Soil Observations

[tqn626]

So i'm having really mix results this year due to work.

I notice that it's extremely important to let your soil mixture "cook".

All my soil mixtures did not have time to cook.

My mixes includes a variation of pine bark fines, coco coir, compost, pumice.

This Amish Paste tomato was planted into this container about 2 weeks ago. I didn't let the soil cook, i just made a mix and stuffed it in. I highly doubt there any good microbes in the soil. I top dressed it with worm casts/bat guano and been giving it compost tea weekly.



This SWC container had soil in it already. Last year tomato that grew in this did horrible. The soil wasn't cooked. All I did was mix in some alfalfa meal and worm castings this season around december. I stuck in an amish paste at the same time as the top tomato. This tomato was actually a reject one. The leaves were all yellow and it was barely growing. It looked the same for about 3-4 days and then it just blew up.


These tomatoes (brandywine and amish paste) I planted about a week ago. They were rejects that look almost dead. The soil I had here once again did terrible last year. I mix compost last year that didn't look well composted. The tomatoes grew weirdly last year and had a handful of fruit. This year I did absolutely nothing to it, I just planted the tomatoes there for kicks.



This black cherry tomato is growing in a pot with a big yellow flowering cherry blossom. It started growing in December from tomatoes we ate and just threw here. The main branch actually broke in half from a windy day. We taped it back together. Fertilizer wise we been just dumping water from what we cook onto it. I recently started adding compost tea to it.




Lesson learned this year. Make your soil way ahead of time to let it cook. I was really busy this year so i was a little late.

Kind of bum that the black cherry tomato that grew by itself kick my butt in every way.