Hi Carol,
I am organic too. I use a fish emulsion product, which I mix with water. The one I use is brand Fertrell and it is available easily where garden products are sold.
I use it on my flowers. It's numbers are 4-1-1. I don't if those numbers are good on tomatoes. (refers to proportion of phosphorous, nitrogen and something else.)

And carol or anyone if you want real good advice on organic gardening this is a great site
for advice on everything: fertilizer, compst, compost tea, much more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Gardening

Carol,

I'm not what would be called an organic gardener, but I don't use pesticides unless totally desperate and have no alternative.

My only use would be for poison ivy. That leaves me no choice as both my hubbie and daughter are very seriously allergic to it.

And one year I used those raid ant spikes in the lawn because of a serious ant infestation. Once the where getting into the house and couldn't stop them I had to do something.
The entire neighorhood was infested like this and instead of spreading something all over the yard that said to not wear the shoes in the house, I tried the localized ant spikes in various parts of the yard.

Funny too, everyone else used that lawn spread stuff accept myself and a neighbor across the street. Our where gone in a few days, everyone else's took weeks to go.

The only soil I use for both wintersowing and all of my containers is miracle grow potting mix.
I've had excellent results with it for both WS and the containers. I also put a layer of bark mulch on top of the soil in the pots to help keep the weeds out and the soil moist.

Don't like the moisture retention stuff. Have seen it work well, and seen it be a disaster. If there is too much rain, like I had last summer; we had for solid weeks of rain and more than 12 inches total; the plants root rot from all the water being held in the soil.

The pics of the toms had nothing but miracle grow potting mix in the pots. There is enough fertilizer in the soil for 3 months and I never fertilized them after planting them. I also don't fertilize any of my pots either because of the miracle grow potting mix in the pots.

I have to be careful with fertilizers as we are on permanent water restrictions where I live. At most, I can water only every other day, regardless of how much rain we do or do not get. Our water is drawn from a river and the state limits the amount of water that can be drawn from it for the town I live in. Since we are at the max now, the restrictions are permanent.

There are times when the watering has been banned as well.

If the miracle grow potting mix doesn't fit well into the organic gardening for you, I don't know what would work well then.

Oh, the other thing I do is put an unbleached coffee filter in the bottom of each pot before adding soil. in those huge pots for the toms, I have to use a couple of them, but it helps to hold the soil in, provides good drainage for the containers, and by the end of the summer the filter has broken down into the soil and is gone.

For my pot of mint though, I use about 4 layers of the filters. That way the roots don't get into the ground as the heavy layer keeps it from breaking down but it still provides perfect drainage.

In the fall I take the mint out of the pot, put in 6 layers of filters and plant the pot in the ground at the edge of the woods in back of the house. In the spring dig it up and there is no spread of the roots and I start all over again with the mint in fresh soil, fresh filters and back in the pot.

Fran

Ellenr,
Thank you for that wonderful site,i will be visiting it often.I used to have all Rodahle bookes when i was younger,got way from it when the kids all left home,but i find myself getting back to the organic way of living once again.My daughter has children now,and she is pretty much all organic,as much as price will allow with 3 children,this is one reason i want to get back to the organic way of life,gotta do right by my grand children eh?

Thank you Fran,you have been a real help to me with the tomato growing,i posted on recycle,for some clean used 5 gallon buckets,and today i picked up 5 from a very nice doner,yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,i am on my way.

I have a rain barrel that collects rain water,you might want to look into getting one for your self,they are quite nice,i received from a friend a couple of huge white containers,we will be converting them into rain barrels also,this summer.

I will probley go with some organic mix,i did use a couple of bags this year of Mircale grow mix,but have since found out Monsato owens that company,so i will buy something else.You are very good with your instructions,i appreciate that,thanks.
cAROL

Carol,
You'll love 'em!
[the site]
right up your alley. :)

e

My mater seedlings get a bath in Epsom salts while I am planting. When I plant I use my special mix of ground egg shells, a dash of kelp and soft rock phosphate.
I trench plant, so only 4 leaves are above the ground, then at about 6 inches high I foliar feed with fish emulsion, fertilizer is bunny poo, compost tea.

Hi busy,
This is interesting,why the Epsom salts,egg shells and rock phosphate?
cAROL

busylizzie,
re -bunny poo. I have this bunny who lives in my plot, and leaves me lots of poo!
Do you do anything to prepare the poo, do you add it to your compst, or do you just put it on your plants?

I've heard that this bunny poo is very good fertilizer.

elle

Epsom salt?, Any one else use this,if so,why?
cAROL

Ellenr,
Just a thought - 4-1-1 NPK might be not the greatest balance for tomatoes. That's mostly nitrogen, which will be great for your green growth at the expense, somewhat, of the fruit. You might want to try a 5-10-5 or 5-10-10 for the maters. On the other hand, if you've had great success with 4-1-1, maybe that's the right thing for your soil - could be your soil really needs a lot of nitrogen.

I try to do organic whenever possible, too. I don't use Miracle Grow.

Potting Mix- I usually use Pro-Mix or Fafard. Have used a small bag of Miracle Grow when I ran out of Pro-Mix, but it's not my norm.

Fertilizer: Honestly, little if any. I might use a little fish food while still in the container, or liquid kelp. At planting out I use a little Espoma (tomato tone or plant tone) in the planting hole. I rarely if ever fertilize after that. I do use my homemade compost as it's finished and lots of organic mulches, too.

I don't feed my husband that regularly (i.e. cook) so obviously I'm not going to be feeding my plants much.

Karen

Oh Karen,
Thats funny!
cAROL

That is funny, I am a bit similar didn't find out my husband liked cooking and was a lot better at it than me till after the baby was born and I asked for help.

I'm getting a rain barrel so excited. It's almost ready.

I'm now curious about the salts too. I really want my tom's to do well with the WS method.

Epsom salt has magnesium. Some say test your soil and see if you really need more magnesium.

thanks Cleo,
that's why I posted the numbers. I usually only grow plants and that fertilizer works well with them.
But I'll look for something different for the vegies.

er

OH thanks for the info.
I got a soil test kit for my birthday, which indicator would say if I need magnesium?
My choices being, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potash.