Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Sodak

is there a recommended hose end sprayer? I have seen the MG ones with two canisters of liquid MG included (with an admonishment to not reuse the cannisters) Any better?

Don't use the kind for applying Miracle Grow or most of the fertilizer will be used in the first few minutes. I use an Ortho sprayer that has a calibration setting so that you can adjust the rate at which the product is mixed with the water. I think it goes from 1/2 tsp to 8 ounces a gallon. When I use the Texas Tomato Food I will dilute it with 2 parts water to 1 part TTF in the container and then set the dispenser to release it from 4tsp to 1 ounce so that it is diluted more than the recommended dose but I apply more than a gallon per plant now that my plants are large. I will raise it up to 1 1/2 oz. per gal. if a plant looks a little pale or is growing too slow. On the other hand if the plants start looking a bit too dark green then I will even dial it back to 1 tblsp to the gallon. A lot depends on how the plants look and how much water they need. The more water they need the more dilute the setting and the less water they need the stronger the setting. One good thing about the Ortho sprayer is you can adjust it as you are wattering so I am constantly adjusting the mix as I work my way down a row of plants depending on what I see.

Bill

[sfmathews]

Hi Bill,
If you are applying about a gallon with our hose end sprayer, approximately how long do you apply it to each plant? Would like to try your method. Much better than lugging around jugs!

[b54red]

Originally Posted by sfmathews

Hi Bill,
If you are applying about a gallon with our hose end sprayer, approximately how long do you apply it to each plant? Would like to try your method. Much better than lugging around jugs!

I don't really know how long. It all depends on how much water I think the plant needs and how large it is. I really don't know how much water I apply to each plant. It is all related to how dry it is, how hot it is, how large the plant is and how the plant looks. It seems like I stand there forever sometimes watering just one plant and others don't take too long. So far none have shown any signs that I have given them too much fertilizer and I have had no tomatoes split on me so I must not be giving them way too much. The last time I watered most of the plants were a good dark green so I lightened the dose of fertilizer with most of them. When the soil is dry and I know I'm going to be giving the tomatoes a lot of water then I set the calibrated hose end sprayer for a smaller amount per gallon. I have found that when the weather is hot and the plants are trying to set fruit the best thing you can do is keep them hydrated. When I start getting a good amount of blushing started or if I have a tomato split then I will cut down on the amount of water; but I will still try to feed them weekly unless we get a lot of rain.

One thing to watch for with the TTF is you really need to dilute it with 2 parts water to 1 part TTF or more if you aren't fertilizing many plants and shake your canister occasionally because the little filter will clog up. I always lose just a dab because the calibrated hose end sprayer leaks a bit when I shake it but it is much better than spending and hour fertilizing and then realizing you haven't applied any fertilizer. If you find yourself watering too long and the level in the canister is not going down then it is probably clogged and you have to open it and take the tube out and spray the filter with the sprayer to clear it. If you don't keep an eye on this you could just be giving your plants plain water and no fertilizer.

One way to find out how much your sprayer puts out with your water pressure is to just put some water in the canister and set the dial at whatever level you want to apply and spray it into a bucket and see how long it takes to fill up a 5 gallon bucket or whatever size bucket you have handy.

I am not concerned with measuring out the amount of water so much as giving them an adequate amount depending upon the conditions. If it is hot, dry and windy then I want to make sure the plants don't stress from loosing so much moisture. I have found that just one day of being too dry during very hot weather will cause significant blossom drop and several days can result in very much lower fruit set. I may have done too good with it this year as some of my plants just have far too many tomatoes on them for them to ever reach their normal size; but I just had to leave them on because I have never had this amazingly heavy fruit set on my tomatoes in nearly 40 years of growing them. I still have a few plants with normal fruit set and those are growing much larger toms much faster than the ones with over abundant fruit set. It is too early to tell for sure but I really don't see how those plants with so much fruit could possibly get to normal size. I think my trellis would totally collapse from the weight if they did.

Bill

[whistech]

Bill, thank you for going into detail about how you have been mixing the fertilizer and then spraying with the hose end sprayer. I bought the fertilizer last week and will probably give it a try this weekend.

