(03-29-2025, 11:12 PM)Ninurta Wrote: Fertilizing is a fairly delicate balance. The yellowed leaves indicate a lack of nitrogen, and the leaves with browning edges indicate a sort of nitrogen poisoning or over-fertilization.

I never fertilize anything when I transplant it. I give it a week or so to get acclimated before fertilizing it. That allows me to see what the soil already has in it, to know what the plant needs added.

For tomatoes, Miracle-Gro makes a fine fertilizer with a good balance of minerals for the plants. As an aside, Miracle-Gro tomato fertilizer also works well for cannabis in it's vegetative stage.

I use the sort of Miracle-Gro that is intended for the sprayer heads, but I don't use it in the intended way. Instead, I have an empty gallon plastic milk jug that I fill to about 90% to leave a little room, and put a scoop of the fertilizer in the water, cap it,and shake it up to a vibrant blue color. Depending on the plant type, a gallon of it will do probably 20 or 25 plants after they're set out into the ground. It doesn't take a lot.

Once a week is usually enough unless I notice some yellowing leaves, and then I switch to twice a week until it's all greened up again. No more than twice a week though, or they'll burn up.

Also realize that as the plant grows and ages, the lower leaves will naturally yellow and die as they come to the end of their life. They should be replaced with new, vigorous growth from the tips of the plants.

The only tomatoes I grew last year were "cherry" tomatoes, but I had a ton of them in the end. Bell peppers I've not had so much luck with. The biggest one I've been able to grow in the last couple years was about the size of a golf ball, not worth the effort.

I've been slack this year. So far, the only thing I've even gotten started is the Native Tobacco. The catnip is jumping out from the ruins of last year's plants, so I probably won't start any of it, as it seems to be taking off on it's own. I usually grow some basil every year too, but never use it, so I question the wisdom of even starting any this year. My sage bushes are not doing well, which I blame on their location, so I may start some new sage and pick a different place to site it. 

Corn and beans, I dunno. I'm not real big on sweet corn, and haven't got any dent or flint to try growing, so I may just live without it. I grew some butternut squash last year, but never figured out what you're supposed to do with it after you've picked it, so it went to waste - except I saved seed from it, just in case I figured out how to cook it.

I've got some Cherokee black beans, and some kind of white bean, but may try to get some other kind.

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(04-01-2025, 12:59 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: As nice as my sandy loam soil is here in the swamp, it is fairly poor. Likely due to the variety of trees and plant life here before I carved a garden out of it. I did great for fertilizer when I had chickens. Neutralize the poop with lime and it is ready to use, or leave it for a month to mellow out before using it. Great stuff, better than cow poop. I have a nice big mulch pile, but I need to get chickens again.

I began to use commercial fertilizer after that, and it became an addiction to the soil. I'd rather find natural sustainable organic ways to condition the soil and have it improve over time than inject it with nitrogen every week as a temporary fix when the plants start getting the Jones for more.

(03-29-2025, 11:56 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: The over fertilizing made the most sense in my case. As soon as I read that I went outside and scooped out a bunch of the fertilizer I had put on the top soil yesterday. I think that was burning the plant. I had planted it in this bucket over a week ago before I added fertilizer. I was trying to balance out that nitrogen deficiency. I must've over done it with the black cow. I wasn't sure what to use.

Quote:I also noticed my pot wasn't draining well at all. I poked a few more holes in it and a bunch of excess water came out.

Quote:It's nice and drained now, and I took out some of that excess fertilizer from the top soil that I had put there yesterday. I am going to go with Miracle-Gro, since I'm already stocked up on it. I had wondered if that would suffice for a tomato plants nutrients. I kept seeing low potassium as a possibility, but wasn't sure how to add potassium, without going to the store and buying more stuff. I'd like to think I can accomplish this with what I already have.

Quote:I think the soil heresocks, and is a part of the issue. I may repot with potting soil soon. Or, should I just leave it, and see how it does? I know changing pots can be tricky, but I wonder if I should fix that soil issue.

Quote:Beans sound interesting to grow. I can eat a whole mess of beans, so I thought about trying some green lime beans, or something. Maybe even some potatoes. Stuff I'd actually eat. If I can figure out this tomato plants I may upgrade to growing a lot of my own produce. I have a feeling this will be a valuable skill to obtain for the future. Plus, I'm tired of paying an arm and a leg for good veggies.

