Quote:
Originally Posted by Tracydr
Remember, when you add organic stuff like manure and alfalfa, you get a bugger bang for your buck. Also, remember you're not doing a hydroponics or container, so you dont really need to account for everything. The bacterias and organics will produce some of this for you, given the good stuff, like alfalfa and manure.
Make sure you get a soil test, test for things like boron and selenium. Don't overdue things that can build up and not be taken away, like calcium, phosphorous, or anything that raises pH too much. It's very hard to lower your pH.
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Tracy-
I'm trying something different this year. In the past, I've relied on large amounts of manure, some compost, and small amounts of organic additives (various meals, etc.), and I've found that I probably was over-fertilizing causing too much green growth, blossom drop, and other undesirable conditions. One of the problems I have had is not knowing exactly how much of the above amendments to add for a given staring media. This year, I want to use water soluble fertilizers so I can get quasi "scientific" in my application amounts (I might try half organic pricy stuff and half the cheaper that you can purchase in bulk). If I find that my results (quality, yield, disease tolerance, etc.) aren't what I'm striving for, I'll look to either a hybrid approach or going back to full organic supplement approach -- the feed the soil mantras.
One of the problems I'm going to have in evaluating my results is the shear number of variables that have changed from my old garden: different soil, new micro-climate, more sun, different plant varieties, different season, and on. So, this really is sample n=1 for me, so I want it to be as measurable as possible before I start verging into the "art" of tomato gardening.
--naysen