Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food

[Barb_FL]

Admitted dork here and fertilizer obsessed so when checking Worth's recommendation of Rose Garden, I found that the ratios of TTF and the A&O has changed from when I bought the 4 gallon pack in the fall

TTF - 4.0,2.9,6.7 NOW 4.0, 2.5, 7.0
A&O - 4.5, 2.0, 4.2 NOW 4.7, 3.0, 4.7

===
No Change in the Veg at 4.5, 2.5, 6

or Lawn at 10-1-2

[b54red]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

Does anyone have experience using it for in ground plants? I considered ordering but it is expensive and wasnt sure if it is any better than locally available stuff. So many choices for ferts it gets tiresome.

It is well worth the price in my opinion and from the results I have obtained over the last few years using it. I try to feed my plants with TTF weekly once they start to bloom using the recommended amount per gallon of water; but once they get large I have to use more to maintain great production. I start out with my plants getting from a half gallon to a gallon of solution til they get fairly large and if I see any tapering off in fruit set or lackluster look to any of them I increase the amount accordingly. It helps if you are experienced at reading your plants so you can constantly adjust the amount you give them for peak performance.

I use the Apples and Orange on all my citrus and sometimes on other plants like my tomatoes and peppers and use it or TTF or Veg. diluted on all my seedlings. I like any of their products for things like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, greens, squash, cucumbers, onions, okra and peppers but have had the best results on tomatoes with the TTF which I buy by the case in the gallon liquid form. It is loaded with calcium so you have to shake the heck out of it and I also sometimes strain it when putting it into my hose end sprayer so I don't clog it up. I have had the best results with the Chameleon hose end sprayer but sometimes use my old Ortho sprayers which had more of a tendency to clog with full strength TTF in them.

Bill

[b54red]

I did something that I have never done before and the results look very promising already. Over the past few weeks I have had in excess of 20 inches of rain with nearly 6 inches falling in slightly over one 24 hour period and the results have left my tomatoes pale, yellow and tattered. I used Urban Farms Liquid Lawn which is a very high nitrogen fertilizer to which I added some Epsom Salts and fertilized those tomatoes yesterday and already they look 100% better. I don't think this would be wise under most circumstances but due to the excessive leaching I needed to get some nitrogen back in the soil quick, before the damage was too bad. They are already much greener than they have been in weeks so maybe it worked. I'll have to wait and see if I get too much vegetative growth but even if I do I can prune that problem away fairly easily. I'll go back to my regular feedings with TTF next week and hope for the best.

Bill

[Karma]

Hi All,

I grow in Earthboxes and use organic granular fertilizer. I have noticed about half way through the season, the fertilizer is used up. Last year after the tomatoes started to flower, I starting adding Texas tomato food. It made a huge difference. I had on average about 40% more production overall than in previous years. I'm a believer.

Good luck!

Karma

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by b54red

I did something that I have never done before and the results look very promising already. Over the past few weeks I have had in excess of 20 inches of rain with nearly 6 inches falling in slightly over one 24 hour period and the results have left my tomatoes pale, yellow and tattered. I used Urban Farms Liquid Lawn which is a very high nitrogen fertilizer to which I added some Epsom Salts and fertilized those tomatoes yesterday and already they look 100% better. I don't think this would be wise under most circumstances but due to the excessive leaching I needed to get some nitrogen back in the soil quick, before the damage was too bad. They are already much greener than they have been in weeks so maybe it worked. I'll have to wait and see if I get too much vegetative growth but even if I do I can prune that problem away fairly easily. I'll go back to my regular feedings with TTF next week and hope for the best.

Bill

Bill, Both nitrogen and Epsom salt make the plants greener.
What happens with so much rain water is that Nitrogen goes down with it.
So what you did was the right thing.
Tomatoes are no different from other garden plants , in general. They all need the primary elements (n , P , K) and secondary elements (Ca, Mg, S, Fe) and the the rest of trace elements. I have checked many fertilizers targeting tomato growing. The unique thing about all of the is Ca and Mg contents. So for this reason I am not brand loyalist to any product.

Gardeneer

[b54red]

I wasn't brand loyal to any product until I had learned the proper dispensing of Urban Farms products. The first year I used it but far too sparingly and yet my results were significantly better with tomatoes than any other product I had used in the past. When I stepped up the frequency and the amount of solution applied each week according to the size of the plants the results were off the chart for me. When I added grafting to reduce the severity and frequency of soil borne diseases I had plants regularly producing for up to 7 months on plants that sometimes were surviving for 9 months.

In our hot and humid climate fruit set is at a premium once the real summer weather gets here. For most of my 40+ years of tomato growing down here the season was restricted to between late February thru July. After that what few plants survived rarely produced due to lack of fruit set and diseases. I usually tried fall plants with hit and miss success due to the high die off rate of transplants set out from June to August and then an early frost could destroy a promising fall crop. Staggered planting helped but only so much. It was the regular feeding of TTF to my tomatoes that got me decent fruit set during the hotter months when everybody else around here was pulling up their plants or just watching them die. I know what I am saying is just anecdotal but with several years of experience with the product and the results so overwhelming I have to believe my lying eyes.

I don't know if the TTF would be as helpful in areas with more moderate tomato growing climates but everyone that has seen my results around here that grows tomatoes has either ordered some or gotten some off of me to try. All of them have had very positive results. It was only supposed to be 82 degrees today but it hit 90 so I guess it is time for the TTF to start earning its keep.

