Urban Farms Texas Tomato Food

[b54red]

Would the citrus and fruit tree fertilizer be okay for fertilizing pepper and tomato plants?

[Urbanfarmer]

OK, but not optimized. Tomatoes really want a bump in K and a reduction in N during fruiting. We also increase the Ca and Mg in Texas Tomato Food. But the makeup of your soil plays into this as well.

[Vespertino]

good thread! I was on the hunt for a good liquid fertilizer, I'm going to see if Marshall Grain carries this brand.

[Urbanfarmer]

Originally Posted by Vespertino

good thread! I was on the hunt for a good liquid fertilizer, I'm going to see if Marshall Grain carries this brand.

As of today, I don't think so at Marshall Grain. Call Tractor Supply in Marshall or Longview. They might have some left. Of course, you could always call Marshall Grain and complain that they don't have it!!

Thanks a bunch.......

[Dewayne mater]

Just order it from urban farmer's web page. They turned it really quickly for me and it is a long ways out to the first distributor in N. Texas.

Dewayne mater

[Fat Charlie]

I just got a quart of the All Purpose Vegetable Fertilizer. The only glitch was that it wasn't clear to me from the site that shipping was included in the price, and the checkout warned about making sure that there was a shipping quote in the total. I decided to throw it in anyway and it came through with $0 shipping. Looking at the page now, I see the product is named "All-Purpose Vegetable. Shipping Included!" Apparently I need to read more.

I'm looking forward to using it this year.

[Vespertino]

Originally Posted by Dewayne mater

Just order it from urban farmer's web page. They turned it really quickly for me and it is a long ways out to the first distributor in N. Texas.

Dewayne mater

Will do, Marshall grain doesn't carry it

[b54red]

I just love the ease of application of this stuff. I ordered quite a bit of it but I am using it rather fast. I have been using the vegetable formula on all my seedlings, onions, young tomatoes and peppers, carrots, cabbage, lettuce and squash and the results have been very good so far. My tomatoes are still showing the same problem they had last year even though they are growing and blooming great. That problem is a slight iron deficiency which is probably more a case of my soil being slightly too alkaline than a shortage of iron. Next time I fertilize my tomatoes I will add just a touch of chelated iron to my solution before using it. I had to do that last year and the year before with Miracle Grow and it really took care of my problem. The problem seems to go away completely once the plants get really big but if it is not treated it can cause real problems for some of the young plants new growth. I'm slowly getting my ph closer to where it should be by not liming and using some fairly acidic soil amendments like cottonseed meal but it is a slow process.

Do you see any problem with adding a little of the powdered iron chelate to the Tomato Food just before applying it?

I also use a bit of humic acid in my garden hose end sprayer sometimes when watering or fertilizing. It seems to aid the plants a bit in their uptake of nutrients. Should it be applied separately or just mixed in the sprayer with the fertilizer? I don't want to add anything to the fertilizer that will lessen its effectiveness.

Bill

[Urbanfarmer]

Originally Posted by b54red

Do you see any problem with adding a little of the powdered iron chelate to the Tomato Food just before applying it?

I also use a bit of humic acid in my garden hose end sprayer sometimes when watering or fertilizing. It seems to aid the plants a bit in their uptake of nutrients. Should it be applied separately or just mixed in the sprayer with the fertilizer? I don't want to add anything to the fertilizer that will lessen its effectiveness.

Bill

Glad to hear you're doing well. But.......

There is already quite a bit of chelated iron in TTF, so be careful not to overdose by adding extra. My advice would be to attack the problem of ph instead. Use some ph down in your solution so that you are applying a 5.0-5.5 ph solution. This will counter your high ph soil. The iron will then become more available.

I always cringe when I see words like "seems, appears, might, etc.....". That's very hard to verify. Besides, there is already quite a bit of humic acid in TTF. Adding more throws a wrench in the machinery, although I don't see where an extra, diluted amount can do any harm.

I believe if you correct your high soil ph, everything else will fall in line. Even the best nutrients will be locked out if the medium isn't within reasonable ph ranges. The sweet zone in our experience is 5.7-6.3 for most vegetables.

Best regards,

[b54red]

Originally Posted by Urbanfarmer

Glad to hear you're doing well. But.......

There is already quite a bit of chelated iron in TTF, so be careful not to overdose by adding extra. My advice would be to attack the problem of ph instead. Use some ph down in your solution so that you are applying a 5.0-5.5 ph solution. This will counter your high ph soil. The iron will then become more available.

I always cringe when I see words like "seems, appears, might, etc.....". That's very hard to verify. Besides, there is already quite a bit of humic acid in TTF. Adding more throws a wrench in the machinery, although I don't see where an extra, diluted amount can do any harm.

I believe if you correct your high soil ph, everything else will fall in line. Even the best nutrients will be locked out if the medium isn't within reasonable ph ranges. The sweet zone in our experience is 5.7-6.3 for most vegetables.

Best regards,

I'm afraid of adjusting my soil ph too suddenly as I have a garden full of very healthy looking plants with the exception of a little iron deficiency showing in a few of them. I know for a fact that my soil is too high in P and if it suddenly became available I might have big problems. Since I have a very successful garden even with the higher than ideal ph I think I would be better off to gradually reduce the ph more naturally and just attend to the minor nutrient deficits as or if they appear to be affecting certain plants rather than risk an overdose on a wide scale from a sudden surge in availability of nutrients or trace elements.

