I am preparing my large buckets for tomatoes and ---

[Elliot]

In the past I used miracle grow moisture control or potting soils. The recession has put an end to such grandiose plans. What I am trying this year is a mixture of light top soil sold by Home Depot. Its is light and fluffy and I am mixing it with a twenty lb bad of either hydrolized or composted cow manure. I'll also add some fertilizer pellets. How does this sound?

Elliot
Long Island, New York

[Talon1189]

Originally Posted by Elliot

In the past I used miracle grow moisture control or potting soils. The recession has put an end to such grandiose plans. What I am trying this year is a mixture of light top soil sold by Home Depot. Its is light and fluffy and I am mixing it with a twenty lb bad of either hydrolized or composted cow manure. I'll also add some fertilizer pellets. How does this sound?

Elliot
Long Island, New York

Your details are too brief for anyone here with knowledge to help you Tomato growing is cheaper in general. Please elaborate more here on your own intentions for your plants..... >>>>>>>>>>> Talon

[dice]

I have used the HD "composted steer manure" that comes in
the 1 cu ft bags. Results vary from one year to the next. It is
1/2 or more wood waste. I add a cup of dolomite and a cup of
fertilizer per bag in a container. I have not mixed it with top
soil in a container, just used it straight from the bag. Seems
like it would lose too much large pore air space mixing it with
topsoil in a container (compresses over the summer from rain
and watering), but feel free to experiment and see for yourself.

[Elliot]

Originally Posted by dice

I have used the HD "composted steer manure" that comes in
the 1 cu ft bags. Results vary from one year to the next. It is
1/2 or more wood waste. I add a cup of dolomite and a cup of
fertilizer per bag in a container. I have not mixed it with top
soil in a container, just used it straight from the bag. Seems
like it would lose too much large pore air space mixing it with
topsoil in a container (compresses over the summer from rain
and watering), but feel free to experiment and see for yourself.

What type of fertilizer would you use? Isn't the manure the fertilizer? Perlite serves what purpose? thanks

Elliot

[Elliot]

Originally Posted by Talon1189

Your details are too brief for anyone here with knowledge to help you Tomato growing is cheaper in general. Please elaborate more here on your own intentions for your plants..... >>>>>>>>>>> Talon

I want strong healthy tomato plants that grow in buckets.

[dice]

The perlite serves the purpose of providing air space in the
container mix and maintaining good drainage. The HD
composted steer manure does not have enough fertilizer
value by itself, but the chunks of wood in it seem to provide
enough air space, at least for the first year. Bacteria digesting
carbon in the wood waste use up all of the nitrogen in the
manure by themselves. (It is not like "bagged manure", more
like what you would get sweeping out a barn that used
sawmill waste for bedding for the animals.)

I used a handful of 4-4-4 organic fertilizer, plus a handful
of sul-po-mag (slow release sulfur-potassium-magnesium)
for fertilizer with it. Something like Tomato Tone or Garden
Tone would work about the same.

The comments about bagged manure needing to be used
with care to avoid burning the plants would be true if that
is all it was, manure. I remember bagged chicken manure
from decades ago that was like that. It was all manure,
with a fine-grained physical structure, and you would use
it like any other bag of fertilizer, chemical or organic
(a handful or two per plant).

The "composted manure" that they have on the shelf at HD
is not like that. It is more a "soil amendment" intended to
loosen up clay soils in garden beds and add some organic
matter than it is a fertilizer.

edit:
It only costs around $1.00-1.20 a bag. Get one, dump it out
in a wheelbarrow, and you can see for yourself how much
wood is in it.