Growing Tomatoes

[Ninurta]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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