Just showing off.

[CarolynPhillips]

Something else I am working on is growing some giant tomatoes on Brandywine plants.
You know how brandywine has thin skin and they easily crack if over watered the slightest amount when they start to ripen.
I am using the Earthbox to grow 48 single vine plants but I am not using their fertilizing method and not using the mulch cover. I just wanted to use them to let the plant take up the water that it needed and see if this will help prevent the fruits from cracking. There is 8 single vine plants in each Earthbox.
I put a tablespoon of the fertilizer mixture in the water resevoir about every 3rd or 4th fill up.
I pollinated about 50 megablooms this week. some have not finished blooming.
I noticed along time ago that since these megablooms are 2 to 5 fused blooms, sometimes the whole bloom does not open in one day and it takes several days for each fused section to open to be pollinated.
A couple of these blooms were 4 fused blossoms. Sweet.

Here they are.

[nnjjohn]

very nice greenhouse pics to show off

[edweather]

Just finished scanning the 10 pages of posts, and finally closed my dropped jaw. I also grow in containers, but have a tendency to underfertilize. It's been a hard bias to overcome. The weather this spring has been lousy in the NE, so most of my plants are small as of yet. Ironically, the one SIP I have which is a 5 gallon bucket, which is loaded with fertilizer, is doing the best of all my plants.....larger and greener, and has nice bright yellow blossoms. I can understand the 13-13-13, micro nutrients, and the calcium nitrate (which I already have and am planning to use this year,) but what do the Epsom Salts do? Isn't it just magnesium? Also I was only planning on giving my plants the calcium nitrate "snack" around fruiting time to head off BER, but apparently I can start giving it now when the plants are small, right?

[CarolynPhillips]

The Epsom Salts has Magnesium and Sulfur. Magnesium helps the plant absorb the phosphorus and nitrogen from the soil which is why the plants are greener and have bigger blooms. I'm not sure how the sulfur works on a plant but it makes the plants bigger and more resistance to disease

[CarolynPhillips]

Calcium nitrate= I just always started feeding it to the plants when I transplanted them to their permanant growing space which is just before they start to bloom. The plants look like incredible hulk with big fat incredible hulk green tomatoes.

[Mojave]

Originally Posted by edweather

Also I was only planning on giving my plants the calcium nitrate "snack" around fruiting time to head off BER, but apparently I can start giving it now when the plants are small, right?

I have always given my toms a calcium "snack" too to head off BER. Last week I came across this eye opening article about BER by Carolyn Male (get well Carolyn). Hmm, I may have to rethink things.

http://www.vintageveggies.com/inform...rolyn_ber.html

[edweather]

Mojave, Yes, thanks. I've read Carolyn's explanation in the past, and frankly I'm not knowledgable enough to agree or disagree. I guess her explanation just makes me feel a bit powerless and kind of victimized by BER. I like Al Tapla's explanation(s) because at least it makes me feel like I 'might' be able to do something about BER. Al has an incredible amount of knowledge and posts alot on another forum. This is what he writes:

"The Ca fraction of dolomite is almost insoluble. Availability of Ca via dolomite depends in large part on the size of the material and its disbursement in the soil. The 'prills' are not an indication of the material's size, btw. The prills are an aggregate of fine particles and they break down when in contact with water. The prills break down, but the product doesn't disperse. Unlike soluble nutrients in fertilizers, the Ca fraction of dolomite doesn't naturally reach a level of isotonicity or an even distribution throughout the soil - it tends to stay put, so it should be thoroughly incorporated into the soil.

Also, when you do not incorporate the dolomite, it has little effect on the o/a media pH.
Calcium nitrate is the only soluble form of Ca that suits our purpose for use as a plant nutrient. It should work just fine as Ca supplement, but you need to consider that with the Ca you get a considerable dose of N, so use it sparingly. My suggestion would be to either thoroughly incorporate the lime into the soil before planting, or replace part of the lime with a little gypsum, which is still not all that soluble but is much more soluble than dolomite, and either incorporate that or scratch it evenly into the soil as deeply as is practical. "

and...

