[eyolf]

I grow tomatoes and peppers in black plastic. I prepare the bed, lay down a soaker hose, and lay a strip of plastic. My beds are 24 feet long, 4 wide, and the plastic I buy comes in 50 foot rolls.

I cut holes with a clamshell-style posthole digger, going about 8-10" down. At the bottom of the hole I put a tablespoon or so of some organic fertilizer. Then with some of the soil and about an equal amount of aged compost stirred together in my wheelbarrow, I fill all the holes to about half.

This also gets some fertilizer.

I hesitate to offer quantities because I don't know about every kind. But my wheelbarrow full (as much as I want to push around) is about 4 cu. ft. I consider that to be the equivalent of 12 sq feet of bed and add the appropriate amount of fertilizer.

Anyway, I fill the holes about half, then set my tomatoes and peppers, packing them in with the soil mix from the wheelbarrow, and watering them in nicely.

In my climate, this generally feeds until July. At that point fertilization is sticky: once blossoms are setting, I figure I'm done. But some rampant indeterminate varieties need more nutrients, so they get whatever I have at the time. It's a pain to try to scratch in through the holes, so I often add some fertilizer to a pail of water, let it steep for a while then put that "tea" on the plants I think need it.

I found that boring a 7/32" hole in a plastic pail allows one to stick rainbird plastic drip barbs in. Attach a length of terminal tubing, and thread a #7 or #8 sheet metal or wood screw half a turn into the end of the tube to slow the drip. If you want, use a tee and water two plants...a gallon each.

I have 5 of these...enough for 10 plants. I don't bother with the plants that set early... fertilizer doesn't help them much.

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