We have now reached that stage where the temps and humidity usually put the brakes on fruit set. For the last two days it reached nearly 100 with high humidity and for the past week it has been way up there and with that choking humidity even first thing in the morning. For me this is when TTF really shows its stuff. I am finding new tomatoes every morning despite the conditions. For me the TTF is about the added fruit set which has always been difficult here after the real summer heat and humidity moves in. This year we were blessed with a very unusual spring with some weeks of low humidity and cool nights that allowed tremendous fruit set but the good times are well over now.
I have tried all kinds of fertilizers and ways of applying it over 40 years of growing tomatoes and for me nothing even comes close to the results I get with TTF. Sure I have times when it is really hard to keep healthy plants but that is just part of gardening in the deep south. I apply it every 5 to 7 days when possible and during times of heavy rain I have to hold off a bit and reduce my frequency of fertilizing but it is important to keep up a regular feeding regimen to keep the plants healthy and producing after that initial heavy production from the first few clusters. I was doing this with Miracle Grow before I discovered TTF and have had good results with it but at about the same cost when used weekly. I increase the amount of solution that I apply to each plant as they get larger and older in order to keep them producing in our difficult conditions and i did the same thing with Miracle Grow for a few years before trying TTF.
I like to have fresh eating tomatoes for as much of the season as possible and usually I can have some fresh tomatoes every day despite the conditions. I set out plants with staggered planting dates right up til mid to late summer. Although I can still get some tomatoes from my oldest plants it is just so much easier to deal with newer plants and pull some of the old ones. This helps tremendously in those stifling days when it is so difficult to get fruit set. The TTF has helped plants set more fruit during those difficult times than anything else and that is the biggest reason for me using it regularly. I also find my plants stay healthier longer giving them regular feedings.
I also use lean and lower with single stem pruning and the first year I used TTF from the start of the season til the end I was able to keep half my plants alive and producing for over 7 months with some of the vines over 25 feet long when they finally froze. I no longer try to maintain plants that long because it is just too much work after the vines get beyond 12 to 15 feet long. Right now some of my tomato plants in my first bed are getting nearly that long. I started my second bed only two weeks after the first and they are also getting nearly that long. My third bed wasn't planted until the middle of May and they are setting a fair amount of fruit and should be giving me some ripe tomatoes in a few weeks. I hope to set out another small bed of tomatoes before the end of the month and hopefully will be able to set out another around the end of July or early August for some late fall tomatoes.
It may be that the big improvement I see with TTF is the result of me gardening in the same spot for 40 years and the TTF supplies some things that have been depleted in my soil from the years of intensive gardening. I grow something in my beds year round and do amend them each season with compost and other things but I'm sure the good natural balance of micro nutrients is somewhat depleted so I'm just doing what works for me. I didn't start out with good rich soil but rather some sand on top of hard clay and it took some real work to get my soil up to the point where things grew well and TTF has been a huge help to me. I guess if you start out with great soil the need for a great fertilizer is probably not so important but I have never had that kind of soil. The first year I grew here my county agent came by and declared there was no way I could successfully grow tomatoes in that pitiful fusarium and RKN infested soil. It took me some time and a lot of effort but I finally proved him wrong.
Bill