The reason I say "seems or appears to" is because I am gardening in soil and many things factor in to the results I see when I use a product. If I were growing in soil-less containers or hydroponically it would be much easier to say with certainty what results came from using a specific product. I am constantly adding organic matter and my beds are full of earthworms which produce fertilizer on their own. Heavy rains also affect how things grow and how effective fertilizers are along with droughts, diseases and pests.

My tomatoes have had a dose of the your Vegetable food when they were smaller and when they started blooming I fertilized with the Texas Tomato Food and I will apply my second dose of Texas Tomato Food as soon as the rain lets up and see how they look a week later. I may add just a bit of the humic acid since it aids in absorption of minerals and wait on the iron supplement. The tomatoes are starting to fruit and are growing very well and keeping me really busy pruning and tying up to my trellises.

Thanks for the response. I'll keep you informed on the results of using your products on my vegetables, fruit trees and tomatoes as the summer progresses.

Bill

[eatmoreyeah]

Got my 1 gallon of Texas Tomato Fertilizer Wednesday. Did a soil drench on both container and in ground maters on Wednesday and will feed them again tomorrow! Looking forward to the results.
Very fast shipping.

Charles

[Urbanfarmer]

Originally Posted by eatmoreyeah

Got my 1 gallon of Texas Tomato Fertilizer Wednesday. Did a soil drench on both container and in ground maters on Wednesday and will feed them again tomorrow! Looking forward to the results.
Very fast shipping.

Charles

Charles......as a manufacturer, our directions for use are always ballpark. We can't know the specifics of someone's rootzone or water situation, so we err on the side of caution.

This reply is in reference to your containers, to help you dial-in your feeding frequency. If you notice on the backside description (upper RH block), it says TTF is designed as a "continuous feed" nutrient for containers. I want to qualify that.

This is true if your container mix is inert, that is.....a soilless medium without any existing NPK in it. When using this kind of medium, you can use TTF continuously as long as you overwater each time by 10-15%. In this situation you are essentially practicing "manual hydroponics", so that is where our fertilizers will really shine, because they originated as "continuous feed" hydroponic formulas.

However, if you have added nutrients/compost/manure/etc to your mix, that means there is a varying degree of NPK already in the rootzone. In this situation we recommend feeding every 2nd or 3rd watering. Watch your plants. Ultimately you have to let your eyes tell you when to give them a "shot".

In soil, the general rule is feed every 3rd watering, but this is negotiable. It is difficult to over-fertilize with our nutrients, so you can get away with "pushing" your soil plants with 2-3 shots in a row. But then back off to pure water for 2-3 waterings.

We find that this is the best way to figure out the right frequency: "push" with multiple "shots", and then back off. You'll see a very clear response inside of 5-7 days.

We call this method "riding the wave", especially in hydroponics and container gardening. This means......we "push", find that sweet spot, and then keep them on that edge. This is how we maximize performance. Tomato plants like being "driven". They are like thoroughbreds.....give them the juice, and they will run.

Feel free to call anytime if you have a question. Much appreciated......

[b54red]

Which of your fertilizer mixes is better for bell peppers? Is it the vegetable or the tomato food or could it be the fruit tree mix?

I have had unbelievable blooming and fruit set on my small citrus plants since I started using your fruit tree fertilizer. They have responded to it better than I could have hoped. It is still too early in the season to tell if your Texas Tomato Food is going to outperform the other fertilizers I have used; but I can say so far it is at least as good as any other commercial fertilizers I have used and it is the easiest to apply.

Bill

[Urbanfarmer]

Originally Posted by b54red

Which of your fertilizer mixes is better for bell peppers? Is it the vegetable or the tomato food or could it be the fruit tree mix?

I have had unbelievable blooming and fruit set on my small citrus plants since I started using your fruit tree fertilizer. They have responded to it better than I could have hoped. It is still too early in the season to tell if your Texas Tomato Food is going to outperform the other fertilizers I have used; but I can say so far it is at least as good as any other commercial fertilizers I have used and it is the easiest to apply.

Bill

Bill.....peppers will do well on TTF, but better on Veg. They like a bit more N and quite a bit of K. You would probably see good results with A&O as well.

One thing we've found with citrus is that is doesn't like to be as wet as vegetables, and it doesn't respond well to excessive "pushing" like tomatoes. So, if you're seeing good results now, you are probably on the edge.

Besides the hydroponic-grade nutrients in TTF, and the correct ratio, the ultimate difference is the calcium. That's where you'll see the lower incidence of BER. You'll also see stockier plants.

We always caution customers that you're not going to see "alien, over-the-top" growth. You'll see solid, prolific, deficiency-free growth, with top quality tomatoes, and an end to guessing.

[b54red]

My citrus haven't had a choice about being wet this year. We have had an unbelievable amount of rainfall this spring.

I have never had a BER problem except for one or two tomatoes a year and usually because I forgot to water for too long. My soil has a high concentrations of Calcium, Magnesium and Phosphate according to the last few soil samples. I agree with what you are saying about peppers and nitrogen. I have found in the past when they were not thriving that giving them several boosts of a high nitrogen fertilizer would usually get them back to growing and producing again. I like giving them some chicken manure midway through the summer if I can find a little. I just pull my mulch back and sprinkle a light layer around the plant and replace the mulch and water it in well. A week later they look like they have had a vitamin shot. I'm hoping that that will be unnecessary with your fertilizers.

Thanks for the response. Bill