Hey Fellow Floridians - Year 2

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Barb_FL

Marsha - I checked those small clamps and they fit perfectly holding down the white plastic on the EB.

Thanks for the info re: pots and Tomato Maker - I never heard of that brand. Do you think it makes a HUGE difference?

I'm doing Espoma Starter Plus this year. On Amazon, I needed to get to $35 and bought Jobe's Organic Fast Starter an add-on item (same price as HD). Last spring I used Urban Farms Dry formula which was excellent - But at $23 for 6 lbs, pretty expensive. I was going to buy 3 (comes down to $17 each but still $51 for 18 lbs of fertilizer).

Seedlings are doing great with the Espoma Starter and I can get it locally for $8ish.

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I have a lot of white flies especially in my peppers and see some in my little seedlings too. Some of those nasty leaf miners on some of my seedling's leaves too.

Here is the link to the McKonkey pots I get.1375 for $66 plus shipping.
http://mcconkeyco.com/collections/sq...5-case-of-1375
I like that they are making them out of recycled plastic bottles. The Tomato Maker is good but probably doesn't make a huge difference. I want something organic, and the potassium higher than the Nitrogen, and the phosphorous same or lower.

[Fiishergurl]

Marsha,

Do you add lime to the earthboxes? I'm assuming you do... just double checking... :-)

Ginny

[Fiishergurl]

Frangipani flowers from my mom's plant. We always called it a Frangipani but I guess the real name is Plumeria. These are the ones that they use to make leis in Hawaii. They smell soooooo good too.



Barb - this is a Royal Poinciana my mom is growing from seeds you gave her. The jacaranda is growing in the fround but she has the RP in a pot.

Ginny

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[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Marsha,

Do you add lime to the earthboxes?

Ginny

Always! 2 cups if new container, 1 cup if replenishing, even if pH meter says 6.8 or higher. New, the pH is like 3! (Peat is acidic)
Make sure it is garden lime or dolomite lime, not hydrated lime.
And I also give a teaspoon of calcinit down the tube once per week, that strongly helps prevent BER. SWContainers don't have soil, its potting mix, so you do need to give your babies a calcium source. The calcinit also has nitrogen, but they dont overgrow, and they flower really really well, so the little bit extra nitrogen in the calcinit helps rather than hurting. I buy my Calcinit at Kelp4less.com. Good service, reasonable price, I think, not sure, there is no shipping cost.

[Fiishergurl]

Ok just wanted to make sure i didnt miss out on any new and improved process... :-)

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[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Ok just wanted to make sure i didnt miss out on any new and improved process... :-)

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Caint mess wit success, sista! Heee!

[Fiishergurl]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Caint mess wit success, sista! Heee!

Agreed!!



Ginny

[kayrobbins]

Marsha, I kept meaning to ask you about the Calcnit. I know you have great success with your tomatoes but I was worried about adding it because I had always been told too much nitrogen would result in healthy plant with less fruit. I bought some this week and added it in the watering tube of my Grow Buckets.

What do most of you do about pruning your tomato plants. The extension office always suggested pruning to one or two leader and taking out the lateral branches. (I use to call those suckers until Dr Caroline explained sucker come from the bottom and the off shoots between branches are lateral branches.) Two years ago they did a complete reversal and said not to prune at all to prevent sun scalding. I am taking a middle road approach. I do cut any suckers coming from the bottom but leave everything else unless it gets to dense to spray.

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by kayrobbins

Marsha, I kept meaning to ask you about the Calcnit. I know you have great success with your tomatoes but I was worried about adding it because I had always been told too much nitrogen would result in healthy plant with less fruit. I bought some this week and added it in the watering tube of my Grow Buckets.

What do most of you do about pruning your tomato plants. The extension office always suggested pruning to one or two leader and taking out the lateral branches. (I use to call those suckers until Dr Caroline explained sucker come from the bottom and the off shoots between branches are lateral branches.) Two years ago they did a complete reversal and said not to prune at all to prevent sun scalding. I am taking a middle road approach. I do cut any suckers coming from the bottom but leave everything else unless it gets to dense to spray.

Last year my production was through the roof. Last year I onlpy pruned diseased leaves, and some selective leaf pruning to allow for more airflow. Last year I used Tomato Tone instead of TTF.
I have never found the calcinit to cause excessive growth at the expense of fruiting, because there is so much Tomato Tone in the box too.

[Fiishergurl]

How much tomato tone did you use in an eartbox? Do you replenush at all through the season? Any idea how many hallons of reservoir in an earthbox? Do you weigh and record the total tomato pounds produced? I never have but am curious to know what mine produce.

Ginny

[Barb_FL]

Kay - I always heard the same thing in addition to too much nitrogen attracts aphids.

Last year seeing Ginny/Marsha's results I did buy Calcium Nitrate from Amazon but wasn't really faithful in using it. Result, it turned hard and then into liquid. Needs a perfect seal in Fl humidity.

Kay - do you have any tomatoes yet? Is the evening cool enough for fruit set?

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Ginger - make sure you take and post pictures of your babies when they are in their new homes tomorrow. So many seedlings - did you have 100% or close germination?

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Ginny - thanks for the update on the trees - mine are HUGE.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

How much tomato tone did you use in an eartbox? Do you replenush at all through the season? Any idea how many hallons of reservoir in an earthbox? Do you weigh and record the total tomato pounds produced? I never have but am curious to know what mine produce.

Ginny

I use 3 cups. Just fertilizer strip once ; probably really similar to what you have been doing in your SWC.

Did you order/get your EB yet?

[Fiishergurl]

I know you all have seen these photos before probably. .. just sharing them because I prune a lot when the plants get real bushy about two to three times per season and it seems like they put so much more energy into producing more tomatoes and making them larger. Just my opinion though. I've noticed it only works this well when the plants are really healthy and bushy. If they are struggling from disease then pruning just makes things worse.

In 2015 I only used 2 cups of 10-10-10 in some and an organic fert in some of the others and then tended to overuse the TTF but i think this year I am going to use Tomato Tone again in all boxes and calcinit. Thats what I used in spring 2014 and that was my best production so far. Marsha, thats why I keep asking so many questions... lol.

Ginny

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[Barb_FL]

Ginny - in the EB instructions, they say to use 2 Cups of synthetic fertilizer or 3 Cups of Organic Fertilizer.

I want to do whatever you and Marsha are doing.

That is an amazing plant - up there with AKMark's tomatoes - and he fertilizes with every watering.

[Fiishergurl]

Thats two different plants... :-) one is beefsteak size tomatoes and the other is golf ball sized and had over 700 tomatoes... more really i just couldn't keep track of how many it produced throughout the whole season. It was an F2 seed from a grocery store F1. Super healthy and produced like crazy.

Ginny