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

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

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---

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--

---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.

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.

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 14:58:07 GMT, (---Pete---) wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 10:08:13 -0400, Jim Carter

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.

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). Granted, your solution is very diluted, but given my experience
over the past 5 years I would resist any advice to add the stuff in
any quantity to a veg. or any garden.

The eggshell tea idea is a good one though and I have heard that
diluted epsom salts work well, but I have not tried that.

jcm

Toronto, Canada
Canadian zone 6, U.S. zone is apparently 4b

Thanks to global warming it's bloody hot here!

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)

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---

(Pat Kiewicz) wrote in message ...


My plants look particularly awesome this year. Late, but loading up with green
tomatoes.

I wonder if it is the steady rainfall, coupled with the sandy soil
beds, which both you and I have this season. Mine look excellent too
(my six feet rebar cages will be overtaken in 3 weeks) but I only add
the winter kitchen scraps (without digging), some wood ash, and mulch
(wood chips).

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
--

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)

On 9 Jul 2003 17:05:01 GMT, (Frank Miles) wrote:
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, thanks for the heads up.

I went to the Ironite site and found their answer to these
allegations.... http://www.ironite.com/toxicological.htm
What's not clear to me is if the Ironite company has done
anything different to reduce the levels of lead & arsenic .

The article you sited above is dated July 2002 so I'm wondering
what was the final outcome of that case. Needs more research.

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?

---pete---

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.

---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)