I’m not sure what’s wrong with my tomato plants
chisel004
5 years ago
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FlwrGal
5 years agochisel004
5 years agoRelated Discussions
2 tomatoes, repot? right soil? I'm doing it all wrong!
Comments (9)One opinion; (get a few more opinions before betting the "farm") Changing your soil will give you the biggest payback; Faster draining and better aerating soil is what you want, along with an appropriate fertilizing and watering scheme. If you can get a 7-10 galllon container that will also help. You will need 2 people for repotting with minimal trauma to that size plant. decide on your new pot size, buy enough Lowes Sta-Green potting mix, Pine bark and perlite for Als 5-1-1 mix. You can make it 4-1-1 or even 3-1-1 but thats still mostly pine bark. Add some appropriate fertilizer to mix. Drill holes all over your container vertical walls for aerating, some bottom holes for draining. Blend your new potting mix, PLAN how you are going to extract your plant from the existing pot and vast majority of soil then implant in the new mix. You dont need to absolutely 'bare root', but gently get the majority of the old soil from the rootball with minimum trauma to roots, stems, branches and leaves. (The healthier a plant is, the better it can endure being Bare rooted, but the less it has to have it. The sicker a plant is- the more it needs being Bare rooted, but the more susceptable it is to trauma from all the handling.) Install in destination pot and new mix. Gently trellis and tie. Water till water runs out drainage holes. Trim leaves and branches beyond recovery. Put in shade for at least 24 hours. monitor. When looking healthier, move into partial sun. Keep moisture at root level pretty moist for 3 days, then let it go thru the moist/slightly dry cycle. Add weak non-organic fertilizer weekly. The more of these steps you do, the easier you make it for the plant to succeed with a given that all gardeners make some errors, and nature does not always give optimum conditions. Best d...See MoreNot sure what I'm doing wrong
Comments (12)It doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong. I wish I could see your photobucket picture, though. I assume it was of your feeder. Sometimes I wonder if certain feeders are easier to get the hang of than others. Or, maybe certain birds have no experience with feeders at all, or only have experience with certain types and have trouble understanding others. I don't claim to know, just wondering. I first started feeding the hummingbirds last August. A female and some young birds were visiting our trumpet vine by the window, and I decided it would be fun to try a feeder to draw them in closer. I bought one at the store that was pretty, but didn't work very well. I salvaged the rubber stopper from it, and stuck it into a small glass bottle we had lying around. Next, I fashioned a fairly realistic bright red flower from artist's sculpey clay, poked a hole through it with a bamboo skewer, and attached it to the stopper. I made a wire harness and hung the bottle at a slight downward angle. To my joy, and surprise, they instantly went for it. My goal was to make it as similar in appearance and function to a flower, and it looks like I succeeded. Or, maybe they were just feeder savvy. I don't know. Also, although the glass bottle is certainly not natural, it's quite small. Sometimes I wonder if hummers can be intimidated by larger feeders, or confused by ones that don't have recognizable flowers. They are inquisitive though, and I imagine that they will inspect almost anything that's red or looks like a brightly colored flower, and will soon lose their fear of anything strange. Whatever your feeder design, I imagine they will catch on soon enough. With temperatures around 80, you may want to change the nectar every other day, instead of every third. Every third is probably OK, too, but if you're having trouble getting them, why not provide the freshest nectar possible?...See MoreI'm not sure I 'get' tomatoes 4/4sq ft spacing
Comments (3)You really should get and read a copy of the SFG book for reference. Basically, plant four indeterminate tomato plants in four square feet, trellised up the north side of your box. Then you still have twelve squares (in a 4' x 4' box) for planting other, shorter crops. Do an internet search on how to prune tomatoes, or check the tomato forum. There are some really good web pages with detailed diagrams outlining the ways to prune. I thought that my indeterminate vine tomatoes did pretty well last year using that 4/4 layout. I also did a box of determinate bush tomatoes, where I planted five plants. It turned into a huge tangled mess of tomato plants where blight thrived and the tomatoes did not....See MoreWhat’s wrong with my tomato plant?
Comments (18)Yes and no. First the excess nitrogen needs to be removed and this may sound strange to you but you should feed the microbes sawdust, ground up twigs or cardboard. Feeding the microbes a diet low in nitrogen and high in carbon will force the microbes to consume excess nitrogen in the soil to live. The microbes main diet is carbon and nitrogen at a ratio of 24 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen and the items I mentioned have a ratio of 378 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen for cardboard and up to 500 to 1 for twigs and sawdust. They eat the carbon and turn to the excess nitrogen in the soil to eat, problem fixed. So get about a 1/2 cup of ground up cardboard, twigs or sawdust and mix into the soil. (you figure out how to grind them up) After a couple of weeks it's time to start feeding the plants again but only with the fish stuff DON'T use the Trifecta! It was a one time application only. Fish emulsion has a 5-1-1 nutrient ratio and right now your plant needs MORE potassium than nitrogen the fish stuff doesn't have, so 1/2 of a dried banana peel will do every two weeks. Fish emulsion has 3 to 5 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen so when consumed by the microbes they leave a lot of nitrogen for the plant to use. Adding any other source of nitrogen will be too much. But if you really want to make the plant healthy and happy get some alfalfa meal, it's rich in everything a tomato plants needs that the fish stuff doesn't. Cut the fish stuff in half and cut the alfalfa meal recommendations in half and you will never have a nutrient problem suffered by many who use pots to grow in. The plant that has already grown will never produce a flower or tomato and flowers will only appear on new growth so don't worry, and cutting off the bottom leaves didn't hurt it a bit. To be honest I never read your original post so I didn't know you mentioned no flowers, All I looked at was the picture....See Morechisel004
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