What do you put into your tomato hole?
 

As I hope to start planting some of my tomatoes into the ground in~one month, I am looking at gathering together what I will need, and am looking for suggestions as to what to place into the planting hokey. I have heard of everything from bananas and egg shells to kelp extract. I am looking for proven ingredients, and thank you in advance or your help!

A handful of compost from the bin until that runs out then its dehydrated cow manure. :)

Greg

This topic has been kicked around T'ville since 2006. It has been a while since this topic has come up so enjoy the answers. I put in the hole a tomato plant and the dirt that came from the hole and top it off with some water.

I drop in a tablespoon full (or so) of Tomato Tone, a bit of lime, and a walnut-sized (or so) nugget of worm castings from my worm bin. Mix in the bottom of the hole, drop in the transplant, water, backfill, water (again), and top off with a couple handfuls of my soil blocking mix, Vermont Compost Fort Vee, as mulch to keep the weeds at bay (and to feed the plant). I have previously generously spread compost on the row and tilled it in, then spread plastic mulch over the row, with drip tape underneath. Holes are dug fairly deeply with a bulb auger in my cordless drill.

Loren Nancarrow said on youtube "If you do nothing else, I want you to do this....we want to give each plant a cup of agricultural gypsum". He says if will prevent blossom end rot.

Water before and after transplanting to settle the soil around the roots.

You'll never know 8-)

Here are a couple of the threads that Paul was referring to- you can probably find more by doing and advanced search.

[url]http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=27216[/url]

[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=26754[/url]

I'm still experimenting, but I usually mix some compost in the hole, dip the rootball into a fertilizer mix, and then spread, mix, and water in a dry organic fertilizer in a circle about 3" from the stem.

If that's like my pie hole, I put more and more tomatoes in it!

Quote: "What PaulF and saltmarsh wrote"

Exactly what I do too.

Two cups of worm castings, 1/2 cup tomato tone, mix with back fill and water. You could also add a handful of rock phosphate.

I dig a deep hole, so that only the top 3-4 pairs of leaves wlll be above ground. Then I put a big handful (small hands) of alfalfa pellets into the hole and sprinkle soil over them. Tomato plant goes in next, backfilled with garden soil and sometimes some homemade compost. Near the top I sprinkle a spoonful of a humic acid product
[url]https://www.johnandbobs.com/buy/optimize-soil-optimizer/[/url]
and cover with soil and then aged wood-chip mulch.

If I have enough, and I have time to do it, I top-dress with a few handfuls of homemade compost per plant later in the season.

I put a heaping teaspoon of Mycorrhizae sprinkled around the sides and bottom of the hole. Plop the tomato plant in and water with non chlorinated water. Its a recipe for mega plants and deep spread out roots.

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?

Pepper plants. :lol:

Nah, they have their own hole.

I save up eggshells all year and crush them up very finely and toss some in along with a dollop of worm castings from my bin.