Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

General discussion regarding the techniques and methods used to successfully grow tomato plants in containers.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old April 26, 2011   #31
tam91
Tomatovillian™
 
tam91's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Crystal Lake IL
Posts: 2,484
Default

Ah, that explains why I haven't had a problem. I don't re-use the soil - I dump it out in the garden in the areas I'm doing beans or whatever the next year, sterilize my containers, and get new manure/soil/peat each year. So it only has to work nicely for one year. I do see that what's left over now is heavier.

OK, so the manure/peat would work well. But if I don't have enough calcium, I'd add more by....? Or was I getting enough from the topsoil presumably? I used miracle grow for tomatoes last year btw.
__________________
Tracy
tam91 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 26, 2011   #32
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
Default

I would add a couple of handfuls of gypsum per container.
That adds calcium and sulfur, without any significant change
in pH. A tablespoon of epsom salts per container would add
magnesium and a little more sulfur.

(I do not have any MG for tomatoes to check the trace
elements, but I would guess that it has some iron and
a few other things in small amounts. Tomatoes do not
really need a lot of those trace elements, but they cannot
get by with "zero", and I would have no way to guess how much
of each might be in the composted horse manure.)
__________________
--
alias

Last edited by dice; April 27, 2011 at 12:08 AM. Reason: trivial
dice is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 26, 2011   #33
tam91
Tomatovillian™
 
tam91's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Crystal Lake IL
Posts: 2,484
Default

Thank you.

I bought some tomato-tone also, and was going to use that this year.

I may get something instead of the miracle-grow, I've been looking at some others that have been recommended. If I don't get any ordered though, I do still have plenty of the miracle-grow.

Found this on the net, says it's what's in miracle grow (I have to hunt up my boxes):

Total Nitrogen: 18%
Available Phosphate: 18%
Soluble Potash: 21%
Magnesium: .50%
Copper: .05%
Iron: .10%
Manganese: .05%
Zinc: .05%
__________________
Tracy
tam91 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 27, 2011   #34
feldon30
Tomatovillian™
 
feldon30's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 5,346
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tam91 View Post
Waaah, no one agrees

Need topsoil for minerals / topsoil useless
I guess some folks have access to some really nice topsoil that actually resembles something you'd want to put plants in? My experience with topsoil is, it's a bag of sand and scrapings off a vacant lot before they sell the land.

I don't see what possibly nutrients topsoil would have which cannot be easily replaced with 1 tbsp of a good organic fertilizer with micronutrients such as TomatoTone, GardenTone, etc.


As you said, Miracle-Gro is 18-18-21 which is rather strong, and it does not feed the soil. I would use the TomatoTone which sounds like low numbers at 1-3-6 (or thereabouts) but it's what I prefer.
__________________
[SIZE="3"]I've relaunched my gardening website -- [B]TheUnconventionalTomato.com[/B][/SIZE] *

[I][SIZE="1"]*I'm not allowed to post weblinks so you'll have to copy-paste it manually.[/SIZE][/I]
feldon30 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 27, 2011   #35
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
Default

With horse manure and peat, plus the gypsum and epsom salts
that I mentioned earlier, a handful of Tomato-tone per container
at transplant and probably another one when they start to set
fruit should work.

Some people have found that "new" Tomato-tone (3-4-6, no kelp
in it, but it has microbes from Bio-tone) does not perform as well
as "old" Tomato-tone (4-7-10, includes kelp meal, no microbes)
in the same quantity in their containers. They are using
container mixes where that is the only food source, though
(peat-bark-perlite, for example).

In your containers, the composted horse manure provides
N-P-K itself, which should easily make up the difference.
The Tomato-tone will provide a lot of those trace minerals
that may have been in the topsoil that you were using and
may be lacking in the composted manure and peat.

Garden-tone (3-4-4) would be a reasonable substitute for
Tomato-tone. Plant-tone (5-3-3) ends up being a bit high
nitrogen for this. Plants grow well with it, but when you
add another handful at fruitset, it stimulates vegetative
growth more than you need at that time of the season
(especially with composted horse manure in the container
mix).
__________________
--
alias
dice is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 27, 2011   #36
tam91
Tomatovillian™
 
tam91's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Crystal Lake IL
Posts: 2,484
Default

Thanks - that explains a lot for me. I kept trying to figure out how all these bark fines gave the tomatoes enough nutrients to grow.

I do have a big bag of the tomato tone, was going to try it out this year anyway.

I have never heard of gypsum - where does one get that?
__________________
Tracy
tam91 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 28, 2011   #37
dice
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
Default

Out here it is $5-6 for 25 lbs at Lowe's in granulated pellets.
Farm supply outlets would probably have it cheaper in larger
bags. Nurseries often have it, too.
__________________
--
alias
dice is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 28, 2011   #38
tam91
Tomatovillian™
 
tam91's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Crystal Lake IL
Posts: 2,484
Default

Ah, ok, it's easy to find then (I've just never looked for any). Thanks.
__________________
Tracy
tam91 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old May 10, 2011   #39
Vinny
Tomatovillian™
 
Vinny's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Homosassa, FL
Posts: 63
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by sprtsguy76 View Post
Bark fines in my experience will not use up alot of N, as long as they are aged just a bit. I only use three ingredients in my container soils, fir bark fines, peat and perlite (and some lime and a complete fert). In a ratio of 5-1-1 respectively. It Drains fast and holds just the right amount of water. I love this mix!

Damon
What kind of fertilizer are you using Damon? I'm currious.
Vinny is offline   Reply With Quote
Old June 1, 2011   #40
casserole
Tomatovillian™
 
casserole's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Dousman, WI Z5
Posts: 95
Default

Poor drainage causes root rot.drowns roots and the plant cant pick up OXygen and dies.
Container growing is NOT THE SAME as in-ground growing at all . Think of a gold fish bowl compared to a septic system
casserole is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 10:28 PM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★