Help with cottonseed meal!

[dice]

Sounds like that will work fine.

BER is a calcium deficiency disease. Plants
can get it from a simple lack of calcium in the
soil or from a lack of moisture (soil needs to be
moist to keep the calcium absorbable by the
roots). Some cultivars seem to need more calcium
than others to prevent BER (not as efficient at
taking it up through their roots, probably).

That seems to me a lot of bonemeal to add, 4-lbs
once a month. You should probably do a soil test
next winter after you pull the plants and see how much phosphorus in an absorbable form is still there.
They are getting some phosphorus from the other
stuff (manure, compost, seed meals, etc), and what
the plants do not use tends to stay put.

Soil pH matters for phosphorus uptake, too. A soil that
is dead on 6.5-7.0 can get by with less total phosporus
than a soil outside that range. There was a good post
by Fusion late last spring describing soil pH effect on
solubility of phosphorus in the soil:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...orus#post51265

[tuk50]

Thanks dice, that is a very good read, I've been told that phos is bound here on the desert soils, but I've kept a good regime of soil additions like manure, compost, Christmas tree mulch etc turned into the soil so I may not add anymore bonemeal this season like planned. Also I have never heard that top dressing bonemeal wasn't beneficial like the thread stated, I think I will just add another 2in layer of composted manure and cover with garden soil and wait till planting time in a couple of months. On another note, we got a good soaking rain at the first of the week and all my Christmas planted garlic popped out of the ground and grew about 2in tall this week, now all I need is peppers and tomatoes for my first bowl of salsa... LOL... 8)

[dice]

I was thinking that one application of bonemeal per season,
as early as possible in the spring, is probably good enough,
in combination with the other phosphorus sources in your
other soil amendments.

It does need to get down into the soil someway, so that the
roots can reach it. What happens to top-dressed phosphorus
is that it all ends up stuck to other stuff in the top 1/4-inch
of the soil. There are some roots there, so the plant gets some
of it if the pH is ok, but it is not as available as it would be
if it were a few inches down into the soil.

Bonemeal is kind of expensive stuff to only be making use
of a small portion of its usable nutrients. I have top-dressed
bonemeal, the plants did seem to make some use of it,
but they did a lot better when it was cultivated into
the top few inches of soil.

Another thing you can do with it is drop a cup of it into
the bottom of the planting hole for a seedling with your
gypsum. That puts it right in the sweet spot for the
roots. They won't get much use of it at first, but it will
be coming on strong when they are setting fruit.

[tuk50]

good idea, I will put a little more in each hole when I put the sets in. 8)