Quote:
Originally Posted by AKmark
Bower, you can get cheap drip systems for under 50.00, but you will have to add ferts manually.
We plant two plants in a four gallon container, any variety, and will pull out 20 foot vines by the end of the season. The root bound root systems makes no difference because we feed every time we water.
Larger containers will help those who have to manually water, but there is no substitute for a tailored fertilizer program. Remember Ricky Shaw, he paid attention, and got super results hand watering with the proper ferts.
These home made up media mixtures are never perfect, but we can be perfect with fertilizer. I grew tomatoes for 20 years before I quit doing it the way I wanted. The big change happened when I listened to the pros.
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@ Ricky Shaw: I remember Ricky Shaw! LOL
Mark, I'm paying attention too (and very impressed with both of you).
I am strictly growing organic though so it's not as easy to just follow the instructions (never used chemicals, too old to change, no ambition to better living through chems). My budget is also very limited and totally spent as of now already.
That part really was easy!
A chunk of that budget got spent on liquid ferts: a gallon of Alaska fish ferts 5-1-1. Maybe I can tweak the K+ sufficiently with my own kelp - I do have some at least that's broken down to a semi-soluble state.
I don't mind to mix and fertilize every day if that's what it takes, as I water every day anyway. But I don't want to water more than once a day. phew.
I'm only aiming to get 3 clusters apiece from my trial plants before I top them. I don't want or need lots of tomatoes per plant, but I do need to stop them from blocking each other's light so there is enough of that for all. It's a challenge for me, I'm not a pruner by nature, so will be pushing the limits there for sure.
But still, I want to make sure they had the ferts to make quality tomatoes. Otherwise there's no point.