(04-01-2025, 12:59 PM)Michigan Swamp Buck Wrote: As nice as my sandy loam soil is here in the swamp, it is fairly poor. Likely due to the variety of trees and plant life here before I carved a garden out of it. 

(04-01-2025, 08:49 PM)Ninurta Wrote:

(03-29-2025, 11:56 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: The over fertilizing made the most sense in my case. As soon as I read that I went outside and scooped out a bunch of the fertilizer I had put on the top soil yesterday. I think that was burning the plant. I had planted it in this bucket over a week ago before I added fertilizer. I was trying to balance out that nitrogen deficiency. I must've over done it with the black cow. I wasn't sure what to use.

If you're using manure, a little goes a long way. It's pretty high nitrogen, and over-fertilization will definitely burn a plant up. Back in the day, we used horse manure, and after the manure pile had sat all winter composting, in early spring or late winter we'd take one sled load of it (about 4' x 8' x 3 feet deep) and spread that over a half acre or so of garden space. Then we'd plow it in and let it sit like that for a month or two, incorporating into the soil and weathering, before planting anything there.

Quote:I also noticed my pot wasn't draining well at all. I poked a few more holes in it and a bunch of excess water came out.

That can lead to root-rot, where the plants essentially drown because they have too much water and can't take up any more because the roots are dying. Poking more holes as you did usually solves that problem, plus has the added advantage of being able to leach excess fertilizer out of the pots by simply watering with plain, clear water and letting it drain, washing the extra out. It's harder to leach over-fertilization of of ground plantings, especially if the soil is heavy in clay, which causes it to hold water, sort of like pots with no drain holes.

Quote:It's nice and drained now, and I took out some of that excess fertilizer from the top soil that I had put there yesterday. I am going to go with Miracle-Gro, since I'm already stocked up on it. I had wondered if that would suffice for a tomato plants nutrients. I kept seeing low potassium as a possibility, but wasn't sure how to add potassium, without going to the store and buying more stuff. I'd like to think I can accomplish this with what I already have.

Miracle-Gro has a formulation especially for tomatoes, which also works well for cannabis in the vegetative stage. The potassium is more important when it comes time for plants to flower out, so when that time comes, I usually switch to a higher potassium fertilizer.

Quote:I think the soil heresocks, and is a part of the issue. I may repot with potting soil soon. Or, should I just leave it, and see how it does? I know changing pots can be tricky, but I wonder if I should fix that soil issue.

Potting soil these days, fresh out of the bag, is usually pre-fertilized and balanced. So if you re-pot them, don't fertilize for a couple of weeks to see how they're going to do in the new soil. Adding more fertilizer right off the bat may over-fertilize. Alternatively, you could try leeching out the pots as I mentioned above.

Repotting can be tricky, but not necessarily so. Some plants are pretty touchy about it, others don't care at all. For example, when I used to plant trees, I'd often break up the root ball with a shovel to allow it to spread better after putting it in the ground. At the other end of the spectrum, repotting something like poppies, even one time, can often, maybe usually, kill them.

Quote:Beans sound interesting to grow. I can eat a whole mess of beans, so I thought about trying some green lime beans, or something. Maybe even some potatoes. Stuff I'd actually eat. If I can figure out this tomato plants I may upgrade to growing a lot of my own produce. I have a feeling this will be a valuable skill to obtain for the future. Plus, I'm tired of paying an arm and a leg for good veggies.

I thought about potatoes here, but the ground I usually grow in is too clay-heavy, and might be a pain getting them out of the ground. There is another section of the yard where I'm told my grandparents often grew potatoes in, which is less clay-heavy, but it's mole-ridden, so before planting anything there, I'll have to first get rid of the moles. 

One expedient for getting rid of moles is to plant a border of castor plants around the garden spot. when the moles reach them, and eat the roots, the moles die because of the ricin content of the castor plants. A down side of that is that if you have kids or pets around, it could be dangerous, because for some reason they are drawn to the beans, and a single bean can prove fatal without recourse to very small kids. There is no antidote.

Castor beans look like dog ticks all swollen up after a big meal.

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(03-29-2025, 10:13 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: Good afternoon, Rogue-Nation!

