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Growing Tomatoes

'New' Tomato-tone vs. 'Old' Tomato-tone - Results to Date 4/21/09

15 years ago

While it is early in the Season, so far the "Old" Tomato-tone appears to be outperforming the "New" Tomato-tone in both plant vigor and flower production. Here are three sets of plants with "Old" Tomato-tone on the left plants, and "New" Tomato-tone plants on the right of each EarthTainer. I am using a mechanical barrier to separate the plants and fertilizer from each other. The photos demonstrate its effectiveness.

Cold Set:

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Goose Creek:

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Ed's Millennium:

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I'll update the photos again in 30 days.

Raybo

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Comments (11)

athenainwi
15 years ago
I don't see a huge difference except in the last photo. Have you started a count of blossoms and leaves (and possibly height measurements)?
gobig_or_gohome_toms
15 years ago
Nice looking plants Raybo, Have you ever done a comparison between miracle grow moisture control and the non moisture control? The local Costco has been carrying the 2.5 cubic foot bags of the moisture control potting mix but I have never used it. I know from past posts you do not use the moisture control mix either and just wondered why.

Craig
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Folks, Don't be fooled into thinking the Tomato-tone circa 2005 is the same Tomato-tone sold today. Formulation on the left is the "original" Tomato-tone. The Espoma folks significantly changed the ingredients and lowered the potency (as well as the bag size from 5 lbs, to now 4 lbs. My trials last Season comparing the "Old" Tomato-tone vs. their "New" Tomato-tone showed me, using the same dosage, poorer growth and productivity. Is the "New" Tomato-tone effective? Yes, but give me back the "Old" formulation any day! Raybo
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Rosarama, im in no way taking credit for this growing medium, I learned about it on this forum. Its strickly for containers for what I know about it. The man that came up with it to my knowledge is Al Tapla. 5 parts pine bark, ground up cut up or whatever is done to it till its the average size of a dime. 1 part coarse perlite 1 part peat 2 cups dolimite, 1 cup of pro max minors, 2 cups of slow release fertilizer I mix every thing in a 36 gal container, a little at a time. I believe its the best thing since sliced bread. Look up and study Als mix. If your serious about growing maters in containers you should learn about Als mix, it would save you a lot of heart ache, and make you much more successful in growing in containers. Plant em if you got em. Sam
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I'm in Zone 5, central Indiana. I saw on the news this morning that we have had almost 4" of rain above average for the month of June, and May was just as wet. Since I've put my plants out in the SWC's I think I've used the hose to water them about 5 or 6 times. I check the water level every day and when it gets below 2" I add water. I also was able to find the old Tomato Tone Fertilizer and I used that in all but 1 SWC. The area where the plants are sitting gets at least 6 hours of sun each day. Lastb year my plants shot up and grew like crazy very quickly but then they seemed to fizzle out in late August. Thanks for the replies.
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I would suggest it's a bit early to dismiss the supercropping as possible cause of the BER. I agree it's not likely, but one plant without symptoms doesn't necessarily prove the supercropping wasn't at fault. It's possible the control plant had some variable in its favor that made the difference. Of course it's more likely there was some other minor variable that pushed things against the plants with BER. For the aphids I'd say either go biological or get out the big guns. Hardcore pesticides aren't great, but sometimes it's better than a total loss. Oh, and leaving the fruit on can make the BER persist. Each of those fruits represents a major future investment of plant resources. If there isn't enough to go around (a calcium shortage causing BER) the more fruit they're trying to grow the more thinly it's spread and the worse the problem is likely to get. I'd advise removing anything with even a hint of BER. Force the plant to redirect it's resources to areas that aren't already lost causes. It may be time to look for a superior source for nutrition. I've been using Advanced Nutrients for awhile now without trouble. It might work better for you as well.
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rnewste
Original Author
15 years ago
ath,

The Cold Set plant with the Old Tomato-tone looks much greener and has multiple flowers. The Ed's Millennium is quite apparent. The only "measurement" that I will be doing is Taste difference (if any), and secondly, quantity of production. Too early to make any conclusions other than to say there is a noticeable difference between the two formulations. Hopefully, the New Tomato-tone will surpass the Old.

gobig,

I found the MG with MC held too much water for my EarthTainer setup last season, and switched to using MG without MC. It was 25% cheaper on a cu. ft. basis as well, and worked better for me. Your results may vary........

Raybo
bencjedi
15 years ago
The old Tomato Tone is impossible to find in my area. It's hard to find Tomato Tone at all. I finally found some of the new stuff. Although not the A/B comparison Raybo is doing.. I have Earthtainers using the old formulation of Garden Tone and some in separate ETs using the new Tomato Tone. I'll post pictures as time progresses if anyone is interested.
tomatovator
15 years ago
Ray,
Just curious. Do they still make the "Old Tomato-Tone"? If not then why bother testing it now. Testing 2 current products would give some useable results for next year. Testing a product that you can't buy any more seems like a waste of time and effort. What do you hope to accomplish?
earthworm73
15 years ago
Yup I have not been able to find any Tomato Tone in my area either. Last year I found it in one store but had already planted my maters and didn't need it. I figured I would buy some this year but can't find any.
bdobs
15 years ago
Tomatovato.
No they dont still make it. I am interested, and I believe Ray is interested in the results, becasue the old TomatoTone was his, and my, food of choice.
Should we hunt down a new Tomato food, or will the new Tomatotone produce results as good as the old formulation?
rnewste
Original Author
15 years ago
tomatovator,

What bdobs said. Plus, I have 10 bags of the "Old" 4-7-10 Tomato-tone and I now have 12 bags of the "New" 3-4-6 tomato-tone in my inventory, so I am trying to evaluate if the "New" Tomato-tone is an improvement - - or a backwards step.

I may try to "blend" one bag of the old with a bag of the new next season to try to stretch the benefits of the kelp and Micros. As bdobs said, the "Old" Tomato-tone was our perfect fertilizer, and now they messed with it!! Hopefully, the "messing" proves out to be an improvement. We shall see.

Raybo
bencjedi
15 years ago
tomatovator

I believe Raybo's comparative analysis is going to prove useful. If the new formulation of Tomato-Tone sucks and enough people complain, perhaps Espoma will go back to the old recipe. It's great he is taking the time to set up a more or less controlled A/B comparison for the benefits of tomato growers nationwide. If new Tomato-Tone does a bang-up job then we'll all be happy with the new stuff and call it a day.
tomatojoa
15 years ago
I think Raybo is doing the perfect science experiment! I, for one, am interested to know how the new Tomato-Tone stacks up against the old, and with Raybo's data we'll have the answer at the end of the summer. I hate it when manufacturers mess with a perfectly good product...
bluemater
15 years ago
I work at a independent garden center and I believe the reason they switched the formula is because prices for fertilzer have skyrocketed (especially phosphate)...so all the manufacturers have lowered the amount of it in their mixes and/or have cut back on the amount or weight of the package to keep the pricing as low as possible (4# bag instead of 5#, 20# instead of 25#, etc)...for example, the retail price of Espoma's 5# bag of Triple Phosphate went from $6.99 a bag last year to $18.99 this year and is now a 4# bag!

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