what he said.. but lets clarify .. as to the actual food stuff.. the numbers are insignificant to make any difference.. short of applying a ton of any of them.. it basically the same.. the difference MIGHT BE... the other micros ... and i will use the one you dont have .. lol.. HOLLYTONE ... as an example i would bet a buck its the same fert formula .. but it will have some micro-nutrients to SLIGHTLY adjust pH.. for the acid loving plants .. the rose one would favor micros for flowering ... anyway.. that is enough of that nonsense.. basically.. they are all the same.. back to hollytone ... as far as pH adjustment for rhodies.. azalea.. holly.. conifers.. etc.. you should just buy the soil amendment for that.. which is probably a LOT CHEAPER than buying the fert with it.. and adjust your soil.. and go with a generic cheap fert ... i go to the mill store ... and buy the 50# bag of 12-12-12 ... for 15 bucks.. and that is all i need for about 5 years ... whats your investment so far.. 50$ a year... [use a 5 gallon bucket with a rubber seal.. to store it for decades ...] dont get sucked into marketing hype ... ken

Melissia, I am sorry to hear about your great grandmother. I was wondering where you'd disappeared to. There isn't really an organic equivalent of 10-20-10 because organic fertilizers tend to have lower numbers and a slower release of nutrients. I use Espoma Tomato Tone for Tomatoes and Peppers. Its' NPK is 3-4-6 and I use Espoma Garden Tone for everything else edible. Its' NPK is 3-4-4. However, I don't consider those fertilizers to be the main source of nutrition for my plants. The main source is all the compost and organic amendments I work into the soil sometime between the end of the garden season in late autumn and the start of the new garden season in late winter. I add not only compost but composted cow manure and composted chicken manure, often some bone meal and blood meal, sometimes some greensand and lava sand, etc. What I add will vary in each area of the garden, depending on what grew in that bed the previous year and what is going to grow in it during the current year. It also varies from year to year depending on what I have that I want to add. So, what I am doing is feeding the soil and letting the soil feed the plants. That is more in keeping with the organic philosophy of improving your soil long-term. I use the Espoma fertilizers for a boost when I think the plants need it. We have a long growing season and sometimes the plants need more nutrition than they get from the soil alone. One advantage of many (though not all) organic fertilizers is that focus on more than just NPK. They also include the micronutrients, which is why I started using the Espoma fertilizers to begin with. Nowadays, Espoma also contains beneficial microbes. Sometimes I use a liquid fertilizer like fish emulsion or liquid seaweed, but that's usually for container plants because they have a more constant need for additional nutrients since the almost daily irrigation required to keep them happy also can leach the nutrients out of the soil-less mix in the containers. For something like onions or corn that need a big boost of nitrogen, you can use blood meal, which is usually shown as 13-0-0 or 12-1-1. If you need a huge nitrogen boost because your soil is really, really deficient in nitrogen, you can use a urea which comes in many forms, mostly with NPKs like 30-0-0 through 42-0-0 although some forms of pure farming nitrogen fertilizer can be higher. If you've never had a soil test and don't know what your soil contains in the way of n-p-k, that would be the best place to start. Otherwise, you're just guessing at what your soil has versus what the plants need. There are many, many types of soil amendments you can add to your soil to improve it for the long term, including kelp meal, fish meal, soybean meal, etc. You also can improve your soil a lot by growing off-season cover crops and rototilling them into the soil a couple of weeks before planting. For tomato and pepper plants, I try hard to avoid giving them too much nitrogen because that can give you all foliage and few fruit. I'd look at the nearest Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart or TSC and see what they have in terms of organic fertilizers. It is a lot harder to find the organic fertilizers in stores, but it isn't as hard as it used to be. The TSC in Gainesville has been carrying some of the Espoma organic fertilizers for a couple of years now, which is nice. I usually order mine from Sears, several hundred pounds at a time, when they have a free shipping promotion running. Last year I bought enough for last year and part of this year. Otherwise, I usually drive to Mike's Garden Center in the DFW Metroplex to buy the Espoma fertilizers in 20 or 40 lb. bags. Dawn

Black Kow is bit better than most bagged composted cow manures imho. I've seen BK produce crabgrass and tomato volunteers, but those are easily disposed of in a garden bed... I've had decent luck with stuff labeled as "dehydrated manure" in the semi-recent past. Their brand names escape me atm, but the two brands i purchased a couple of years ago were most excellent .... and pure. As for Texas Tomato Food, i'm finally giving it a workout this year in different sized containers, 19, 9 and 5 gallon .... 8 containers total. One thing i've noticed is the high amount of blossoms, the least productive container plant still has trusses of up to 9 blossoms. I've only spotted two fruit with BER so far, one Pink Heart and a Brandy Boy. Steve

You can use both. I definitely think the tomatotone is superior, it works a little more slowly, but it includes more trace elements and has soil microorganisms that help the plants take up nutrients.. I use tomatotone in the soil when planting out then add it by scratching it into the soil around the plant as directed every four weeks. But I grow in containers, so I also use a liquid chemical fertilizer once a week through the season. I use Foliage Pro for the chemical feed now. Years ago, I only used MG for tomatoes in my containers, and it was more like famine and feast for my plants. Growing in the ground with good soil, you probably would be better off using only tomatotone.