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Good tomato fertilizer?
At the beginning of this season, I purchased some "Sta-Green Tomato &
Vegetable Food", 12-10-5. I was wondering if this would be suitable for my tomatoes, some of which are in 20" pots and some of which are in the ground. I used the recommended amount at planting time (late May), and I'm getting ready to add a little more in the next few days. I've seen some messages on this newsgroup that suggest calcium is important for tomatoes. The Sta-Green fertilizer has no calcium -- it has nitrogen, phosphate, potash, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Will this do the trick, or should I use something in addition? I've heard too much nitrogen can hinder fruit production. Any feedback would be appreciated. Stephen Younge Boulder, CO |
Good tomato fertilizer?
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 04:23:28 GMT, "Stephen Younge"
wrote in rec.gardens.edible: I've seen some messages on this newsgroup that suggest calcium is important for tomatoes. The Sta-Green fertilizer has no calcium -- it has nitrogen, phosphate, potash, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Will this do the trick, or should I use something in addition? I've heard too much nitrogen can hinder fruit production. Any feedback would be appreciated. Calcium helps to prevent Blossom End Rot. You can buy some bone meal or else just sprinkle some crushed egg shells around. Too much Nitrogen leads to lots of foliage, but very little fruit. Too little Nitrogen leads to the leaves turning yellow. -- Gardening Zones Canada Zone 5a United States Zone 3a Near Ottawa, Ontario |
Good tomato fertilizer?
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 10:08:13 -0400, Jim Carter
wrote: Calcium helps to prevent Blossom End Rot. You can buy some bone meal or else just sprinkle some crushed egg shells around. ------ I recently heard Ralph Snodsmith of the Gardening Hotline show say you should crush up the egg shells and boil them, then water the plants with that water. I suspect that it would take many months for the shells to decay and amend the soil but the calcium water would be absorbed immediately. or.. Mix 1 tablespoon calcium cloride (road salt) with 1 pint water and pout that around the base of the plant. Good for preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes. ---pete--- |
Good tomato fertilizer?
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 04:23:28 GMT, "Stephen Younge"
wrote: I've seen some messages on this newsgroup that suggest calcium is important for tomatoes. The Sta-Green fertilizer has no calcium -- it has nitrogen, phosphate, potash, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Will this do the trick, or should I use something in addition? I've heard too much nitrogen can hinder fruit production. ------ Last year I added Ironite to my garden which is a fertilizer with all those micro nutrients and minerals. I can't prove it but I suspect that the Ironite was responsible for such great tasting tomatoes I had last year. I'm in New Jersey and we had a drought last year so maybe the lack of water also contributed to the taste of my tomatoes. I guess I'll find out this year because I used the Ironite and we have plenty of rain this year. --pete-- |
Good tomato fertilizer?
---Pete--- wrote:
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 10:08:13 -0400, Jim Carter wrote: Calcium helps to prevent Blossom End Rot. You can buy some bone meal or else just sprinkle some crushed egg shells around. ------ I recently heard Ralph Snodsmith of the Gardening Hotline show say you should crush up the egg shells and boil them, then water the plants with that water. I suspect that it would take many months for the shells to decay and amend the soil but the calcium water would be absorbed immediately. or.. Mix 1 tablespoon calcium cloride (road salt) with 1 pint water and pout that around the base of the plant. Good for preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes. ---pete--- Are you certain you didn't have Epsom Salts in mind? -- Zone 5b (Detroit, MI) I do not post my address to news groups. |
Good tomato fertilizer?
Stephen Younge wrote:
At the beginning of this season, I purchased some "Sta-Green Tomato & Vegetable Food", 12-10-5. I was wondering if this would be suitable for my tomatoes, some of which are in 20" pots and some of which are in the ground. I used the recommended amount at planting time (late May), and I'm getting ready to add a little more in the next few days. I've seen some messages on this newsgroup that suggest calcium is important for tomatoes. The Sta-Green fertilizer has no calcium -- it has nitrogen, phosphate, potash, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Will this do the trick, or should I use something in addition? I've heard too much nitrogen can hinder fruit production. Any feedback would be appreciated. Stephen Younge Boulder, CO Lack of calcium and / or uneven watering will cause this problem. I have handled it for years by pushing food-grade calcium supplement tablets about 1" into the ground at planting time. (I use 3 per tomato / pepper plant). They dissolve fairly quickly and leaching takes them into the root zone over the season. So far, so good for the past several years. Of course, this does nothing about the water situation. For that I use Tyvek tube weep irrigation. One pint per foot per day from the tyvek seems to do the trick. BIll -- Zone 5b (Detroit, MI) I do not post my address to news groups. |
Good tomato fertilizer?
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Good tomato fertilizer?
