Discussion forum for environmentally-friendly alternatives to replace synthetic chemicals and fertilizers.
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January 9, 2008 | #16 |
Tomatovillian™
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: PNW
Posts: 4,743
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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
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