Tomato Question

I think last year someone posted about putting an antacid table under the root ball when planting tomatoes. If you do this, tell me how many you use, and why you do it.

Tomatoes need calcium. You can do the crushed up antacids, fish heads, egg shells, raccoon carcasses, etc in the hole . Latter needs to be done well before the planting season.

I do it.It gives needed calcium to prevent blossom end rot.

I apply sweet barn lime in the fall

I use a bit of lime and gypsum mixed with my potting soil when I move the seedling into solo cups.

One advantage of having soil with pH levels well over 7 like we have where I garden.

Bryce

We use feed lime it’s a finer grind and cheaper to use on 400 plants.

Two different things. Epson salt has no calcium. It is magnesium sulfate.

Calcium nitrate , in a garden store? Where do you find it?

Our local Ace hardware sells it.

This is what i use, you can apply periodically throughout the season and it gives them a nice little boost of fertilizer to!

Some good tips! I like this product to battle blossom end rot...






It's used as a foliar feed so it doesn't get tied up in the soil.

I throw egg shells in the garden all year long.
Also add some with each plant.

Thanks

I put probably a hundred or more shells in my compost pile in a year's time, I still need lime

I use the stop rot , start spray weekly as soon as I see blossoms but should probably start sooner to encourage faster growth.

spray everything melons , zucchini , peppers , tomatoes if it has a blossom I spray it

2 aspirin and a handful of Epsom salts worked for me last year. Google “ things to add to tomato transplants”

SPEND THE MONEY AND GET A SOIL TEST!!! All these methods may be great (some more than others) but if you have soil problems with the same symptoms as calcium deficiency, you may be disappointed or "chasing a big doe instead of a trophy buck", with the results................. the mike

Blossom end rot comes from a need for calcium, so I have read. Epsom salt is magnesium, not calcium.
Water tomato plants twice weekly for a total of one inch of water per week. Best to water in the AM. Daily watering is not recommended. Can’t get through to my wife. She wants to use Epsom Salt and water every afternoon.

Soil needs to have a chance to dry out before you water again

I tried something last year that worked well I will be doing more this year

when the plant was about a foot and a half tall I took a cardboard box it was about 16 inches square and maybe a foot tall. I cut a hole in the bottom about 10 inches round and put the box upside down over a tomatoes plant a little dirt hoed up over the flaps of the box to hold it down , then I filled in around the plant with compost.

when I first plant my transplants I bury them to the first set of leaves this gets them about 4-6 inches deep in the soil. adding the box had the roots covered by more than a foot of soil and compost

that plant grew very well and needed less watering than all the others the box and compost hold the water and are a nutrient boost.

if you have a box and compost give it a try

less watering , less weeding , good growth and fruit

Last year I dug a fairly deep trench for my tomatoes and fill it about half full of manure mulch, put some dirt on and planted my tomatoes with an 18 inch of landscape cloth slit for each plant. Way less weeds, plenty of nutrients and far less rain drops splashing fungus spores on the plants. I am going to do that with more rows and plants this year.I still sprayed with a fungicide every 7-10 days for a couple months too. I have just never found a good way to make carrots easier to thin and weed but keep working on it.

Bryce

only successful carrots I have grown were in strait compost in a raised bed

one of the farms we have bought carrots from uses pelletized seed so that it can go in a planter and the do long rows with the planter that will plant about 6 feet wide and can do a plant about ever 4-6 inches in rows about 6 inches apart much like a grain drill. I think they till it wait a couple weeks and till it again then plant.

Thank you. I have had good carrots it is just time consuming to get that done. I am also trying to figure out when to plant so some can be dug say in early November. Peas are similar, it is a lot of effort for a few bags of peas, but then I can shell them during the Brewer games so that is not such a bad deal. I had some decent sweet potatoes last year but found out that for me they did not store very well at all.

Bryce