I’ve recently started growing my own food. My journey began with some flower seeds for the yard, and I’ve had great success with growing flowers. Since I’d never attempted growing anything from seed before, I bought a small setup and began planting seeds in soil. As the flowers sprouted and thrived in the yard, I decided to expand and try growing some of my own produce.

I started with cucumber and bell pepper seeds. The cucumber plant is doing great—it sprouted yesterday and already looks like a strong, healthy plant. The bell peppers, however, are still in the early stages with only small sprouts visible.

I also purchased a tomato plant. I placed it in a larger container and decided to experiment with a raised garden, mainly because of the rabbits and other wildlife around here.

The tomato plant, which I named "Ludell" after my grandmother (who grew the best tomatoes), seemed to thrive in its first week. However, I noticed some yellowing of the lower leaves. I suspect I may have overwatered it. Additionally, I realized I hadn’t added enough fertilizer when I repotted it. After adding a little fertilizer, Ludell bounced back for a day or two. However, today the leaves have brown edges and yellow spots.

I’ve done some research online and found many suggestions, including using soil test kits. However, I’d prefer to learn through the experience and wisdom of others who have more hands-on knowledge.

If any of you seasoned gardeners can offer advice on how to care for a tomato plant like Ludell, I would greatly appreciate it. My hope is to grow some tomatoes that would make my granny proud.

Thank you in advance for your help!

(04-01-2025, 10:52 PM)SomeJackleg Wrote:

(03-29-2025, 10:13 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: Good afternoon, Rogue-Nation!

I’ve recently started growing my own food. My journey began with some flower seeds for the yard, and I’ve had great success with growing flowers. Since I’d never attempted growing anything from seed before, I bought a small setup and began planting seeds in soil. As the flowers sprouted and thrived in the yard, I decided to expand and try growing some of my own produce.

I started with cucumber and bell pepper seeds. The cucumber plant is doing great—it sprouted yesterday and already looks like a strong, healthy plant. The bell peppers, however, are still in the early stages with only small sprouts visible.

I also purchased a tomato plant. I placed it in a larger container and decided to experiment with a raised garden, mainly because of the rabbits and other wildlife around here.

The tomato plant, which I named "Ludell" after my grandmother (who grew the best tomatoes), seemed to thrive in its first week. However, I noticed some yellowing of the lower leaves. I suspect I may have overwatered it. Additionally, I realized I hadn’t added enough fertilizer when I repotted it. After adding a little fertilizer, Ludell bounced back for a day or two. However, today the leaves have brown edges and yellow spots.

I’ve done some research online and found many suggestions, including using soil test kits. However, I’d prefer to learn through the experience and wisdom of others who have more hands-on knowledge.

If any of you seasoned gardeners can offer advice on how to care for a tomato plant like Ludell, I would greatly appreciate it. My hope is to grow some tomatoes that would make my granny proud.

Thank you in advance for your help!

as @Ninurta said to much fertilizer / nitrogen will burn plants up. something he didn't mention yellowing leaves can be a sign of to much water.

my brothers and me use to compete on who could grow the best, me and my middle brother got tried of it, my youngest brother still grows tomatoes every year, he plants them in buckets, built himself a fine trellis system for them, grows all kinds grape, cherry, big boys, beefsteak,early girl, roma, hillbilly, and has pretty good luck with them. except one year when he tried to the hanging upside down bucket way. they didn't do well that year, got less that half. but that could have also been been due to the long hot dry summer to, like the one we had just a year or so ago during covid.

(04-01-2025, 09:36 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: I did have someone offer me a good (free) supply of chicken manure. Is there any benefit to chicken poo vs cow poo? Should I try the chicken manure? It seems I read somewhere (been doing a ton of reading on all the different plants I have going) that chicken manure was better for tomatoes.

