Newbie Advice on planting tomatoes

[Chuck]

Pardon my language but all except the peat in your post is garbage. I wouldn't feed that stuff to a weed. A 40# bag of Medina Gro and Green will cost about 20$ and will last you a long time. Everything you are using is a detriment to your soil and is lacking in a lot of minerals. I figured you were using MG the moment I looked at your picture. Can't you scrounge around and find someone with chickens, cows or horses and get the manure? That is is best to add to your soil. Medina is a great organic fertilizer made from chicken manure and is readily available all over Texas.

 

[TomatoNut]

Garbage is my exact same word!! But where do you buy this Medina stuff? I see no such thing sold around my area. Miracle-Gro, Burpee and Scotts things are really pushed around here. Also, I see nothing fascinating about peat moss, it dries up something awful. There is nothing wrong with Miracle-Gro; it has many nutrients in it, but it so expensive. I do prefer to use it in pots rather than having to add to my raised garden. My potted tomatoes are happy with it I guess. My 'mystery tomato' is very happy.. I don't normally have tomatoes that 'fluffy' in my backyard unless it's a compact, or cherry type. Must be the huge pot it's in. Tomatoes like to have a lot of 'root room' right?

 

[marlingardener]

TomatoNut, we are on blackland prairie soil. Rich in nutrients, slow to drain, and gummy. The only additive we use is composted steer manure, a bit put in the hole when the tomato is planted out of its cube, and again when it starts to flower. When the Celebrities start to flower again in the fall, we add more composted manure.
Your tomato in the photo may be suffering from transplant shock. If so, it will recover given time. It really doesn't look that bad to me.

 

[headfullofbees]

Prove me wrong.
What is the science behind planting tomatoes deep?

Chuck: you agree that leggy transplants, even when planted deep, don't ever really catch up.
How can you be sure that planting deep isn't what holds them up.
Why would a plant (any plant) be able to benefit from roots outside its natural rhizosphere?

 

[TomatoNut]

Marlingardener, I doubt it's transplant shock. This happens only when I plant in my raised garden. I agree with Chuck; my garden is garbage. Chuck, how do I go about adding boron to my garden?

 

[KingTwistedKidd]

Thanks everyone for your input. They are in bigger pots now, and will likely be another couple weeks till I can plant. Its supposed to rain and be windy all week, I'm not a fan of the spring weather this year.

 

[TomatoNut]

It's no science, it is simply that any part of a buried tomato stem will form roots, thus helping to make a stronger plant! Gardening is not learned through science, it is learned through experience, and by listening to expert gardeners like Chuck and my grand-grandparents!

 

[Chuck]

Garbage is my exact same word!! But where do you buy this Medina stuff? I see no such thing sold around my area. Miracle-Gro, Burpee and Scotts things are really pushed around here. Also, I see nothing fascinating about peat moss, it dries up something awful. There is nothing wrong with Miracle-Gro; it has many nutrients in it, but it so expensive. I do prefer to use it in pots rather than having to add to my raised garden. My potted tomatoes are happy with it I guess. My 'mystery tomato' is very happy.. I don't normally have tomatoes that 'fluffy' in my backyard unless it's a compact, or cherry type. Must be the huge pot it's in. Tomatoes like to have a lot of 'root room' right?

Just exactly where do you live? Have you called around to hardware stores, feed stores, nurseries? Medina products are made in Texas, sold state wide and are sold in multi-states. Your soil is very alkaline unless you live in far east Texas and there it is mildly acidic. Peat gives a little acidity and is also a great soil builder because of its fairly long term viability as organic material. MG is a synthetic product that only feeds plants and does nothing for the soil. MG is lacking in many trace minerals. Why folks continue to buy this stuff is beyond me when there are literally dozens if not hundreds of much better products out there. Please update you profile as to where you live. I will find a store close to you that sells Medina products. Medina is only one of many companies in Texas that sell excellent organic products. Anything but Scotts and MG will be better.
And yes, tomatoes need room as their roots go deep.

 

[Chuck]

Marlingardener, I doubt it's transplant shock. This happens only when I plant in my raised garden. I agree with Chuck; my garden is garbage. Chuck, how do I go about adding boron to my garden?

All organic fertilizers have all the needed trace minerals. I don't think you can buy boron, it is just already in organic products. It may not be boron, it could be one of many trace minerals but the picture looks more like a boron deficiency than say manganese or magnesium which are the most common.

 

[TomatoNut]

I live in Timpson, Chuck. Dinky place. I shop mainly in Center. For gardening supplies I go to either Wal-Mart(which I hate) and Tractor Supply. On some occasion, I go to Lowes in Nacogdoches. (But I do avoid Sta-Green dirts. Talk about garbage) Believe me, I would stop buying Miracle-Gro if I could. But it so popular around here. I never see any brand called Medina. Ok, so how do I add manganese or magnesium?

 

[Chuck]

Prove me wrong.
What is the science behind planting tomatoes deep?

Chuck: you agree that leggy transplants, even when planted deep, don't ever really catch up.
How can you be sure that planting deep isn't what holds them up.
Why would a plant (any plant) be able to benefit from roots outside its natural rhizosphere?

That is a good question. How do we really know if the plant never catches up. That would be like trying to prove a double negative. The reason why to plant deep is to keep the plant from being killed by the wind. Plant a 14 inch tall tomato with a trunk 2/3rds the size of a pencil 3 inches deep and see what happens. I suppose you could say I plant normal, good robust transplants deep too, but a couple of inches deeper, a little past the cotyledon leaves? When half grown the two root systems are basically all the same.

 

[Chuck]

I live in Timpson, Chuck. Dinky place. I shop mainly in Center. For gardening supplies I go to either Wal-Mart(which I hate) and Tractor Supply. On some occasion, I go to Lowes in Nacogdoches. (But I do avoid Sta-Green dirts. Talk about garbage) Believe me, I would stop buying Miracle-Gro if I could. But it so popular around here. I never see any brand called Medina. Ok, so how do I add manganese or magnesium?

You may not need either one but you can try 1/2 cup of epsom salts around the base for magnesium. Manganese is not available AFAIK either, it is just part of organic fertilizers.

 

[headfullofbees]

@ Tomatonut:
You admit your garden is garbage; you use poison on your soil, yet you want to lecture anyone on anything horticultural?
Organic matter is the best source of manganese, boron, etc. but you have probably killed all the microbes in your soil which can make it available to plants with your soil poison.

 

[headfullofbees]

That is a good question. How do we really know if the plant never catches up. That would be like trying to prove a double negative. The reason why to plant deep is to keep the plant from being killed by the wind. Plant a 14 inch tall tomato with a trunk 2/3rds the size of a pencil 3 inches deep and see what happens. I suppose you could say I plant normal, good robust transplants deep too, but a couple of inches deeper, a little past the cotyledon leaves? When half grown the two root systems are basically all the same.

If your stems are that weak, they'd break in the wind anyway.
Better for production of tomatoes, (which, since the plants are otherwise poisonous, and far from aesthetically pleasing, is why we're here) if you stake them, like we do in UK, or cage them.

 

[headfullofbees]

It's no science, it is simply that any part of a buried tomato stem will form roots, thus helping to make a stronger plant! Gardening is not learned through science, it is learned through experience, and by listening to expert gardeners like Chuck and my grand-grandparents!

Did your grand-grandparents teach you to use miracle poison?
I have shown you video evidence that tomatoes do not form roots all the way along the buried stem, only the top two inches or so.
What do you need?
You are treating horticulture more like a religion than a science, which it certainly is: botany is an arm of biology.

Biology - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org