Fertilized Tonight

I fertilized tonight. The awful hail storm stripped a good 70-80% of my tomato plants' leaves. I had just fertilized them a week ago with a liquid fish fertilizer, but considering the volume of rain we got before the hail, I figured it pretty much got washed out.

Tonight I fertilized the tomato plants with a half portion of MaterMagic worked into the top two inches of soil around the plant. It says to water heavily after, but the irrigation system will go off tomorrow morning and the plants are fairly watered from the other night. Instead, I finished the fertilizing with about three cups per plant of the liquid fish fertilizer. I figure the liquid fertilizer will have an almost immediate impact while the MaterMagic will feed them over time. The fish fertilizer is 5-1-1, so I'm hoping the higher nitrate will help leaf production and the MaterMagic's 8-5-5 will boost possible fruit setting.

We shall see. We shall see.

Potting Soil Comparisons

I came across this fantastically in-depth potting soil comparison the other day. It's too bad he only used one organic soil, as I'd much rather see how various organic soils fared with one another. Nevertheless, I'm impressed by his thoroughness! Here's his conclusion:

Supersoil's high germination rate and superior growth in both melon and tomato seedlings make it the preferred choice of the potting soils tested. When the additional factors of ease of handling, easy watering, fast drainage and low cost are also considered, it is the clear winner.

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply's potting soil came in a close second. But, the fact that it's four times the price of Supersoil after adding in the cost of shipping and not conveniently available makes it much less desirable. Another downside is that it contained weed seeds that germinated in the sample I tested. This was an annoyance that could be a serious problem for someone whose desired seedlings looked like the germinating weeds. How would he or she know which to remove?

They are many dozens of other potting mixes on the market that I wasn't able to test so this experiment can't be considered definitive. But, it strongly suggests that Supersoil potting soil is a superior product capable satisfying anyone's gardening needs. It's certainly the brand I'll be using in my garden from now on.
 

And here's a final note of warning that he makes about a horrible brand he used the year prior. Funny enough, this is the potting soil that I've been using (not the rose one, but the vegetable one). Yipes!

The year before the above comparison I purchased four bags of Gardener and Bloome's Rose Potting soil and used it to plant 77 pots with zinnia, tomato, melon, Canterbury bell and salvia seeds. The results were a complete disaster. Although I followed my regular routine for growing seedlings, a routine that's worked flawlessly for over 20 years, with this brand of potting soil I only got a 20-percent germination rate, the few plants that came up grew poorly, exhibited many disease symptoms and 30-percent of them died. Upon testing the soil I discovered that in spite of the package advertisements stating that the soil contained a wide spectrum of organic amendments such as bat guano, worm castings, kelp meal, alfalfa meal and so forth, the soil was completely lacking in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. Even after adding extra fertilizer the plants grew poorly. I've used many potting mixes over the years and this is clearly the worst. Perhaps I got a bad few bags out of what may otherwise have been a a good production run, but for myself I will never use this product again.

Fertilizing Tomatoes

As I've mentioned before on this blog, I seriously thought you couldn't fertilize vegetables in order for them to be organic. At least, not until this year. Apparently, that's cool. Here's the skinny on organic fertilizers:

In addition to increasing yield and fertilizing plants directly, organic fertilizers can improve the biodiversity (soil life) and long-term productivity of soil, and may prove a large depository for excess carbon dioxide. Organic nutrients increase the abundance of soil organisms by providing organic matter and micronutrients for organisms such as fungal mycorrhiza, (which aid plants in absorbing nutrients), and can drastically reduce external inputs of pesticides, energy and fertilizer, at the cost of decreased yield.

Nifty!

Anywhoo... Seeing as we're going to finally plant our tomatoes next weekend, I thought I'd brush up on Tammy's hints on tomato feeding. I've already been using the E.B. Stone Organics Tomato and Vegetable Food, but looks like I need to get some Dynamite Mater Magic.