(04-01-2025, 11:12 PM)SomeJackleg Wrote:

(04-01-2025, 09:36 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: I did have someone offer me a good (free) supply of chicken manure. Is there any benefit to chicken poo vs cow poo? Should I try the chicken manure? It seems I read somewhere (been doing a ton of reading on all the different plants I have going) that chicken manure was better for tomatoes.

i don't know if you know this or seen any posts i've mentioned it in but for the first 17 years of my life we lived and worked on a chicken farm for laying hens, then after the Corps i worked off and on for about five more before i went looking for some different.

chicken sh@@ will sure make things grow but if your not careful it will burn your garden up. it's loaded with nitrogen.

we use to sell it by the truck load back in the day, and out here before all the land speculators started buying up all the property people would line the 2 mile road that lead to the farm in late Feb and March for their gardens and yards.

we also raised a small heard of cattle and hogs, and would spread it over the pastures in spring and summer for the cattle.
nothing funnier than watching the cattle following the sh@@ truck spreading the chicken sh@@ eating it.

Quote:nothing funnier than watching the cattle following the sh@@ truck spreading the chicken sh@@ eating it.

(04-01-2025, 09:36 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: For this area peanuts are one of the big cash crops around here. I thought about some of those, just for my late night snacks. The soil around here is perfect for that, apparently. I also have a border of woods around my property and it's the same here. Grass barely grows close to that border. I tried planting a Sega palm close to a patch of pine trees quite some years back. Those pine trees ate up every nutrient in that area and choked that Sega palm to death. It had been completely sucked dry from those two or three trees near by. But, my rose bush tree is thriving in that same spot.

Quote:This afternoon the blooms on "Ludell" are fully opened now. I'm not sure what to expect, or necessarily what to do for the next stage of producing the tomato. I will heed the advice of a little fertilizer goes a long way.

Quote:I did have someone offer me a good (free) supply of chicken manure. Is there any benefit to chicken poo vs cow poo? Should I try the chicken manure? It seems I read somewhere (been doing a ton of reading on all the different plants I have going) that chicken manure was better for tomatoes.

(04-02-2025, 05:07 AM)HaarFager Wrote: I second that call for Miracle-Gro for tomato plants.  It's always been my go-to fertilizing agent when I grow tomatoes.  It even worked well for the plants I grew in my library:



Tomato Blooms par HaarFager, on ipernity

(04-02-2025, 12:57 PM)Ninurta Wrote:

(04-01-2025, 09:36 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote: For this area peanuts are one of the big cash crops around here. I thought about some of those, just for my late night snacks. The soil around here is perfect for that, apparently. I also have a border of woods around my property and it's the same here. Grass barely grows close to that border. I tried planting a Sega palm close to a patch of pine trees quite some years back. Those pine trees ate up every nutrient in that area and choked that Sega palm to death. It had been completely sucked dry from those two or three trees near by. But, my rose bush tree is thriving in that same spot.

I tried peanuts once, years ago, but the soil in that area was again too much clay, not sandy enough. Peanuts need loose sandy soil to send the ovum into the ground to develop the peanut. I don't know much about roses, but they must be fairly acidophilic. I have bunches of wild roses growing along the western and northern fenceline of my yard, right in the edge of the woods. They use the chain link fence as a trellis to climb. I don't know what kind they are, just tiny, white, 5 petaled roses. Not more than an inch or an inch and a half in diameter. 20 miles southwest of here, where I grew up, we had wild roses that I think are  called "Cherokee Roses". They're low to the ground, never get more than a foot tall, and usually around 6 or 8 inches, and have big pink 5 petal blossoms, probably around 4 inches across.

Quote:This afternoon the blooms on "Ludell" are fully opened now. I'm not sure what to expect, or necessarily what to do for the next stage of producing the tomato. I will heed the advice of a little fertilizer goes a long way.

Nothing left to do. Maybe change fertilizer to a higher potassium fertilizer, but nothing lse. Nature does the rest. The bloom will get fertilized and fall off, and then the ovum of the bloom will start swelling up, green, and eventually it will ripen to red, and you have a tomato.

Quote:I did have someone offer me a good (free) supply of chicken manure. Is there any benefit to chicken poo vs cow poo? Should I try the chicken manure? It seems I read somewhere (been doing a ton of reading on all the different plants I have going) that chicken manure was better for tomatoes.

Yup, chicken manure is good for tomatoes. I have a neighbor that grows cannabis, and he uses practically nothing but chicken manure to fertilize. As I mentioned before, anything good for cannabis is also good for tomatoes, and vice-versa. He composts the chicken manure down, then mixes it with water and uses the mixture to water his plants a couple times a week when it's dry, and once a week or so under normal circumstances. However, I don't know the mixture strength he uses.