[Sodak]

Originally Posted by b54red

Don't use the kind for applying Miracle Grow or most of the fertilizer will be used in the first few minutes. I use an Ortho sprayer that has a calibration setting so that you can adjust the rate at which the product is mixed with the water. I think it goes from 1/2 tsp to 8 ounces a gallon. When I use the Texas Tomato Food I will dilute it with 2 parts water to 1 part TTF in the container and then set the dispenser to release it from 4tsp to 1 ounce so that it is diluted more than the recommended dose but I apply more than a gallon per plant now that my plants are large. I will raise it up to 1 1/2 oz. per gal. if a plant looks a little pale or is growing too slow. On the other hand if the plants start looking a bit too dark green then I will even dial it back to 1 tblsp to the gallon. A lot depends on how the plants look and how much water they need. The more water they need the more dilute the setting and the less water they need the stronger the setting. One good thing about the Ortho sprayer is you can adjust it as you are wattering so I am constantly adjusting the mix as I work my way down a row of plants depending on what I see.

Bill

Thanks.

[Urbanfarmer]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Impressive fruit set! Wondering if you pruned that bottom foot or so of leaves proactively, or to removed diseased leaves? I for one, but I suspect everyone, would love to see more pictures of your set up! (I have visited the web page and recently placed a second order of TTF) I'd also love know/see what kind of results you get with the hydro system using heirlooms. If I could substantially up my heirloom production without compromising taste, I might be willing to try out the hydro system.

Dewayne mater

Whew! It's been a long day. Between TV and internet advertising, we've been shipping an awful lot of fertilizer nationwide. Can't thank everyone enough......

I removed the leaves for the picture just before picking. The lower leaves were old, and there might be a touch of blight creeping in.

Our setup is really downsized right now since the move. We only have 4 Urban Farms going in a small area. It's hard to get a shot because of the jungle.

"without compromising taste". Because of hydroponic supermarket tomatoes, the common belief is that hydroponic tomatoes won't have flavor. When we used to go to the farmers market, we'd have a line 10 deep buying our tomatoes as fast as we could bag them. After tasting, they would always ask how we did it. When we said "hydroponics" they did a double-take, but then bought all we had.

Here are the three critical ingredients:

1. A good hydro platform
2. A really good nutrient of course
3. And genes

We've proved it too many times. If you have the genes for good tomatoes, you will produce good tomatoes, with every bit as much, if not better flavor. Just don't use greenhouse, commercial seed. It's bred for shelf life, nothing more.

Heirlooms react in hydro the same way they do in soil.....inconsistently. Good plants for us have produced 30-40 tomatoes (well, except for the cherries.....they produce hundreds). Duds are lucky to make 6. The plants will be 8' tall and healthy, but you never know what you're going to get. You'll get a ton of flowers, but setting is the question. Right now we've got a Granny Cantrell to 8' with only 20 tomatoes on it. Perfect plant, but can't compete in volume with Better Boy, which often yields 100+. And taste......the heirlooms will taste every bit as good as any other.

As we all know, the low volume of heirlooms is the tradeoff we're willing to make for the complexity.

Best regards,

[Dewayne mater]

Thanks for that detailed answer! Yes, heirlooms are finicky, but well worth it. Some do better than others, but, I'm always on the quest for something that will increase their production and definitely have found some things that help! Wondering if hydro would be another arrow in the quiver of better fruit set from the heirlooms that do have decent production already.

The other question I forgot to ask you is about heat and how your hydroponic set ups react in the heat, especially from a fruit set stand point. When we get high heat and nights that don't cool down that much (95+ highs, 82 + lows) fruit set is mostly over. In some years new fruit set beyond June 1 is extremely sparse. This year looks like it may last a bit longer. Does the hydroponic system extend the fruit set time or are they equally as subject to heat shut down? For me, use of sun shad cloth definitely extends my fruit set time, maybe by as much as a 2 weeks. Wondering if I could get even longer production with hydro?

D M

[b54red]

Got my new case of fertilizer yesterday but it was just too hot to put any out today and it is supposed to be 102 tomorrow so I may delay another day. We got a big rain a few days ago so the soil isn't drying out too badly yet.

I have a complaint to make though. My tomatoes are now ripening and I am picking some every day. The problem is I think your product is responsible for the over abundant fruit set I have experienced this year and the plants that had the heaviest fruit set are giving me tomatoes a good bit smaller than that variety usually produces. I think you need to put a warning on the jugs that if you get extraordinary fruit set you should cull some tomatoes to prevent the final product from being too small. Gardeners like me that have never experienced that kind of heavy fruit set are not prepared for that situation.

