Any Gardeners out there?

Thread Starter

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
I have some heirloom tomatoes growing and they finally started to produce last month. They grew 6 ft and put off flowers for 5 months with no tomatoes. I put em in a corner and left em a couple months till near dead. Then I brought them back into my main garden about 2 months ago and the first cold snap hit and boom a month later I have 25 tomatoes in all sizes. The pots their in are small so I have to fertilize a lot. I usually use ALASKA 511, and a lil 30-30-30 miricle gro. Thats been doing ok but I remembered I had some Tigerbloom fertilizers. I though well a quick blast of some really high end fertz couldn't hurt. the next day I go look at my tomaters and one exploded on the vine. About the the top 1/3 of the tomato is split 4 ways almost to the core. I though wow those are good fertz.
 

Thread Starter

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
Its funny by the numbers the miricle grow should of really gotten them going. I used a light dose of the tiger bloom. For those needing a general fertilizer. Goto Lowes and you can still buy gallons of ALASKA 5-1-1 for $14. Its $21 at homedepot and everywhere else on the net when shipping is included. I just checked last week and it was still $14 a gal.
 

jimkeith

Joined Oct 26, 2011
540
I have had big time problems getting good tomatoes the past few years--I blame it on a number of things.
1. I bought some granulated fertilizer at True Value a few years ago, and I swear that it must have contained toxic waste because everywhere I put it including my lawn has been doing poorly for a long time. Go Organic!
2. Last year, I got some free horse manure locally and believe that it has some of that persistent herbicide in it. While it did not outright kill my tomatoes, growth was poor.
3. I started some heirloom rutgers tomatoes form seed--do not have any experience with these, but was very disappointed--could have been caused by bad fertilizer as I did not put horse manure on that part of my garden.
4. And then there are chemtrails that reduce precious sunlight--real issue in my partially shaded garden. Chemtrails are distinctly different than contrails as unlike contrails, they do not dissipate rapidly, occur under all atmospheric conditions and have been observed for only the last 15 years.
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
I use only blood meal and bone meal.
Blood meal is nitrogen rich and good for starting plants. bone meal needs to be added at the bottom of the hole you plant in. place it low in the soil away from the seedling roots, so the roots reach it as the plant matures. It adds extra phosphorus and aids in flowering and fruiting. Sometimes the soil benefits as well from a small dose of Epsom salt, but that depends on your region and soil type. Iron is also needed and may be absent or low in areas with lots of evergreen trees and shrubs nearby.
 

BillO

Joined Nov 24, 2008
999
Fertilizing often is good. Miracle-gro have a tomato formula that might be better. The watering has to be right on with tomatoes and this is tough if you use pots. Get one of those moisture meters and keep your pots in the 5-8 range (out of 10). Must water at 4-5 and soak, but make sure the pots do not hold standing water. They need to have drainage holes in the bottom and soil should soak quickly and drain through. 20%-30% peat moss is ideal . Keep up the watering and never let them dry down. If the pots are small (under 2 gallons) you might need to do this every day. 5 gallon pots are ideal. Also, if you can get them as much direct sunlight as possible. Mine didn't start fruiting until they got better than 10 hours of direct sunlight per day.
 

Thread Starter

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
@jimkeith - Soil quality is really important, never buy the cheap stuff the higher priced stuff is worth it. Don't go crazy, just use some MG or Scotts potting mix. Then get the fertilizers I recommended and you should have no problems. Also strain could be an issue. But some GM tomatoes from homedepot to see if climate and strain have anything to do with it. Heirlooms are much more touchy because they were made to grow in a county, or a state. They are the old seeds we grew locally back in the day before GM and we had see companies fighting it out with selective breeding. Back then good seeds were like gold.
 
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