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New to growing your own tomatoes? This is the forum to learn the successful techniques used by seasoned tomato growers. Questions are welcome, too.

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Old February 12, 2015   #31
ginger2778
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Welllll, I've heard it called a lot of things but.... That's kind of a personal question, dontcha think?
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Old February 12, 2015   #32
Redbaron
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Welllll, I've heard it called a lot of things but.... That's kind of a personal question, dontcha think?
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Old February 16, 2015   #33
JRinPA
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two weeks before planing I take a bucket & trashbag to a fish market and they fill it up with scraps. I dig a deep hole, dump it, mix a little, cover it back up, and put the tomato cage over it to keep the pests away. Its worked well so far. Anyone else do this?
I do something similar with the fish...a few months before planting I dig trench-rows about 12-18" deep and bury some fish, add some lime, and re-fill. I mark the row with stakes until planting time. The plants are store bought and often leggy. When planting I strip some leaves and trench the tomatoes on their side, usually adding some compost. This year I will be using vermicompost. I started doing worms last Feb and have some great VC waiting to be used.
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Old February 19, 2015   #34
efisakov
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We fish, so I add fish parts as I can, even after tomatoes were planted but did not spread root system much. I add Mycorrhizae and root booster at a planting time. Epsom salt is added once every 2 weeks. I freeze lobster shells and shrimp shells to be composted at fall/spring. I would love to add kelp, but we do not have much here. It is very beneficial to plants. We compost coffee grounds all year round.

Depending on the soil, it may need different things.
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Old February 27, 2015   #35
crazyoldgooseman
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The title of this thread really cheers me up...
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Old March 1, 2015   #36
daninpd
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The first thing that goes in the hole is a gopher basket (if you live in an area that doesn't have pocket gophers, consider yourself lucky). Then some Tomato Tone, epsom salt and composted horse manure (we own the manufacturer), all mixed with some of the dirt that came out of the hole, then the plant as deep as possible.
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Old March 1, 2015   #37
bughunter99
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Worm castings
Home grown compost
A wee bit o granite dust
A chunk of char from the fire pit that has been soaked in compost juice.

Once planted, a good long drink with Neptunes Gold.
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Old March 8, 2015   #38
Rfdillon
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Folks: FYI, below you will find a list of ingredients that I have gathered as suggestions to use when planting the tomato seedlings into their final places in the garden. If I were to use all of them, it would cost a fortune and there would be no room for the tomato plant!:-)
Does anyone care to help me make a more realistic list of ingredients for those of us who are new to gardening and on a budget?
To place lace in tomato hole:

Compost
Epsom salts
Aspirin(2)
Tums
Bone meal
Fertilizer
Blood meal
Composted manure
Green sand
Bat guano
Rock Phosphorous
Alfalfa pellets
Worm Castings
Fish parts
Crushed egg shells
Compost Tea
Corn meal
Powdered milk
Dry Molasses
Mycorrhiza fungi
Kelp
"Root Booster"
Green sand
Granite dust
Charred Wood ashes
Neptune Gold
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Old March 8, 2015   #39
kayrobbins
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I wish some one would plant just one tomato with everything on this list just to see what happens. Anytime you ask a question here you will gets lots of different answers.
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Old March 8, 2015   #40
Redbaron
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rfdillon View Post
Folks: FYI, below you will find a list of ingredients that I have gathered as suggestions to use when planting the tomato seedlings into their final places in the garden. If I were to use all of them, it would cost a fortune and there would be no room for the tomato plant!:-)
Does anyone care to help me make a more realistic list of ingredients for those of us who are new to gardening and on a budget?
To place lace in tomato hole:

Compost
Epsom salts
Aspirin(2)
Tums
Bone meal
Fertilizer
Blood meal
Composted manure
Bat guano
Rock Phosphorous
Alfalfa pellets
Worm Castings
Fish parts
Crushed egg shells
Compost Tea
Corn meal
Powdered milk
Dry Molasses
Mycorrhiza fungi
Kelp
"Root Booster"
Green sand
Granite dust
Charred Wood ashes
Neptune Gold
I color coded them for you.

Red is either don't do it, or make sure there is a valid reason, and not really a good thing for most cases.

Yellow is use with caution or according to a specific soil test recommendation or simply is good but expensive.

Green means go for it if you want. Lots of redundancy here. Just one or two from the list is usually enough. Compost, compost tea, inoculant, some form of composted manure is generally plenty. But if you have some free egg shells or coffee grounds or fish bones left over from dinner...go for it. Just use whatever is free or nominal cost. If you must purchase it, then it reverts to yellow. For example: Rock dust is a waste of money if you are growing in soil. If you are growing in a soilless mix, then yes it can help. Aspirin and tums may have some benefits in certain rare cases, but ridiculously expensive compared to alternatives.

Just my honest opinion.

After that just always remember to mulch.
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Bill Mollison
co-founder of permaculture

Last edited by Redbaron; March 8, 2015 at 07:28 PM.
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Old March 8, 2015   #41
efisakov
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Scott, I would put Epsom salt in green.
BUT in small amounts and not too often.
I use it at the early stages, if needed, and once deceases take most of the leaves from my tomatoes. Otherwise, I agree with your suggestion.
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Old March 8, 2015   #42
Redbaron
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Quote:
Originally Posted by efisakov View Post
Scott, I would put Epsom salt in green.
BUT in small amounts and not too often.
I use it at the early stages, if needed, and once deceases take most of the leaves from my tomatoes. Otherwise, I agree with your suggestion.
Yes. That's why it is yellow "Caution" . Simply because you need to use it cautiously and not too much. Nor is it always needed. But if needed and not using too much..sure...go for it. I don't, but I have aquarium fish. I use their water when I clean their tank.
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Bill Mollison
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Old March 8, 2015   #43
Rfdillon
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Thanks so very much, RedBaron, for color-coding this list. My hope is that this helps all our new gardeners!
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Old March 8, 2015   #44
carolyn137
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This is a very long thread and I didn't have time to reread all of it but I agree with those who said they put nothing in the planting hole except the plant, and here's why I also do that.

Tomatoes have two cycles, the vegetative cycle of forming new stems and branches and leaves and the sexual cycle of blossom formation, blossom set, growth and maturation of fruits.

Tomatoes have their own DNA which tells them what to do and when, so why not let them grow naturally.

Too many amendments in the hole or growing them in too rich soil or contanier mix keeps them in the vegetative phase which delays the sexual phase.

My rows were 250 ft long. I'd crawl on my knees place my trowel and pull back and insert the seedling, ideally ones that were 6 to 9 inches tall. Then water well to remove any air pockets that would prevent the roots from making close contact with the soil.

About two weeks later I would sidedress with granular fertilizer and work it in. Plants in a row were spaced 3-4 ft apart and rows were 5 ft apart.

When blossoms would set I'd sidedress once more, and that was it until late in the summer when I felt if they needed a boost, but by that time there was no way to place fertilizer at the base of the plant so I sprayed with either seaweed or fish emulsion.

So that's what I did, as did some earlier in this thread did in terms of not putting any amendments in the planting hole and I tried to explain the reasons why I did so,

Carolyn
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Old March 8, 2015   #45
Rfdillon
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Carolyn, how and when did you use Calcium Nitrate? How often, and how much per plant?
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