2018 No Til Mulching!

A rough week for my babies. went on a week long vacation and had my mom take care of them. they received 2 waterings during the entire week, the watering was also done during the evening. not sure if that was a good time for the plants. I came back yesterday and found them in pretty bad shape. numerous wilting and color change. I went ahead and migrated them from containers to ground. roots inside the containers were not healthy or strong. probably from suffocating with the mulch layer. DONT USE MULCH NEAR THE BASE OF THE PLANT!!! this is so far one of biggest lesson from growing with no til mulching. the plant probably needed a lot more oxygen but the base was always wet and moist, even with a 3 day watering cycle, the mulch worked too well in keeping water in. now that the plants are in the ground, I am going to maintain a ~6 in. radius of no mulch around the base of each plant. I also added coffee grounds under the mulch, the idea is to feed/attract the worms and stimulate their activities around the plant. keeping my fingers crossed and sending them much love in their new open space. also using Ionized water **thanks May!