"If you add gypsum, the Ca will be immediately available if you water from the top so it can disperse through the soil a little. Be careful because gypsum does contribute to the level of EC/TDS and you don't want that getting so high you burn your plants.
The reason BER occurs is because Ca is not mobile in the plant. The plant can 'borrow N, P, and K from other plant parts and translocate these nutrients to new cells, but since Ca is not mobile, it has to be continually present in the nutrient stream for new cells to form normally. The blossom end has the newest cells in each fruit, so anytime the nutrient stream is interrupted (cultural) or Ca is unavailable, the cells on the blossom end don't form normally. This can occur not only from an actual deficiency of Ca, but also from high humidity (usually coupled with clouds and calm winds), too much/too little water in the soil ..... anything cultural that interrupts the constant and sufficient supply of Ca to newly forming cells in the fruits."

So, if nothing else at least the plants should grow like crazy :-)

[Mojave]

Thanks for that Edweather!

I'm not knowledgeable enough either to agree or disagree with either theory!

BER usually, if it happens at all, hits my plants early on in the season and goes away. Carolyn's explanation said that was pretty much how it works, so that part rung a bell with me. Al's explanation makes sense too.

I'll continue to add a little gypsum and bone meal to my plants, can't hurt.

[solus]

Carolyn, pure awesomeness =)

[efisakov]

I add fish head or the whole fish (about 1 foot deep in the soil and 1 foot away from tomato). It has many ingredients. Never had a problem with BER.

[cippoli]

I am trying the Carolyn Phillips method of growing in containers this year.
Putting a tbs. of c/n once every ten days or so is a little difficult when the plants grow larger, so my questions,

Does anyone apply c/n in a liquid form to drench the soil?
If so how do you mix it with water, and how much do you apply and how often?
Thanks for any help

Fred

[edweather]

One rule of thumb I heard of is 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. CN dissolves very easily in water. I am using it this year, and am applying it with water once per week. I might use a little less when the plants are small.

[tnpeppers]

Originally Posted by CarolynPhillips

Calcium nitrate= I just always started feeding it to the plants when I transplanted them to their permanant growing space which is just before they start to bloom. The plants look like incredible hulk with big fat incredible hulk green tomatoes.

Carolyn:

A few questions...when you FIRST plant your tomatoes, how do you apply your fertilizer mix, and how much? Do you start sprinkling it on the top of the soil in the pot seven days later, and then every week thereafter?

How do you apply the fertilizer mix to your root vegetables; such as carrots, turnips and beets? Do you just 'side dress' the rows?

Re: calcium nitrate...do you apply the 'snack' when you plant, or do you wait until they have been in the ground 10 days, and then continue to apply it every ten days thereafter? Do you also apply that as a 'side dressing' with root vegetables?

Do you water these ingredients into the soil in all cases?

Thank you in advance...appreciate your help!

[AKmark]

How did I over look this thread, I am growing about 130 plants in smart pots in a greenhouse, Love the results too. Very nice Carolyn.

[cythaenopsis]

Originally Posted by Mojave

BER usually, if it happens at all, hits my plants early on in the season and goes away. Carolyn's explanation said that was pretty much how it works, so that part rung a bell with me. Al's explanation makes sense too.

I'll continue to add a little gypsum and bone meal to my plants, can't hurt.

I have provided an ample amount of calcium to the potting medium of my plants. However, I just recently had two plants suffer from it (one plant has about 6 fruits hit by it, the other plant has just one casualty). Coincident to this was a skipped day of watering. I was away one day longer than expected. When I got back, my container reservoirs were dry. Several stem tops of the more greatly affected plant were wilting. I refilled the reservoir and then provided some top watering to get moisture into the soil a little faster. The plant quickly recovered, as the wilted leaves started to look normal after about an hour. The reservoir dropped by over 1/3rd! The plant sure was thirsty. Unfortunately, this happened twice... and each time the result was as depicted.

So... in my case it certainly appears that my BER affliction was caused by erratic watering. For container tomatoes, the latter part of the season can be critical as the plant is larger and many tomatoes may be growing simultaneously, making higher demands on the fixed water supply.