Joanne said:
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 14:58:07 GMT, (---Pete---) wrote: Mix 1 tablespoon calcium cloride (road salt) with 1 pint water and pout that around the base of the plant. Good for preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes Most communities still use sodium chloride as a road salt because it is far less expensive to purchase. (The eventual costs of salt damage are hard to grasp; the initial cheapness easy to notice.) This would make a fairly good 'emergency' calcium treatment. Better would be to add calcium carbonate (from ground limestone* or TUMS), crushed eggshells or bone meal to the planting hole as a slow and steady source. *Since tomatoes also like a good bit of magnesium, dolomitic limestone might be preferred. I'm not so sure about that. Road salt has caused a sectionof my flower garden to be very difficult to grow "anything" in (may have found a solution this year, a great big 3 foot planter covering the area). Yours may have been 'cheap' sodium chloride road salt rather than the safer, more expensive calcium chloride. From what I've read, one treatment for soils high in sodium salt is to dose with gypsum (calcium sulfate). My own method of tomato fertilization: Fluff up the beds while adding compost and alfalfa pellets. Let it mellow for one - two weeks. (I use about 1 inch of cured and sifted compost per bed; the alfafla pellets do not completely blanket the surface but cover maybe 40% of it.) Put a scant handful of Espoma's Tomato Tone in the bottom of each planting hole and work it in a bit. Mulch with something nutritious. Shredded leaves mixed with coffeegrounds and/or cocoashells or sifted compost. Later in the season, give the plants a few boosts with foliar feedings of Maxicrop (seaweed). My plants look particularly awesome this year. Late, but loading up with green tomatoes. -- Pat in Plymouth MI Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (attributed to Don Marti) |
Good tomato fertilizer?
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 23:32:11 -0400, Noydb
wrote: Mix 1 tablespoon calcium cloride (road salt) with 1 pint water and pout that around the base of the plant. Good for preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes. ---pete--- Are you certain you didn't have Epsom Salts in mind? ------ This tip comes from the book by Dick Raymond, The Love of Gardening, page 294. ---pete--- |
Good tomato fertilizer?
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Good tomato fertilizer?
In article , ---Pete--- wrote:
On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 04:23:28 GMT, "Stephen Younge" wrote: I've seen some messages on this newsgroup that suggest calcium is important for tomatoes. The Sta-Green fertilizer has no calcium -- it has nitrogen, phosphate, potash, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Will this do the trick, or should I use something in addition? I've heard too much nitrogen can hinder fruit production. ------ Last year I added Ironite to my garden which is a fertilizer with all those micro nutrients and minerals. I can't prove it but I suspect that the Ironite was responsible for such great tasting tomatoes I had last year. I'm in New Jersey and we had a drought last year so maybe the lack of water also contributed to the taste of my tomatoes. I guess I'll find out this year because I used the Ironite and we have plenty of rain this year. I'd be cautious about using Ironite on vegies. It has been discovered that at least one of their products contains high levels of arsenic and lead. The state of Washington has now passed a few weak laws on proper labeling on fertilizers, but most don't have to say what those "inert ingredients" are, nor where they come from (Ironite was using mining wastes IIRC). Some farmers have lost use of their lands because the heavy metal toxicities have become too great. You can look up some articles on it from the Seattle Times, or perhaps: http://www.envirolaw.org/poison.html Sorry for the bad news. -frank -- |
Good tomato fertilizer?
To follow up replies from a couple of you...
Since tomatoes also like a good bit of magnesium, dolomitic limestone might be preferred. I'd read somewhere else that multivitamin pills also make great plant food. After various people mentioned adding Calcium tablets, I shook my head in disbelief, but headed to my local Healthfood store anyway. There I noticed that the ordinary Calcium supplements were quite expensive, but something called Dolomite was more reasonable. The mineral content was slightly lower, but since a whole bottle would probably last me the season, that seemed ok. The only thing I wasn't sure about was whether the magnesium was going to be ok. Thank you - you have answered my question! Colin ----- (Please reply via the newsgroup) |
Good tomato fertilizer?
dkra wrote:
x-no-archive: yes In article , Noydb wrote: [lack of fruit production in tomatoes] Lack of calcium and / or uneven watering will cause this problem. I have handled it for years by pushing food-grade calcium supplement tablets about 1" into the ground at planting time. (I use 3 per tomato / pepper plant). They dissolve fairly quickly and leaching takes them into the root zone over the season. So far, so good for the past several years. snip For a calcium supplement, are antacid tablets (e.g. TUMS) or powdered milk (30 percent U.S. R.D.A. of calcium per 24-gram serving) other possibilities? I'd read somewhere else that multivitamin pills also make great plant food. -- dkra I would guess that both of those might be good. That said, the crucial time appears to be the conditions that prevail at the time of pollination / fruit setting although the symptoms do not show up until somewhat later. There is no cure for BER, but it is (usually) possible tosimply avoid it. Although these suggestions are good 'quick fixes', the best way to handle this is the 'long term' way. Add organic sources of calcium such as oyster shells / egg shells / rock powders to your soil and let the bacteria get started on the longer term solution. Bill -- Zone 5b (Detroit, MI) I do not post my address to news groups. |
Good tomato fertilizer?
---Pete--- said:
Question.. If the Ironite company continues to distribute their product with high levels of lead and arsenic, then I'd want to find another product that contains micro nutrients we can feel safe adding to our vegi gardens. Any other products available? Jersey greensand is usually recommended as a trace mineral source (plus, bonus, for sandy soils, a very slow release K source). Seaweed sprays (I use Maxicrop brand, dry powder, mix with water for foliar feeds or transplant drench) is a trace element source. -- Pat in Plymouth MI Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. (attributed to Don Marti) |
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