What jumps out at me is the pH. That needs to be raised if its accurate. Shoot for the 6.0-6.5 range.

Fertilization sound heavy to me but you don't mention frequency either. High nitrogen isn't needed and high Phos isn't either unless a prof soil test shows you are low in Phos and that would be rare. Fertigation is normally low doseage with inc. frequency oriented.

And it sounds way overcrowded to me unless you are planning to prune extensively, say to 1 or 2 max. stems. Otherwise it will be a difficult to access jungle.

Sq. Foot gardening works but assumes extensive pruning and really good air circulation.

Mixing varieties means increased cross pollination but that is no problem unless you plan to save seeds. Cherry plants get huge so they need to be to the outside.

Hope this helps.

Dave

Sounds impressive. I echo Dave's advice. Your reasoning for the fertilization plan may seem logical but you don't want to push nitrogen to the plants during the first month. Holding off til plants start developing fruit is a better plan for production as opposed to vegetative plant growth. Since tomatoes don't need a whole lot Phosphorus and since mixing it in SE-PA hard water can block up your soaker hoses you are better off just incorporating P in the planting bed.

I didn't think the BM stink bug would be a problem with tomatoes but if you have an infestation than Sevin won't discourage them. Neither will the foil sheets. But The sheets will likely raise interest in your garden from the neighbors and may help keep other critters away.

OK - I thought the PH reading might have been quite too far acidic based on how well other things have done in the same soil (different location in the yard) and the meter was well, crappy.

I have not done a legit soil sample (I'm lazy, yeah) however...

I did still have a jar of soil in water I used to gauge the soil particle consistency. (Laziness might have paid off) I saw it sitting around after these responses and decided to try this out. I shook the jar, which has been sealed since I took the dirt out, and divided the portions equally in two containers. You might guess what happened next.

Baking Soda into one - Vinegar into the other. Neither of the samples reacted before or after agitation, except for the ghost of a pop in the cup with vinegar added, but certainly no vigorous reaction. In the spirit of bad science, I added a little of the opposite to each, and got the expected fizz.

This can't possibly mean that my soil is close to PH neutral, can it? I figure I'm missing something here.

I will certainly try and educate myself on legitimate fertilization as well. I hadn't really thought about the hard water we have here, and though i was planning on doing the gradual timing as mentioned, looks like i still have quite a bit to research.

As far as the stink bugs... they just take bites from everything, leaving puckers on the fruit, which is lame. I think that the large part of my infestation last year was my own fault from bad practice, but that's been amended.

The foil sheets are more for bugs that do ground egg-laying. May be an old wives tale, but i've seen chatter that it can help prevent bugs from laying eggs in the roots. but who knows. Either way, I've been using nematodes as well, and that seemed to help. All i have to do now is handle the first wave of cucumber beetle invasion without losing all of my cucurbits again.

In the spirit of bad science, I added a little of the opposite to each, and got the expected fizz. This can't possibly mean that my soil is close to PH neutral, can it? I figure I'm missing something here.

Love that bad science! :-) What you are missing is the pH of the water in the mix. Which is guaranteed to be alkaline. No value in determining the pH of the soil itself.

If you don't want to have a soil test done - which is strongly recommended and should be available from the local county extension office - then they should at least be able to tell you what the average regional soil pH is.

Given the pest problems you list, explore the use of Surround (TM), a kaolin clay based pest control.

Dave

If you want to redo the bad science, try using a new bottle of distilled water to disperse the soil in. Soil pH meters are a little silly tbh... but I can see the appeal. I second the recommendation to call your extension and find out pH of the soil type in your area. Soil surveys can give you a lot of that information too.

do you just have these 4 box's ? I ask because where are you going to rotate the tomatoes to in successive seasons?

How are you going to make 6 foot CRW cages when the stuff comes in 5 foot wide rolls ?

What are you doing for disease control?

Tennandy: Negative. I have 24 beds in total, and have the capability to rotate tomatoes/peppers/corn/leafy greens over 4 years.

Redheads: I have a line to a building/restoration company for my CRW. and it does come in larger than 5 foot, link provided for example.

Yumatomatoes: Trying to avoid it in the first place, It's the area I have the least experience in, which is saying something =P I'm covering everything to avoid dirt splash, the tomatoes are in a place that gets fairly constant wind when we have it, i'm using soaker hoses instead of top watering. I've been researching options for organic/non organic fungicides, pesticides, etc, and I have yet to settle on anything specific. I imagine that I will be exploring options and testing different things to see what works. if you have any suggestions - Please feel free =)

I may try out the distilled water idea. the county extension office here is bunk. there are plenty of gardens here and even stray cast seeds thrive. I had a rogue watermelon last year that grew when i just tossed the seed into the yucca plants, had one left over after planting. the USGS maps list low PH levels, i think they use the county survey numbers. but it's also listed in the 4.5-6.5 range... so who knows. I can at least say my stuff still grows ok =)

Here is a link that might be useful: Example of re-mesh sizes

"Tennandy: Negative. I have 24 beds in total, and have the capability to rotate tomatoes/peppers/corn/leafy greens over 4 years"

good to know ,that is so crucial I had to ask ..
sounds like your on the right track all around.

Honestly the ability to extensively rotate isn't all that important unless you have a serious disease problem.

Millions of home gardeners grow in the same garden bed year after year with no problems. Many have no choice. Good soil amending compensates for most problems.

Rathos - if nothing else consider adding some lime to your soil. Not too much. But a little can't hurt and sure could help. My native soil pH is so alkaline that I can't even breathe lime anywhere near it but you sure could with that pH. Just something to consider when you keep in mind that if the pH is actually that far out of whack it would make much difference how much fertigation you use. ;)

Dave