Newbie Advice on planting tomatoes

[Peace perfect peace]

I completely agree with planting tomatoes deep.

Also, make sure your soil has adequate calcium and magnesium...composted egg shells, oyster shells, ag lime, Epsom salts, bone meal, are all good tomato soil additives.

I couldnt agree more, leggy plants are a result of over watering not enough of all the above lime/calcium etc etc and watering at the wrong time,
Even picking your ripe toms can have an effect on the taste, ie pick early in the morn and the toms juices will be really juicy and the skin firm,
pick the same toms late into the day and you'll find the juice less and the skin softer, try it for your self and see.

More plants are ruined because of over watering or not watering at the right times,
At the time of writing this im top spraying a mist spray on my toms three times a day when the tenmps up around the 70/80deg in the greenhouse,
Again watering from the base is for the roots, spraying to the leaves is just that for leaves plants feed from both areas,
As for feeding toms when in flower i feed a weak tomatoe (shop bought feed) twice in a severn day period

When i mix my comfrey home made liquid feed i feed once a week and nothing else used then, the comprey is a 10 to 1 mix
(1 PART comfrey and 10 parts water) and only feed the soil/compost "NOT" the leaves, its to strong and if the sun's out and comfrey 's on the leaves it will cause yellowing burn marks.
It's a very good feed as is nettle stew but boy oh boy it stinks while brewing.

 

[headfullofbees]

The seaweed I pick, and mix with my home-grown comfrey in my feed brew, means that it has all the micro-nutrients too.

 

[Chuck]

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.

Too small for cages and if staked and unable to move with the wind would thrash and shred all of the leaves. Been there, done that.

 

[Becky]

Let's keep things civil, folks. You all have the right to an opinion, but you don't have the right to have your opinion accepted. It's fine to agree to disagree; what works for some doesn't necessarily work for others.

 

[TomatoNut]

Well, headfullofbees started it. I do not appreciate him saying I poisioned my garden. I had no idea how bad Miracle-Gro was until Chuck told me. I buy what soil I thought was nutritious. Chuck is a very smart guy, and he should write a book.

 

[Peace perfect peace]

Let's keep things civil, folks. You all have the right to an opinion, but you don't have the right to have your opinion accepted. It's fine to agree to disagree; what works for some doesn't necessarily work for others.

Just to try and point something out here for all parties,
The first point is gardeners just love to talk gardening and nothing wrong with that, now to know and pass what you know on is again a good thing, when we read that a country the size of france has banned the use of glysophate and so many named weed killers have this chemicle in the make up "well it says a lot" would'nt you agree?

But as i live in france its in every news paper,

Now our gardening friends who live the the USA/ And the UK. may not have this info all over the local news papers and if thats the case then those who do know are right to say if a gardener is using such chemicles they are poisoning their ground,
After all thats why its banned in most countries "Agreed" And passing on such info no matter how you recieve it is a point well worth knowing about (So pass this info on)

And ref the growing of most fruit & veg (toms) we are eating them as they are nearing the rotting stage "hence the juices and tender skin"
We're gowing food in rotted manure, So i think a little thought ref what we eat and how we grow it and the stage at when its eaten is all
very much a point we as gardeners may think about, do you really want to eat food grown from rotting manure ? And within a few weeks its rotted away ???
I know my choice what about you?
Anyone fancy a tom & ham sandwich?

 

[Chuck]

Just to try and point something out here for all parties,
The first point is gardeners just love to talk gardening and nothing wrong with that, now to know and pass what you know on is again a good thing, when we read that a country the size of france has banned the use of glysophate and so many named weed killers have this chemicle in the make up "well it says a lot" would'nt you agree?

But as i live in france its in every news paper,

Now our gardening friends who live the the USA/ And the UK. may not have this info all over the local news papers and if thats the case then those who do know are right to say if a gardener is using such chemicles they are poisoning their ground,
After all thats why its banned in most countries "Agreed" And passing on such info no matter how you recieve it is a point well worth knowing about (So pass this info on)

And ref the growing of most fruit & veg (toms) we are eating them as they are nearing the rotting stage "hence the juices and tender skin"
We're gowing food in rotted manure, So i think a little thought ref what we eat and how we grow it and the stage at when its eaten is all
very much a point we as gardeners may think about, do you really want to eat food grown from rotting manure ? And within a few weeks its rotted away ???
I know my choice what about you?
Anyone fancy a tom & ham sandwich?

