3 Reasons to Solarize Your Garden Beds (& How to Do It Correctly)

That silver lining of having a long hard struggle is being able to help others go through it. Right?  I sure feel that way about my root knot nematode problems.  The first in my nematode series:


In this video when I talk about tenting, I got that from one of our threads here, and also this was the only place I could find my old photos of when I tented my beds in 2015.

Great video.

David, good video. Maybe I missed it, but did you mention anywhere that you are in Florida in a nematode area? And, that you solarize in the summer months because traditional plants, like tomatoes, don't do well in the summer and are normally planted in FL in the early fall?

I remember everything you went through to build those SFG beds.

sanderson wrote:David, good video.  Maybe I missed it, but did you mention anywhere that you are in Florida in a nematode area?  And, that you solarize in the summer months because traditional plants, like tomatoes, don't do well in the summer and are normally planted in FL in the early fall?

I remember everything you went through to build those SFG beds.

Thanks Sanderson and Hass55! Even though RKNs are especially bad here, they are a problem in other regions as well. I try not to be too repetitious in all my videos. Just about all my other videos are more focused on what does and doesn't do well in our summers here. In Episode #3 (below), those points are pretty clear in the final four of the three points of the video. Even the "Tip Bonus" I made about embracing the climate that you're in.



Papaya roots are also like RKN magnates! And I have a papaya that is due to put in the ground,and so in the next episode I will demonstrate a very unique way of planting papaya that...
1) ensures that you have a female
2) helps protect the roots from RKNs

Yes, I will be forever grateful of the immense help you and this forum was in getting me started with my beds. Of course there's always something to learn from the garden and from each other. Every day in the garden has another lesson for us. 

BTW, this pandemic (in having been furloughed) sure got me out of my comfort zone! I am not comfortable speaking on camera, but the mission of the channel is my driving force. And that mission is to inspire and take those lessons that I've learned to help all these new gardeners to grow food, using organic methods. So I hope I don't come across as pompous when I post my videos here. I know my roots, and you and this forum were extremely instrumental in teaching me!  So I can't thank you and the others here enough! 

David, Do you grow the pineapple in the ground or in pots? If I lived in Zone 10, I would have a banana tree, mango trees, pineapples, orange, lemon and lime trees! And of course, the SFG for traditional produce.

sanderson wrote:David,  Do you grow the pineapple in the ground or in pots?  If I lived in Zone 10, I would have a banana tree, mango trees, pineapples, orange, lemon and lime trees!    And of course, the SFG for traditional produce.

Sorry, I didn't see this until now. I grow pineapples in both, as well as some in the SFG beds. They do the best in 3-5 gallon pots for me. I mainly use them in the SFG boxes to fill in spaces in the spaces to make it more difficult for Kiki, my garden cat and raccoons from getting in there. 

Kiki: