Earl's Hole Method of Growing Tomatoes

[sio2rocks]

Hi everyone,

I am curious if anyone on this forum has seen this method in action or used it in the past (I know it's on Garden Web and they sometimes are somewhat biased so I'd liked to hear from people here). I used it with some variations last year and wondered if I should repeat this year. I had really good growth and production early in the season, but it rapidly dopped off for most variaties later in the summer here in zone 7b. Could have been just from the heat we experienced last summer (I used a drip irrigation system with emitters at each plant so I doubt it was a watering issue). Mostly I used a half bag of composted material (either cow or worm compost), half bag of peat, handful or bone meal, handful of epsom salts, and a handful and a half of a organic tomato and vegetable complete fertilizer (either Espoma brand or Jobes brand). I dug a hole about 1.5 ft. deep and as much as 2 ft. wide and mixed this mixture about half and half with the soil I removed. Then I planted my transplants in a well on top all of this.

Link for instructions:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/l...023725174.html (all rights reserved of whoever Earl is)

Colin