What you say is true but what is manure? Plants that have been run through a grinder and an acid bath, in some cases numerous times. That is what manure is. No one on this forum advocates using fresh manure and fresh manure is where any harmful bacteria will be. Composted or pasteurized manure has none of the harmful bacteria. Even your guano is safe as it has been composted, heated and formed into pellets. A bit of good news over here. There is finally getting to be a bunch of lawsuits filed against Monsanto and other companies who use glysophate as it has been cited in many medical journals to be a carcinogenic.

 

[Peace perfect peace]

What you say is true but what is manure? Plants that have been run through a grinder and an acid bath, in some cases numerous times. That is what manure is. No one on this forum advocates using fresh manure and fresh manure is where any harmful bacteria will be. Composted or pasteurized manure has none of the harmful bacteria. Even your guano is safe as it has been composted, heated and formed into pellets. A bit of good news over here. There is finally getting to be a bunch of lawsuits filed against Monsanto and other companies who use glysophate as it has been cited in many medical journals to be a carcinogenic.

Hi chuck,
MANURE? this is the difference in countries as to what is manure,
Both here in france and the uk fresh manure is whats use more than the stuff your talking about thats been treated /cooked etc
If i was to say to you we have hot and cold manure "animal" would you know what im talking about and how it works ?

How the farmers use the manures from the cattle for prepering the land to grow crops ? They dont go and buy bag and bags of the stuff your talking about,
Let me know chuck if you understand what im talking about when i say Hot/cold manure,
As i said before lets all share are experience and learn from each other
Its just gone mid-night here so im off to bed,
Nice talking to you Chuck talk again soon.

 

[Chuck]

Hi chuck,
MANURE? this is the difference in countries as to what is manure,
Both here in france and the uk fresh manure is whats use more than the stuff your talking about thats been treated /cooked etc
If i was to say to you we have hot and cold manure "animal" would you know what im talking about and how it works ?

How the farmers use the manures from the cattle for prepering the land to grow crops ? They dont go and buy bag and bags of the stuff your talking about,
Let me know chuck if you understand what im talking about when i say Hot/cold manure,
As i said before lets all share are experience and learn from each other
Its just gone mid-night here so im off to bed,
Nice talking to you Chuck talk again soon.

Please explain what's what

 

[TomatoNut]

I didn't start that arguement, headfullofbees got upset because I think planting leggy tomatoes helps make a stronger plant. Later, during a soil discussion, he had the nerve to say my great-grandfather taught me to put poison on my garden!

 

[Chuck]

I didn't start that arguement, headfullofbees got upset because I think planting leggy tomatoes helps make a stronger plant. Later, during a soil discussion, he had the nerve to say my great-grandfather taught me to put poison on my garden!

Well, lets just forget about the whole thing and start over OK.

 

[Chuck]

I didn't start that arguement, headfullofbees got upset because I think planting leggy tomatoes helps make a stronger plant. Later, during a soil discussion, he had the nerve to say my great-grandfather taught me to put poison on my garden!

I tell people every day that they are poisoning their plants only I don't use the word poison. I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill, just forget it and move on. We've got better things to worry about than this little squabble.

 

[TomatoNut]

That sounds good to me, Chuck!

 

[TomatoNut]

Chuck, what are your thoughts of adding earthworm castings to your soil? Do you think that would be good? Also, why would you be against the Scotts Humus and Manure? Do you think it could be synthetic?

 

[Chuck]

Chuck, what are your thoughts of adding earthworm castings to your soil? Do you think that would be good? Also, why would you be against the Scotts Humus and Manure? Do you think it could be synthetic?

Earthworm castings are one of the best things you can add to your soil. The only thing is that its expensive. In a closed raised bed why not just put in some fishing worms? The Scotts Humus and Manure would be good stuff if it weren't so hot. They even state to not plant seeds or plants directly in it. I don't know what is in the stuff but anything that has warnings gives me pause. Mainly, organic products are very forgiving and it is difficult to use too much whereas with synthetics if you don't follow the directions closely you will damage or kill your plants. Either the manure in Scotts has not composted fully or there is something added and if I were to guess I'd guess a high nitrogen nitrate.
Isn't there a lot of chicken/egg farms in your area? If so why don't drop by and see if they'll let you rake up some manure. Then pile it up and let it compost and you've got some of the best fertilizer there is.