Phosphorus Deficiency - how to fix?

[Lindalana]

Foliar applications do require a LOT less of additives. When asked Urban Farm Fertilizer company did not advise to use their product as foliar.
Is it possible to post pictures? What is your soil prep looks like?
Soft rock phosphate can be added to soil when plants are moving to fruiting stage. MAP or monamonnium phosphate is effective short term solution.
Phosphoric acid, the one they put into soft drinks is probably best fix for foliars. But it is corrosive at food grade concentration.
Since you really do not know what is if any deficiency I would do foliar from fish hydrolyze/kelp/ molasses. It works like a command to the plant to mine its own nutrients. I have verified that borax may be used with this combo.

[Gardeneer]

Originally Posted by jflournoy

You're saying you give each plant a gallon or two of the TTF solution (@ 1 TBSP/gallon of water) every week or so?

We have 815 plants and it takes about 15-20 gallons of Daconil mixed solution to get them covered to my satisfaction for one spraying per week or so. To that 15-20 gallons, I mix in TTF at 1 TBSP/gallon. That means that 815 plants divided by 20 Tablespoons of TTF equals.... If I did my math correctly, that means each plant is receiving less than 1/10th of a TEASPOON of TTF once a week. If you're giving 1 TBSP of TTF per plant, then I'm obviously giving much, much less, and I don't think there's any chance of burning the plants spraying it on at that ratio. Especially because I try to religiously do all my spraying in early evening or late evening when it's cooler and the Sun isn't directly on them. My plants are planted in soil that was pretty good already, so I was feeding them that amount of TTF with the Daconil spraying every week more as a "can't hurt" type thing than something I thought was absolutely necessary. I thought it might help some with more blooms. I don't know if it's that amount of TTF or if it's the fact that we planted them in raised beds this year (first time we've done that), but I cannot believe the number of blooms and tomatoes we have on the plants, even on varieties that haven't set heavily for us in the past, like Cherokee Purple. I've actually been doing some thinning of tomatoes and blooms, particularly near the tops of plants, because there are too many for the plants to carry to maturity without surely breaking.

I've read some people say that Daconil isn't supposed to be mixed with other things, but I've done it in the past and it doesn't seem to cause any problems. An Amish acquaintance of mine a few miles away doesn't spray any synthetic fungicides and his tomatoes are already almost completely destroyed by blight, hardly any green left on his plants. I think the Daconil is working on my plants, despite the fact that we've had way, way more rain in the last month than we normally have this time of year.

I do give my plants about one gallon fertilizer solution, each BUT at ~ 1/2 strength. ALO I do it after watering them. This way the fertilizer we go deeper than if I did it on dried out soil and it is further diluted.. You can use full strength and give each plant 1/2 gallon. Even with this you will need over 400 gallons of solution... there should be a better way, like dial up sprayer ?

Gardeneer

[jflournoy]

Update: Since I did a quick foliar spraying of all my plants using the aforementioned combo of Miracle Gro "tomato" formula (18-18-21) and TTF "vegetable" formula mixed at 2 TBSP/gallon, the younger plants that weren't turning purple around the leaf edges yet (still dark green) seem to have put on a shot of new top-growth, not surprising with the high N of the MG part of the mix. The older plants, the ones I'm seeing the purple on, as described in the first post of this thread, seem to also have put on some new top-growth, but it still seems to be the same color with that purple tinge to it, not a nice vibrant green. I talked to an agronomist at a local soil and plant tissue testing company and she said what I was describing did indeed sound like a Phosphorus deficiency, and she recommended I see about giving the plants a shot of a high P fertilizer that is okay to be applied on the foliage in the form of a spray. She recommended a "triple super phosphate" type formulation, but didn't have any particular brand names to recommend. A local nursery has TSP under the "Hi-Yield" brand name, but the instructions say nothing about being able to spray it, they recommend to spread it on the soil and water in. That isn't really a good option for us, too many plants and small holes in the plastic, would be much better if we could find a high phosphate fertilizer that is safe to be sprayed on. I haven't found much on the web.

Any suggestions for a particular brand name?

[amideutch]

Next year on your plant out innoculate your plants with mycorrhizae. The Myco's will unlock the phosphorus in the soil that would be otherwise not available to the plant.

Ami

[korney19]

Originally Posted by jflournoy

Update: Since I did a quick foliar spraying of all my plants using the aforementioned combo of Miracle Gro "tomato" formula (18-18-21) and TTF "vegetable" formula mixed at 2 TBSP/gallon, the younger plants that weren't turning purple around the leaf edges yet (still dark green) seem to have put on a shot of new top-growth, not surprising with the high N of the MG part of the mix. The older plants, the ones I'm seeing the purple on, as described in the first post of this thread, seem to also have put on some new top-growth, but it still seems to be the same color with that purple tinge to it, not a nice vibrant green. I talked to an agronomist at a local soil and plant tissue testing company and she said what I was describing did indeed sound like a Phosphorus deficiency, and she recommended I see about giving the plants a shot of a high P fertilizer that is okay to be applied on the foliage in the form of a spray. She recommended a "triple super phosphate" type formulation, but didn't have any particular brand names to recommend. A local nursery has TSP under the "Hi-Yield" brand name, but the instructions say nothing about being able to spray it, they recommend to spread it on the soil and water in. That isn't really a good option for us, too many plants and small holes in the plastic, would be much better if we could find a high phosphate fertilizer that is safe to be sprayed on. I haven't found much on the web.

Any suggestions for a particular brand name?

Walmart has their own brand, it's a "bloom booster" 15-30-15 that costs under $4... same as the Miracle-Gro Bloom Booster 15-30-15, just cheaper.

There are other bloom booster or starter formulas as high as about 10-52-8 from different brands like Peters, Plantex, etc. Peters & Plantex are available in 25lb bags.