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(04-02-2025, 01:32 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote:

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As for the roses, I'm not sure what kind either. It doesn't look like your typical rose. These open to a 5 leaf petal, huge petals, very soft. They are a mix of redish orange, or more organish red. There is a separate vine growing along side my tree. I thought it was arrowroot at first, but then it shot off this beautiful deep purple/violet colored rose the other day. I'm shocked that it is growing in that spot as well, but yeah, it is thriving and firing off roses every day. I've got two more in the yard, but they're not as big.

Quote:I'm not sure if we covered this part, but how often are yall adding your Miracle-Gro, how much at a time for a single plant that is maybe a year old. I don't think it's ever produced tomatoes before.  

(04-02-2025, 08:59 PM)Ninurta Wrote:

(04-02-2025, 01:32 PM)FlickerOfLight Wrote:

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As for the roses, I'm not sure what kind either. It doesn't look like your typical rose. These open to a 5 leaf petal, huge petals, very soft. They are a mix of redish orange, or more organish red. There is a separate vine growing along side my tree. I thought it was arrowroot at first, but then it shot off this beautiful deep purple/violet colored rose the other day. I'm shocked that it is growing in that spot as well, but yeah, it is thriving and firing off roses every day. I've got two more in the yard, but they're not as big.

That sounds like some kind of wild rose to me, but like I said, i don't know roses very well. I'm not aware of any cultivated roses that are limited to the 5 petals on the flower, but again I don't know roses very well, so I may be wrong about that. there are 6 or 7 different species of wild rose in the US. My wild rose bushes throw lots of flowers, and so I get lots of rose hips off of them, which are a good source of vitamin C.

Quote:I'm not sure if we covered this part, but how often are yall adding your Miracle-Gro, how much at a time for a single plant that is maybe a year old. I don't think it's ever produced tomatoes before.  

I use about a half pint of the liquid mix per plant ( one scoop the the Miracle-Gro to a gallon of water, using the scoop that came with the fertilizer), once or twice  per week, but really it depends on the fertility already present in your soil. I think most folks use quite a bit more than i do,  but I'm scared of burning them with it, so I go light. It works out pretty well for me, usually.

I have a cannabis plant that I've been nursing all winter, and it's damn near too tall for the grow setup, so I'd like to take it outside and poke it in the dirt. I checked the weather forecast, and it looks like there might be a couple cold nights still to come, so I can't put it out until the 10th-13th... and I dunno if it'll make it that much longer. I'm not growing it for the seed or weed, since I don't even know if it has an THC in it at all. I'm growing it because it was some kind of mutant last fall, and I just want to see where it goes with the mutations, and what it would eventually become. it has a habit of not following the regular body plan, is sending branches randomly out every whichaway, and sometimes grows what looks like a bottle brush of just plain leaves. It's a weird looking mutant, i'll give it that. I'll have to pull it up and kill it whenever it starts flowering to avoid contaminating neighborhood grows with either mutant pollen or getting mutant seeds off of it. Mutations are usually a bad thing. From what I understand, only about one mutation in every 20,000 across biology is a good thing, all the rest are detrimental, so I don't want this one getting out into the wild and ruining other folks' crops.

I mostly just grow it for the fibers and seed, so it's usually low or no THC. Since I'm limited to 4 plants at any one time, I estimate it will take about 10 years to grow enough fiber to make a pair of shoelaces, but it's a hobby. just something to keep me off the streets and out of trouble.

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(04-02-2025, 07:40 PM)Chiefsmom Wrote: I hope your yellowing and spots aren't Blight.  that gets into soil and is a nightmare.

Does Comfrey grow as a weed where you are?  It makes a great fertilizer, by just cutting some leaves and soaking them in water for a few days.
The root is super long, and harvests mineral from the ground.

(04-02-2025, 09:32 PM)Ninurta Wrote: "Anti-inflammatory" sounds nice. Arthur Itis sometimes shake me a little too rough when he gets a good grip. I should have been kinder to my knees and hips in my wild, reckless, and mis-spent youth.

4 plants never produce more than about a month's worth of smoke here, so it's hardly worth the trouble to grow smoking weed.

Fiber, on the other hand, builds up over time when you save the stems. All I have to do is figure out how to "ret" the stems to get the fiber out. I might have enough now to make a hair tie...

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