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Ms. Jitomate · March 6, 2013

This area has not been planted with heirloom tomatoes. I think part of my problem with heirloom tomatoes is selecting by description on the labels at nurseries rather than thinking about my microclimate. I can easily grow Early Girl, Champion, and Big Beef. I get lots of sun because it faces south. I plant by March 17 here in Pasadena, California. This year I concentrated on tomatoes from two seed companies in California, Wild Boar and Heritage Tomato, which have tomatoes growing in their nursery or farm.

Local nurseries here don’t grow anything in their nurseries. They have trucks delivering their plants to their location. I struggled to find a large quantity of growing media for my seeds until I went into a hydroponic store. As I mentioned earlier, one nursery manager said my pH was ok and recommended I don’t add anything. Another nursery owner wanted a copy of my soil analysis test because he had never had a customer bring one in but he did say “dolomite lime” was the same as dolomite.

I am a late convert on compost. I have been making my own compost for the last two years using my grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, neighbor’s leaves, chicken manure/bedding, newspaper, and vegetable garden waste. When I don’t have enough I have bought compost, usually at Whole Foods Market. Somehow after reading the suggestions I remember reading somewhere that compost can adjust the pH in blueberries as needed but I don’t remember where I read it.

I discussed the Zinc problem with my husband and these are what we came up as possible contributors:

• Chicken wire – 3 years ago
• Old galvanized pipes from my house which were re-purposed to hold up the chicken wire
• Rebar – 2 years to fix the chicken wire where the dog pushes in
• Plastic coated stakes that lost their plastic coat – 3 years holding up chicken wire
• Metal pet enclosure, also re-purposed after we removed the chicken wire to keep pets out, which we looked up in the website, has “long lasting silver zinc coating.” – only 5 months up.

No metal smelters or plant that alloy metals in my area and we don’t add ash or cinders to our soil. I also used a stainless steel scooper to scoop out the soil sample mailed out.

March 6, 2013	#22
Ms. Jitomate Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: San Gabriel Valley, CA Posts: 99	This area has not been planted with heirloom tomatoes. I think part of my problem with heirloom tomatoes is selecting by description on the labels at nurseries rather than thinking about my microclimate. I can easily grow Early Girl, Champion, and Big Beef. I get lots of sun because it faces south. I plant by March 17 here in Pasadena, California. This year I concentrated on tomatoes from two seed companies in California, Wild Boar and Heritage Tomato, which have tomatoes growing in their nursery or farm. Local nurseries here don’t grow anything in their nurseries. They have trucks delivering their plants to their location. I struggled to find a large quantity of growing media for my seeds until I went into a hydroponic store. As I mentioned earlier, one nursery manager said my pH was ok and recommended I don’t add anything. Another nursery owner wanted a copy of my soil analysis test because he had never had a customer bring one in but he did say “dolomite lime” was the same as dolomite. I am a late convert on compost. I have been making my own compost for the last two years using my grass, leaves, kitchen scraps, neighbor’s leaves, chicken manure/bedding, newspaper, and vegetable garden waste. When I don’t have enough I have bought compost, usually at Whole Foods Market. Somehow after reading the suggestions I remember reading somewhere that compost can adjust the pH in blueberries as needed but I don’t remember where I read it. I discussed the Zinc problem with my husband and these are what we came up as possible contributors: • Chicken wire – 3 years ago • Old galvanized pipes from my house which were re-purposed to hold up the chicken wire • Rebar – 2 years to fix the chicken wire where the dog pushes in • Plastic coated stakes that lost their plastic coat – 3 years holding up chicken wire • Metal pet enclosure, also re-purposed after we removed the chicken wire to keep pets out, which we looked up in the website, has “long lasting silver zinc coating.” – only 5 months up. No metal smelters or plant that alloy metals in my area and we don’t add ash or cinders to our soil. I also used a stainless steel scooper to scoop out the soil sample mailed out.