I've Never Grown a Tomato in my life. Advice needed please?
Garden Mist
6 years ago
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Sherry8aNorthAL
6 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years agoRelated Discussions
A summary to everything i've grown so far
Comments (7)Anthony, "...the soil im using is Pro-Mix BX but it dries out very fast." Premier's Pro-Mix BX is good stuff and I would be using it myself if I could find it here in this area of Kansas. I used a lot of it when we lived in Maine. It retains water better than the bark-based stuff I am using here. However, BX has a very limited amount of nutrients, and is designed to nourish seedlings for only a few weeks. I am treating my fast-draining medium as if it were a hydroponic substrate and watering it with a dilute solution containing a complete hydroponic diet. Since my operation is quite small compared to yours, I can afford to use premium quality urea-free nutrients like Better-Gro's Orchid Plus and Better-Gro's Orchid Bloom Booster, but that stuff costs about $7 a pound, so for greenhouse quantities you would probably be looking for a cheaper source of nutrients. My hand-pollinated zinnias love the orchid food. There are a lot of commercial-sized hydroponic operations, so there are hydroponic nutrients that cost much less per pound. Most "complete" nutrient formulas, like Miracle-Gro and Better-Gro, don't have calcium, because if they did it would precipitate with the phosphates and sulfates in the solution. Both calcium phosphate and calcium sulfate are relatively insoluble in water. I discovered the need for calcium nutrition the hard way a few years ago, after my indoor zinnia plants developed severe calcium deficiency symptoms growing in Pro-Mix BX, even though BX does have enough calcium for a few weeks. I ordered a pound of calcium nitrate from EveryBody's Garden Center and, by feeding calcium nitrate solution separately, I solved the calcium deficiency problem. With the added calcium nitrate, my zinnias became quite healthy and went on to produce big blooms indoors under my fluorescent lights. Since I dilute the calcium nitrate to one-half teaspoon per gallon, a pound of it goes a long way. Plants use a lot of calcium, and it is classified as a macronutrient instead of as a micronutrient. I later learned that if you predilute the calcium nitrate and predilute the other nutrients, that you can combine the solutions without precipitation. But it is OK to apply them separately, too. ZM...See MoreNever seen more slugs in my life . Seek advice
Comments (9)Marie - You have my heartfelt sympathy; slugs are disgusting! This brought back memories of a former garden where we were overrun by slugs one summer. We tried beer traps (didn't make a dent in the population) and beer traps with a bit of flour mixed in (ditto) and boards laid down so that the slugs would be easily squished by stepping on the boards when they hid under them (we would have had to pave the yard with boards to make a dent.) Crumbled eggshells on the ground were supposed to be too sharp for the slugs, but the birds ate them. Eventually we ended up making "slug-kabobs" ten-inch nails that we used to spike them and then drop them into a can of salt. The last may not have made any more of a dent than any of the other strategies, but it sure was satisfying in a revolting sort of way. Some other remedies we read about but didn't try were copper strips around all the gardens supposedly to set up an electrical charge on their bodies (too impractical and seemed suspect scientifically) and pool filter diatomaceous earth spread on the ground was supposed to slice them (but would have done the same to our lungs had we inhaled it.) They never were so bad in following seasons. However, if you want a solution that's relatively safe to wildlife except for slugs and relatively effective try Sluggo. I know that you can order it from Hummingbird Farms in ME, but you may find some closer to home....See MoreReview: The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain
Comments (17)"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." ��" Jorge Luis Borges "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." ��" Frederick Douglass "The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I [haven't] read." ��" Abraham Lincoln "So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away. And in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall." ��" Roald Dahl "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." ��" Emilie Buchwald "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." ��" Groucho Marx "I used to walk to school with my nose buried in a book." ��" Coolio "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." ��" Dr. Seuss "Wear the old coat and buy the new book." ��" Austin Phelps "You may have tangible wealth untold. Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be ��" I had a mother who read to me." ��" Strickland Gillilan "The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can't." ��" Mark Twain "To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark." ��" Victor Hugo, Les Miserables "Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words!" ��" A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, 1943 "There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." ��" Walt Disney "Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them." ��" Lemony Snicket "A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket." ��" Chinese Proverb "You know youâÂÂve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend." ��" Paul Sweeney "There is no substitute for books in the life of a child." ��" May Ellen Chase "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." ��" Margaret Fuller "A book is a gift you can open again and again." ��" Garrison Keillor "There is no frigate like a book, to take us lands away" ��" Emily Dickinson "When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate. " ��" Mem Fox "Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks." ��" Dr. Seuss "I'm wondering what to read next." ��" Matilda, Roald Dahl "Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift."......See Moresevere tomato leaf curling - need advice
Comments (8)Hi Alex. I have one tomato plant that looks exactly the same as yours does. I live in a condo and remembered getting a notice weeks ago that the landscapers were going to be spraying the lawns for weed control, so for my plant, I think the damage was definitely from herbicide. The bottom half of the plant looked normal and the top half looked exactly like yours with severely curled/folded stunted leaves. After weeks of having hundreds of flowers and no new tomatoes setting and no new growth on the plant, I finally lopped off the top half of my Husky Cherry tomato plant, removing all of the severely deformed curled/folded leaves. Within a few days of chopping off the top half of the plant, that looks like it was affected herbicide, all of a sudden the plant started setting new tomatoes and I went from having 18 cherry tomatoes to 30. I don't see any new flowers yet, but I see a few new suckers growing. I'm guessing the plant is now able to put all of it's energy into setting fruit into wasting it on the damaged top half of the plant that wasn't doing anything. I'm anxious to see if the new branches will have normal leaves or if they'll be deformed. Pam...See Moremaxjohnson
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agodaninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
6 years agoMicky Tkac
6 years agofungus
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoMokinu
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoMokinu
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agocoolbythecoast
6 years ago
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