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Old March 14, 2014   #10
aclum
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Merced, CA
Posts: 832
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Hi,

Looking over things this morning, there seem to be a few tomato seedlings that are pretty much goners but, overall, drenching the plants with fresh water to flush out some of the excess fertilizer seems to have helped. There don't seem to be any newly afflicted plants and the ones that were starting to show signs of affliction seem to have improved somewhat.

Ami,

I've got over 150 seedlings going and haven't been keeping records on things, but I'm guessing the dead or dying seedlings were about half and half grafted vs. ungrafted.

Kurt.

That's interesting about the UF Fertilizer. I scanned through a bit of the "Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food" thread (in General Discussion) looking for where I might have gotten the idea that it was hard to overfertilize using it. I came across this in post #57:
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This reply is in reference to your containers, to help you dial-in your feeding frequency. If you notice on the backside description (upper RH block), it says TTF is designed as a "continuous feed" nutrient for containers. I want to qualify that.

This is true if your container mix is inert, that is.....a soilless medium without any existing NPK in it. When using this kind of medium, you can use TTF continuously as long as you overwater each time by 10-15%. In this situation you are essentially practicing "manual hydroponics", so that is where our fertilizers will really shine, because they originated as "continuous feed" hydroponic formulas.

However, if you have added nutrients/compost/manure/etc to your mix, that means there is a varying degree of NPK already in the rootzone. In this situation we recommend feeding every 2nd or 3rd watering. Watch your plants. Ultimately you have to let your eyes tell you when to give them a "shot".

In soil, the general rule is feed every 3rd watering, but this is negotiable. It is difficult to over-fertilize with our nutrients, so you can get away with "pushing" your soil plants with 2-3 shots in a row. But then back off to pure water for 2-3 waterings.
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"Bolding" mine

Based on my experience, it does seem possible to overfertilize using the Urban Farm products. Live and learn. I'm still planning use the product - just not so much - and switching over to the tomato food once the seedlings are transplanted into the garden.

Anne
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