Some very good points & you are correct that paste tomatoes are more prone to BER. I think they are ones that require, as you specify, more attention to soil composition & micronutrients (especially Calcium). I believe I bought my SM seeds from Wal-Mart or Lowe's. Probably Ferry Morse, as that's the brand I usually buy, if any, at the "box stores." My BER experience is what made me get off the typical "box store" fertilizers like MG & go on a fertilization plan that Al uses, which has worked great! :) I am ready to try the paste varieties again & am growing San Marzano Lungo No 2 & Amish Paste this year. I am confident that with my improved fertilization plan & soil composition plan, that I will have great luck with them. I used to use pre-bagged somewhat higher quality soils like MG Moisture Control Potting mix, etc.. They worked great for most veggies. Some of the more "touchy" ones work better in soils with pine bark, perlite, etc.. I guess i'll find out soon if my attempt at the SM's & Amish Paste is successfull, as my wee seedlings are starting to grow their first true sets of leaves now! Yay! =) Happy Gardening! - Steve P.S. _ started my gardening blog in the late Winter of 2008/2009. I looked through my posts from 2009 & found the one where I talk about the BER on the Marzano's. Towards the bottom of the post below. You can see how healthy the plants look (and how nice all my other maters look). Disappointing to revisit it...lol...A hard learning experience that I will rectify this year! =) Here is a link that might be useful: July 2009 BER On SM Plants Post

With all due respect to glib, you'll find very few composters that will agree that "kitchen compost is the only one with oomph" or that yard waste compost lacks nutrients. If that were true there would be many compost-starved gardens in this world. ;) As chaman said, yard waste compost contains ample nutrients and in a readily useable form for the plants, and millions of composters who only compost yard wastes will attest to that. Further, the use of "fresh manures" in any food plot, much less top dressing with it, is strongly discouraged and has been for years because of the problems of manure pathogens and food contact. The standard recommendation is that only well-composted (4-6 months minimum) manures be used in food plots. You'll find numerous discussions on this issue over on the Soil & Compost forum. Lastly, as both chaman and I have already said, yellowing of older leaves on plants that started out healthy is due to excessive water NOT nitrogen deficiency. Please do a search of the forum using the term "yellowing leaves" and you will find literally hundreds of discussions about this issue and many suggestions on how the problem can be eliminated. All of this is not to say that your plants may need some fertilizer/supplement feeding if only because over-watering dilutes and washes out the nutrients. But nutrient insufficiency is not the primary cause of your problems as you have identified them. Good luck and I sincerely hope this is helpful to you. Dave

In my opinion, you may have up to three problems at same time. Too much fertilizer, too much soil moisture and sunburn. If I were you, I would start again with a porous soil (search for "5-1-1 mix"), don't fertilize and no direct sun for a time. When temperatures reach 35º C, move to a cooler site. When you see new growth, you can return to a standard fertlizing schedule and sun light. I recommend starting with half strength of a soluble fertilizer.

The problem with the lower leaves has nothing to do with a nitrogen deficiency. They are just old laves that have lived out their life span. The tree is now taking all of the nitrogen out of the leaf to disperse to other parts of the tree, be for it discard them. A citrus tree provides no welfare plan for old leaves that can no longer pull their weight. Your tree is fine, nothing to concern yourself with.