard. It worked well. They say French marigolds are the ones that you’re supposed to plant, harvest, and then drop in the soil. I don’t know about that since I haven’t tried it. Don’t give up! I’ll link a helpful video in a comment under my comment.
ua-cam.com/video/pa1X7e1I-FU/v-deo.htmlsi=UkqawB0THJ1cG1N0
Thank you! I may try to plant mustard in October and will definitely be adding some crab meal in the bed
@@SpaceCoastHarvest ua-cam.com/video/pa1X7e1I-FU/v-deo.htmlsi=PJGS-GB_ErFShFeK
@@SpaceCoastHarvest i don’t know if you can see the link. I tried to reply to my comment a few times
..ua-cam.com/video/pa1X7e1I-FU/v-deo.htmlsi=PJGS-GB_ErFShFeK..
Oh no
Sorry for your bad harvest. I don't think anyone enjoys seeing someone lose a crop because of garden pest. I am curious about the area where you had the marigolds planted.
Did the fare any better than the non marigold area?
So slips 1 & 2 were right near the marigolds and had some nematode damage but still had pretty good sized tubers. Slip 3 that was far away from the marigolds had very little (if any) nematode evidence but they also didn't even form into tubers, they still just looked like big roots. I know in the video I said the stem was smaller because slip 3 had been planted about 2 weeks later than the other ones, but I went back and looked at the dates on my videos and it was actually 6 weeks later that I planted slip 3. So I probably harvested them a little early and also, that spot in the garden probably gets the most shade from the house
Is it better to use grow bags for taters?
I think a container in general would be better. It was hard to harvest out of a raised bed and would probably also be hard to harvest out of the ground because you can't really tell if you got all the roots out. In a container or grow bag, you could just dump the contents out onto a tarp and you'd be sure you got them all. The downside to a grow bag is that they tend to dry out pretty quickly
WTH! I don't know anything about RKN. Are those spuds still edible? If YES, are nematodes a good source of protein?😄 Would have been a tremendous harvest otherwise. Maybe you can just trim that part off before cooking. I wonder if freezing weather kills them off. Not that that matters for you in Florida. I was counting on receiving a sweet potato pie from you for Thanksgiving!!! Oh well, next year.....
lol! I did finally figure out that they are still edible! I will peel off the bad parts after they cure for 2 weeks inside in the closet. I was pretty happy with their size actually. And lol! I would've sent you a pie!
Yep lots of todes in thaat florida soil. Get snakes that will help!
oh man.. i don't think i can bring myself to get snakes.. i would run away from the garden if I saw a snake in it, lol
I don't see the problem. The sweet potatoes are bumpy, but are they still edible? Is the damage just to the skin, or does it extend into the potato flesh? I think all you have to do is peel those, yes? Which you would do anyway.
They are still edible as long as I peel that part off. The bigger problem is that root knot nematodes will majorly stunt the growth of a lot of other crops if I put them in that soil. There are some ways to minimize how much damage they do, so I'll be trying some of those methods
Such a shame. Those were some big sweet potatoes! Are they no longer edible?
I learned they are still edible (thankfully! I will just have to use a potato peeler to remove the bad parts of the potato.
@@SpaceCoastHarvest ah at least they’re not a total waste!
I've seen good evidence that indicates that growing mustard greens to chop, drop, and turn into the top layer or cover with compost for the spring season. Gardening is a character-building hobby. Wishing you the best in your next season. I'll be doing the same in an attempt to clear up some beds with RKN that I'm dealing with.
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