Fertilizers, Sprays, and Growing Tomatoes

[dice]

"In an earlier post here it was said to add
Epsom Salts to the planting hole to prevent
BER. It seems the dosage was 1/2 cup."

Epsom Salts contain magnesium and sulfur.
BER (Blossom End Rot) is a calcium deficiency
disease, which may be brought on by either
too little calcium in the soil or planting medium
or by too little water (drought interferes with
the uptake of calcium by roots).

Reference:

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/t...fruit/36c.html

Adding epsom salts to gardens is usually considered
a benefit (plants do need magnesium and sulfur), but
not as a specific BER remedy.

Any of ordinary lime, dolomite lime, gypsum, ground eggshells, or ground oyster shells would be appropriate
for preventing BER (assuming that the soil does not
dry out). Gypsum will lower soil pH, from a little to a
lot depending on how much you use, all of the others
will raise it. All of those need some time in the soil
before the calcium becomes available to plants, so
adding them to a planting bed long before sowing seed
or transplanting seedlings into it is recommended
(I would do it in the fall to be available the next
season). Most of these will last for a few seasons
before you need to do it again.

In a pinch, you can just crush an eggshell
in your hand and drop it in the planting hole
under a seedling. Very little of it is going to
dissolve over a season, but it is right there
handy for the tomato plant's roots, and that
may be enough to prevent BER.

Soils in many places have plenty of calcium
naturally, so keeping them from drying out
is all that is needed to prevent BER. That
may not be the case with a custom organic
mix in a raised bed, but it is also easy to
fix in that kind of garden.

[tomatoguy]

Here are a few of my experiences in response to your many threads in one message. I have been growing tomatoes for 37 years now; heirlooms almost exclusively for 10.

Fertilizer: I don't have a need to fertilize much. The soil in my raised bed is loose and rich. I sometimes use a little kelp or a 9-10-15 on my seedlings while they are still inside. I dilute to half the normal strength. Before I started the raised bed, I used Osmocote time release for veggies twice during the growing season.

I used to spray with kelp but found no particullar benefit. It does seem to make for healthier seedlings when used before transplanting, though.

I rarely use insecticides and when I do it is usually soapy spray. With the exception of a massive infestation, my philosophy is to grow enough for the bugs and me both to be happy. The exceptions are hornworms which I remove by hand and blister beetles which might even make me bring out the Sevin. Nothing organic seems to bother them.

I don't suppose that using Epsom Salts on your plants would hurt but I don't see how it could help with BER. BER is caused by a problem with Calcium uptake, usually due to watering problems.

I mulch with wheat straw now but have tried the following:

Black Plastic: great until about the second week of June then everything tends to burn up. Maybe it's okay for northern climes.

White Landscape Fabric: Looks great, does nothing to control weeds.

Newspaper: Works great in regulating moisture and controlling weeds. It is a pain to put down and keep down in a plot of any size.

Red Plastic SRM Mulch: My experience tells me that the stuff works. I have gone so far as to grow the same varieties with and without the mulch in different locations over a period of time. I am satisfied that the mulch makes the plants produce earlier and slightly more. Your mileage may vary.

I will stick with the wheat straw. It is cheap and easy to use and hard to beat for both weed control and moisture regulation.

I have tried all sorts of methods for supporting plants. This year I will be using homemade double cages that are 7 feet tall. Even at that height, most of my plants grow way out the top by season's end. To support the cages, I will be using standard sign posts driven 2 feet into the ground. That way if I end up with another 15 footer like Granny Cantrell's German Red it shouldn't pull down the whole shooting match.

Watering. I water as little as possible. I water from the top until the plants are established using Auto-Mators. After that I have a soaker hose buried 16 inches deep that does a really nice job.

Suckering. I cage so I don't sucker. Suckering makes fewer and larger fruit but does seem to increase susceptibility to disease.

mater
Zone 6B, middle Tennessee