Bill

[Fiishergurl]

Bill,

How much do you use and how often on plants in the ground?

Ginny

[mrdoitall]

I would like to try Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food. If they ever get it up into my area. I live in an area that sales a lot of gardening plants and supplies but no TTF. I've been looking for 3 years now. I will just keep waiting and looking. LOL

[MikeInCypress]

TTF is sold by mail order as well. Prices are fair and their service is great. Here in Houston it is less expensive buying it mail order than getting it at some garden centers.

MikeInCypress

[Gardeneer]

TTF - 4.0,2.9,6.7 NOW 4.0, 2.5, 7.0

This has a ratio of NPK close to 2-1-3. Then probably it has other secondary and trace elements too.
It seems to me that probably tomato plants can benefit from higher ratio of K than the other too.
Considering that most garden beds have more than needed P and even K, it seems to me that adding more of them should not make a big difference. My own soil test past winter confirmed that : ENOUGH K, more than enough ( high level) of P and LOW in N. Ca and Mg were also in optimum level.
So basically, all I needed to add was N. How my plants could possibly benefit from TTF ? Or any other brand ?
Gardeneer

PS: My plants are doing great but are behind because of cool PNW temperatures .

[Father'sDaughter]

Originally Posted by mrdoitall

I would like to try Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food. If they ever get it up into my area. I live in an area that sales a lot of gardening plants and supplies but no TTF. I've been looking for 3 years now. I will just keep waiting and looking. LOL

I have to mail order it up here as well. I buy a gallon at a time with shipping included. I could save $4 per gallon if I bought a case at a time, but I barely go through two gallons each season so I just order as I need it.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

This has a ratio of NPK close to 2-1-3. Then probably it has other secondary and trace elements too.
It seems to me that probably tomato plants can benefit from higher ratio of K than the other too.
Considering that most garden beds have more than needed P and even K, it seems to me that adding more of them should not make a big difference. My own soil test past winter confirmed that : ENOUGH K, more than enough ( high level) of P and LOW in N. Ca and Mg were also in optimum level.
So basically, all I needed to add was N. How my plants could possibly benefit from TTF ? Or any other brand ?
Gardeneer

PS: My plants are doing great but are behind because of cool PNW temperatures .

Why not get a gallon and try it. I too was skeptical until I used it and the more I used it the better the results I got. It may not make as much difference in your climate but down here where fruit set can be worse than iffy because of our high temps and high humidity the results are amazing. I use it every week to 10 days if I am able to get out and apply it and the larger and older the plants get the more they need in order to keep producing. My soil is extremely high in P low in K and N with high amounts of Mag and Cal yet when I drop off on the TTF applications I always get a drop off in production and fruit set within a week or two.

Bill

[ermentrude]

Originally Posted by ermentrude

I've been using TTF for a couple seasons now and have seen a marked difference in the production of the plants. I only have 10 Earthboxes, so my method is not elegant or terribly efficient, but it works for me. I really have no idea if what I'm doing is right or wrong, but it seems to be working OK.

I have two 1 liter water bottles I use for this process - Fiji water, it's expensive but the bottles are very sturdy - I've used the same ones for 2 years now and they're faded but fine. I marked down the side of the bottle at 1/5th intervals so I know how much of the eventual mixture to give each box. I use a turkey baster to get the TTF out of their bottle into the water bottles. I usually put between 0.50 and 0.75 oz (according to the baster) into each of the water bottles and dilute with water up to my top line. Shake and then pour 1/5th of a bottle into each of my boxes down the watering tube. I do that every week starting a few weeks after plant out.

I thought I would update since I posted my "formula" earlier in the year. I started with the 3/4 oz per bottle mentioned above, but as the plants got larger, I boosted up to 1 oz. I also am not using 2 of my 10 boxes this summer (long story), so I'm splitting each diluted bottle by 4 instead of 5. That puts each box at about 1/2 Tbsp before dilution. The plants were huge before the summer heat crisped them up. There were a *lot* of tomatoes set - some with BER, but most without. Overall I'm very happy and think I'll stay at 1 oz for now.

[Lindalana]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

This has a ratio of NPK close to 2-1-3. Then probably it has other secondary and trace elements too.
It seems to me that probably tomato plants can benefit from higher ratio of K than the other too.
Considering that most garden beds have more than needed P and even K, it seems to me that adding more of them should not make a big difference. My own soil test past winter confirmed that : ENOUGH K, more than enough ( high level) of P and LOW in N. Ca and Mg were also in optimum level.
So basically, all I needed to add was N. How my plants could possibly benefit from TTF ? Or any other brand ?
Gardeneer

PS: My plants are doing great but are behind because of cool PNW temperatures .

If you are doing traditional testing it does not differentiates between what is present in the soil and what is avail to plants. It is like checking and savings account. You might be short on cash but have large annuity growing etc.
Only specific tests that do this separation will let you know how much your soil is tied up.
Also at certain times plants use different nutrients more than others
http://www.npk-university.com/resour...PPLEMENTS.html
As for TTF, I would love not to use it, it is expensive after all. But every time I use it, my flower count doubles and plants certainly look better. It is not magic, but whatever they do works very well.

[Gardeneer]

Thanks Bill and Lindalana
I will try it next season.
Yeah, I am also skeptical a bit on what is in the soil that might not be available to the plants.

Gardeneer