What a disappointment. They also changed plant tone. The npk stays the same but valuable trace elements found in ing like crab meal, dried blood, manure etc have been replaced with chickenshxt (literally).

I may return this stuff and look into mixing my own.

I am not clear on how you prevented the fertilizer from one half entering the other half and vice versa.

I understand there is a divider, but if you used a water reservoir the nutrients may have entered the water and mixed and then wicked back up. How much of a factor this may have been I am not certain.

Also, nutrients in soil solution migrate through the soil until they reach a state of isotonicity.

Al

? Is it possible 'Tone invested in a microbe breeding program & now need to integrate it into their product to recoup operational costs ?
Bacillus thuringiensis is well respected as insecticide Bt, so it is a good marketing angle.
As for the others, it seems like a shot gun approach to try & cover all the strains their competition might be touting.
In some soil conditions the varieties might compete; being that they can't occupy the same site living by enzymatic activity.
(The nutrient re-formulation may have been driven by the need to keep the microbial strains stable.)
Sure, the product will be OK & it's comparison to "old" formula will be interesting.

I can tell you that espoma offered the bio strain last yr. I used plant tone and added my own endo myco only to the bottom of the root ball at each transplant. I don't have any idea what all the other bacteria could possibly do for a tom plant that the endo doesn't already do.

Fertilizers have jacked up in price this yr due to oil prices.

jstaguy,

Yes, there will be "leakage" of some minor amount between the 2 compartments as they share a common wicking basket junction, but from the results using the same mechanical barrier last year, I saw significant "A/B" kinds of results with various trials. So perhaps I have 90% "isolation" with the fertilizer strips sitting on the top of the potting mix in each compartment, but I should get some conclusive evidence as to whether the "new" Tomato-tone is an improvement over the "old", or if Espoma is simply leveraging the past good reputation of the "old" Tomato-tone lineage:

{{gwi:16931}}

Raybo

Maybe this has been asked but did anyone contact the company and ask for information on why they changed their formula? I ordered some tomato tone last week and it hasn't arrived yet but I am interested to see which formula I end up receiving.

Tapla and Justaguy, I wanted to point out your dislike of organics in containers was reaffirmed by Ray's experiment.

I know the problems associated with using organics in containers and that researchers have tried to obtain results equal to conventional methods with much tweaking of the organic systems and have had some success.

But Ray's experiments last year certainly back up your contentions in other threads that
using organics in containers would give disappointing results. At least it certainly did using Fox Farm vs the old formula of Tomato Tone.

The old T.T. formula was a mix of synthetics and organics and look at the results in Ray's picture--the tomato with lots of fruits on the right (TT) VS the pitiful organic one (Foxfarm) next to it that you can barely make out.

Even Ray's miracle gro soil mix WITH fertilizer did not help Fox Farm.

Now having said this I have had good results growing certain vegetables organically in containers. Perhaps they would been bigger with synthetics but I was happy with the results. I certainly would not be happy with the results that Ray got with Fox Farm and was surprised the difference was that dramatic.

By the way I use both synthetic and organics fertilizers but I am interested in improving organic results particular when told it just can't be done.

Any chance that some of the non-plant ingredients are soil-type microbes that would help the organic fertilizer breakdown and be utilized in containers?

Ray, I also noted the change in the formulas on my old bags of TT and the new. I was disappointed that they did this as I liked the higher potassium and the synthetic components ameliorate some of the organic drawbacks. I already had Plant-tone if I wanted to go purely organic.

As far as your new experiment, it will be interesting to see how the new TT with all the biological microbes stacks up to the old. Also the ferts, in the Miracle Gro are long gone now and won't impact the experiment.

Here is a shot of organically grown dwarf bok choy and lettuce. The soilless mix had store-bought bagged cow manure + organic fert. added to it.

{{gwi:16934}}

I have also remembeed that Charles Wilber (How to Grow World Record Tomatoes book) was tremendously successful growing in containers organically (as well as in the ground). His tomatoes in containers produced 100 pounds each using no synthetic ferts. He used compost and grass clippings as I recall.

It obviously can be done but you have to figure out how to get around all the problems.

Ray, Do you buy your Tomato Tone locally or over the net? I went back and looked at the site I bought mine from and it shows that I bought the "old" kind of tomato tone. Now if that is what I receive I'll just have to wait and see.
Thanks, vmckague "Vernon"

Tapla and Justaguy, I wanted to point out your dislike of organics in containers was reaffirmed by Ray's experiment.

Actually I am not convinced the difference in performance is a synthetic/organic difference. Organics can work pretty well in SWC when the fert is mixed into the potting mix. Generally it takes more of the organic fert than a synthetic to do the same job, but it works.

I don't know that it would work well in the early season with cool weather crops, but in the summer it certainly can.

vm,

I buy my Tomato-tone from Totally Tomatoes due to the fact that NO ONE carries it in the Bay Area. I cannot understand this as tomatoes are the #1 vegetable crop home gardeners grow today - - yet no stores carry it. I can but all the Citrus-tone and Holly-tone I want to from many stores locally - - but NO Tomato-tone.

I would love to find a source on the web where I could stock up on a dozen bags or so of the "old" Tomato-tone. Let me know if you find any.

Raybo

Been lurkin for a few weeks now and saw this post I just ordered some old TT from amazon might be able to get more the sellers name is smart shopper here is a link to the page.

Here is a link that might be useful: Espoma Tomato Tone - 5 Lb. Model TO5 Pack of 12

BE CAREFUL when ordering Tomato-tone over the Web. Most sites still show the "old" Tomato-tone description with the 4-7-10 NPK, but list the bag as 4 pounds, so you will (unfortunately) be getting the "new" Tomato-tone in your shipment.

I tried ordering a case of 12 bags that had the 5 pound Model "T-05" 4-7-10 nomenclature in the listing on Amazon, but thought to send the vendor after ordering an email clarifying that it was the "old" 5 pound version, and just received a reply that his listing was "out of date", and that he would instead ship the "new" 4 pound bags. I immediately canceled my order (darn).

Raybo

sorry bout that when i orfered it was a single bag and did get old TT

kilone,

Can you please send me an email with the link to where you purchased it?

thanks,

Raybo