Bill

[tlintx]

Okay, that's it!!!!

Where can I buy this stuff just north of Houston?

I want a ridiculous amount of fruit set too!

Edit, nevermind... they have a listing on the website.

[Urbanfarmer]

Bill.......got a good laugh at that one. That would make a very clever marketing statement. Might have to steal that down the road. We do like bodacious humor around here.

Believe it or not, we make the same mistake every year. We like to be able to brag about getting 100+ off a Better Boy, but they average only 8oz or so. Hold your nose and cull the herd to get the big boys.

BTW......we're in the 90's and fruit set has dried up. Cukes, beans, squash, peppers, and eggplant are tearing it up, though.

[b54red]

Glad you liked it.

I kind of had the feeling looking at all those tiny greenies a few weeks back that if I left that many on the plants I was going to have some problems with fruit size. The plants with a more moderate fruit set are producing good sized fruit and the ones with just a lot of fruit set are coming in a little smaller than normal so we are only talking about less than a dozen plants out of over 50 in the ground. I can stand to have some small ones for salads and the sauce pot.

I doubt I'll have that problem with the plants I have set out lately or the ones that will go into the garden over the next month or so because the extreme heat will take care of the culling for me. It really was exciting having plants with that ridiculous amount of fruit on them and it was fun showing them off to people who wanted to look at my garden. My sister was over today and thought I was some kind of magician. I'm going to give her some of your magic potion to try on her tomatoes.

Bill

[jimshuejohn]

First a thanks to everyone who contributes. I've been growing tomatoes for over 15 years and have learned more in the last year reading this forum than the previous 14 years. I just had to post on this thread. I purchased a Hozon Injector Brass Siphon Mixer and a gallon of Texas tomato food. I have a drip system and a water timer to automatically water my plants (just containers this year). I hooked up the Hozen and essentially continuous feed my plants automatically. Since using the Texas Tomato food, my plants have really really grown, flowered and started setting fruit. I'm really happy with the plants that were leggy are now filling out. I was worried about them for a while.

Just a note, I have noticed this year that my canvas grow bags are out performing my plastic containers. I have some wonderful plants in both but there is no doubt that the canvas grow bags provide a better environment for my setup.

I will post some pictures in the future.

[Urbanfarmer]

jimshuejohn.....thanks for the kind words.

The Hozon caught our attention, however. Are you drawing straight from the bottle, or are you creating a 16:1 concentrate in a 5 gal bucket?

A siphon jet draws concentrated fertilizer out of a container and dilutes it into the water being applied. The Hozon does this at 16:1. This device isn't ideal for our nutrients in undiluted form (256:1) because they have to be shaken or stirred immediately before use. If allowed to sit in their bottle or another container, un-agitated, they will settle out, meaning you won't get a uniform dilution into your water stream.

First indication is that 8oz of our nutrients would have to be added to each gallon in a bucket to get the proper dilution after reducing 16:1. We will test this dilution and see if our nutrients will stay in solution at that concentration. Give us a couple days to look into this.

In the meantime, if you are using straight concentrate out of the bottle, without it being agitated while applying, then it is certain that you won't get uniform ratios to your plants.

Our recommendations are......dilute to a watering can, a drip system coming off a pre-diluted nutrient reservoir, or a hose-end sprayer with a 3:1 ratio of water to concentrate in the canister.

We'll get back to you on this.........

Best regards,

[jimshuejohn]

I'm pulling it out of a 7 gallon bucket in diluted form.

[Urbanfarmer]

Originally Posted by jimshuejohn

I'm pulling it out of a 7 gallon bucket in diluted form.

That sounds much better. We diluted 8oz concentrate into a gallon of R/O water. There is some precipitation, but not too bad. Pulling this out at 16:1 is alittle weak, but better safe than sorry. You could try this if you like on 1 or 2 plants as an experiment.

An extra step to insure uniformity would be to put a small aquarium pump in the bucket, lay it on it's side, and use it to agitate the solution.

If trials work out over time, we'll include siphon jet directions on our labels as well. A siphon jet might be easier to use than a hose-end. Thanks for the idea.