Hi. If you don't mind using the mail, I have two excellent sources for you. One is Gardeners Supply Company. I use a lot of their stuff (so much so that they know me by name! LOL!) Anyway, they have a terrific, organic tomato fertilizer which I am using this year. Now go on to the next post as I have a second address to give you. MacThayer

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardener's Supply Company

Well bella - you've gotten some organics into the soil to increase tilth and you've got some 14-14-14 to add to the mix too. Sounds like you might be on the right path. If it suits you then start a compost pile right now and add it all in at the end of the season. It's great for conditioning the soil and will begin to return the soil to a more natural state. Tomatoes like a bit of phosphorus as opposed to heavy nitrogen so try and find a source of that and you should be good to go. Keep the watering steady but not heavy and keep reading what the folks here post. Good stuff !!

Your local county extension service could hook you up with a soil test that would include recommended nutrient application rates customized to your specific garden soil deficiencies.

In the absence of soil test recommendations, apply 2-3 pounds of a complete fertilizer such as 5-10-5, 10-10-10, 6-10-4, or 9-12-12 per 100 square feet of garden area. I've had excellent results from 9-12-12. Work the fertilizer in as you till or spade.

At the initial application across the entire garden bed, do not apply high nitrogen fertilizers such as those recommended for lawns as it will produce an abundance of foliage and not promote a good yield of fruit.

When you transplant your tomatoes into their individual holes, you could do something as simple as making your own starter solution by dissolving 2 tablespoons of a high phosphorus fertilizer such as 6-10-4 or 5-10-5 per two gallons of water in a large watering can and water in your transplants.

You might also try a Miracle-Gro type fertilizer for watering-in transplants. If you do, I'd recommend the "rose formula" which is 18-24-16 and I'd apply it at 1/2 to 3/4 tablespoon per gallon of water. Adding a tablespoon of Epsom salts to the watering-in solution would help as well.

Your bone meal will add phosphorus and that would be good at the time just before flowering ... to help the plants convert more fully over to a phosphorus-based chemistry that promotes more flower production. So, I'd go ahead and side dress that in close to the transplants early and use a rake to get it just under the soil and into the feeder root zone before those roots spread out in the first month after transplant.

Blood meal adds nitrogen, and I'd use that sparingly if you're already using a granular fertilizer with sufficient nitrogen count. But a bit of additional nitrogen is desired at three times during the season: 1-2 weeks after first fruits are set, 2 weeks after picking first ripe fruit, and 6 weeks after picking first ripe fruit.

Bill

I have osmocote 14-14-14 and i have bonemeal and bloodmeal...I suggest you give your current mix a week or so (from initial application) and conduct another test. The 14-14-14 should be very fast acting on boosting the N-P-K. The cow will not be as fast acting in that regard. However, OM stuff like cow manure, composted leaves and grass cuttings makes for a much improved "soil." The inorganic fertilizers do not improve the tilth of the soil... I use very little IO fert.

Once you get your soils to a healthy state (for gardening purposes), all that is usually needed is the addition of some OM every season. My "rule" is to try to add ~4# of OM (cow or horse... and it most certainly can be raw stuff) per square foot per year. Not very hard for a small plot.

I observe folks grinding their garden soils to bugdust and then using MG types of ferts. And then wonder why their plots resemble the consistency of a parking lot. Plants need soil nutrients. But they also need an efficient way of transporting them to where they are used.

Reg

Okay ... I looked at your question a bit closer and also re-read my answer.

Since you may use your 14-14-14 as the initial application, I'd mix 2 pounds of that with 1 pound of the bone meal to get 3 pounds of 14-21-14 (bone meal generally has 14% phosphorus plus say 20% calcium and lots of trace elements) and apply that at 3 pounds per 150 square feet of garden area. Then you'd be doing it all in one initial application using an analysis that was higher in phosphorus than in nitrogen.

Second point ... when I said you might try using Miracle-Gro rose formula as a transplant watering-in solution, I didn't mean in addition to the "homemade" solution ... rather instead of. That didn't read real good either time I said it, did it? Oh well.

Basically what I'm doing is trying to get your phosphorus fixed down into the feeder root zone and not having an over-abundance of nitrogen that would create an over-abundance of foliage vs. flowers.

Thanks so much for the wonderful advice. Since i am bout ready to plant i think i will wait on organic since that is pretty slow release and my maters need food now. SO i will incorporate that in the fall, to help build soil and try more organigic practices.

For now though it seems the 14-14-14 should be plenty of nitrogen and potash for my depleted soil, with a boost from bonemeal for P. Now, bill my question to you is this: Should i just broadcast the 14-14-14 over entire bed and til in and then add bonemeal to planting hole so it gets right up close to roots? BTW i understood what you were saying about rose food. :-)

Bella,

Okay, I'm assuming a few things here:

1) Your home soil test was done according to directions ... including that you took enough separate samples from several locations within the area to be gardened and the areas from which you may borrow soil to work into your raised bed. That would give you a good representative reading of soil fertility.

2) You are asking about adding amendments, specifically fertilizer, only to a 4-foot x 12-foot raised bed, or more than one 4-foot x 12-foot raised beds.

3) The raised bed(s) now contain(s) native soil worked up from your tested area along with the composted manure you added to it.

4) I think you also added something you're calling "topsoil" but you don't say whether that particular material is borrowed from your property or imported in a dump truck or store-bought bags. If you bought something called "topsoil," I'm just gonna assume someone sold you some composted forest products, barnyard products, sand, silt and other soil blended into whatever mixture they're passing off as "topsoil" since there are no laws regulating the composition of "topsoil" and most true native topsoil now resides in the Gulf of Mexico.

5) You blended all this material together and added it in "lifts" to the raised bed, tilling the first lift in with the underlying native soil and each subsequent lift with the built-up material as you added it.

If all the above is operative, then you should have a nice tilthy raised bed. Now ...

Your 12-foot x 4-foot raised bed is 48 square feet more or less. So, at the suggested rate of 2 - 3 pounds of 14-14-14 per 100 square feet, you should add 1 to 1-1/2 pounds to the raised bed ... broadcast.

The best way to apply this initial basic application is to add half the fertilizer and till or spade it in thoroughly. Then follow up with the other half of the application atop the bed and rake it in lightly with a steel garden rake. This should incorporate the fertilizer into the upper 7 or so inches of the soil in the bed ... right where the feeder roots can eat it up.

In following years, you can make the annual application of initial fertilizer in a manner that will place the majority of the nutrients in the upper 3 to 5 inches.

Since you apparently do not seem to want to mix one part bonemeal with 2 parts 14-14-14 before applying it as a unified application, as suggested in my first message, I guess the next best thing would be to mix a bit into each planting hole and the area immediately around each planting hole. But I can't readily break it down for you how much to add to each hole ... maybe an ounce or so per hole??? But since you're only dealing with 48 square feet, I think it'd be easier just to work say a half pound to 12 ounces of bone meal into the entire bed at the same time as the 14-14-14 and be done with it.

Again, I would water-in the transplants with a half the recommended strength solution of rose formula Miracle-Grow ... or a homemade solution higher in P and K than N.

Nothing I have suggested qualifies as "organic." So, if you are intent on being totally organic ... and especially if you want to be equal to "certified organic" ... then you should consult someone who will give you guidance in that regard, since what I'm suggesting will bump you out of the ability to claim "organic" for at least the next 3 years.

There are folks here who are 100% organic and will gladly give you guidance in that direction.

Bill

Bill (hoosiercherokee) - well put, informative and generous of you. 'Nuff said.