"Pretty" Pickings Today

[rnewste]

Just came back in from the garden with these:



Pink Boar on the left, Indian Stripe center, and Berkeley Tie-Dye on the right.

Indian Stripe continues to grow out of its cage:



Happy Camper today!!!

Raybo

[mdvpc]

Ray:

Looking very good!

[matertoo]

Way to go Raybo!! Looking good.

Happy Matering,

Paul

[JoAnne]

Hi Raybo,

Looks great! We've had such good weather recently and the tomatoes/peppers are really loving it! I'm still on the same plants I've had all season long (no second crop for me) and here in mid-November they are still loaded with fruit! Makes up for the awful weather in May/June/July/August.

-JoAnne

[rnewste]

JoAnne,

What I like about this time of year is that ALL of the bugs are gone! Hopefully, our first hard freeze will hold off for another 60 days or so, as I really want to get a good Fall harvest. The tomatoes are really looking robust now.

Raybo

[amideutch]

Ray, what fertilization regimen did you use for these monsters? Ami

[FILMNET]

Neptune fish fertilizer, or seaweed emulsion if you can find it
My favorite!!!!!!!! Berkeley Tie Dye they are huge i got 3 -1.6 to 1.8 lb from 1 plant, I could not get a 2 lb!!!!!!!

[franzb69]

Neptune fish fertilizer, or seaweed emulsion if you can find it

seriously? that's all? that just makes me wanna go wow.

[recruiterg]

5-10" of snow today in Minneapolis. I'm jealous.

[tessa]

great job, ray....

[rnewste]

Thanks all.

This time of year it is kind of a crap-shoot to see what the weather will do, so if I am lucky we may have tomatoes on the Christmas dinner table. I have three more BTD developing on the vine that are even larger than the one in the photo above.

Ami,

I use 1 Cup 14-14-14 CRF (like Osmocote) mixed in the lower half of the container, then 2 fertilizer strips about 2 inches from the surface along the cage legs, using 1 Cup of Tomato-tone in each strip:



Then I cover over the 2 strips with Potting Mix so the moisture will over time, absorb the fertilizer by osmosis into the root system. Similar idea to the EarthBox process.

In the Srping, I am going to do more trials of fertilizers such as FloraMato 10-6-18 vs. my ole standby Tomato-tone (original formulation).

Raybo

[amideutch]

I use 1 Cup 14-14-14 CRF (like Osmocote) mixed in the lower half of the container, then 2 fertilizer strips about 2 inches from the surface along the cage legs, using 1 Cup of Tomato-tone in each strip:

I like the idea. Using the standard release ferts on top which are basically available to the plant during the growth phase and once the roots get down into the lower layer the CRF has started releasing it's nutrients. By this time the plant is in the fruiting phase and has a fresh supply of nutrients. Looking forward to the dry FloraMato trials. GHE has a liquid FloraMato that is 1-2-5 that I used a couple years back but is a totally different animal than the dry version at 10-6-18. Ami

[rnewste]

Ami,

Yes, that was my thinking too. The CRF in the lower section would feed the deep root system as the plant developed later in the Season. Seems to be working well on this pair of Goose Creek:



I will also be using the "deep treatment" trial of a 18-6-12 CRF Foliage-Pro on one of the Goose Creek 'Tainers, as well as the FloraMato CRF 'Tainer in the Spring planting.

Raybo

[sprtsguy76]

Ray- did you ever get a chance to trail the Lilly Miller 18-6-12 crf?

Damon

[rnewste]

Damon,

No, I couldn't find it locally last Season. I used EB Stone instead in the trials, and it ranked at the bottom of the results. Where did you purchase it?

Raybo