Is 10-10-10 appropriate fertiliser for tomatoes

[zxcvbob]

I agree with your conclusion, mostly, but not how you get there. Commercial balanced fertilizers are mostly made with urea, ammonium phosphate, and potassium chloride. None of them are particularly harmful to soil organisms *if used lightly*. OTOH, if you pour on the ammonium sulfate to make your lawn look like a golf green, you will ruin the soil.

When you first start feeding the soil, it will sometimes compete with your plants for nutrients, especially nitrogen. Feeding the plants will help. The problem is when you feed the plants while ignoring the soil.

Bob

[Billy]

If used lightly (or strongly), salts of ammonia and nitrates won't nurture the web of soil organisms whose dying populations feed the plants through the breakdown of amino acids. I'm sure you will agree that the soil organisms are better served through mulching, application of rock phosphate, and application of either "green" or animal manure. From my reading (I'm sure you will correct me if I get it wrong) of "Teaming with Microbes", chemical fertilizer salts affect soil organisms in the same manner as table salt does snails and slugs. In low concentrations, they don't hurt but they don't help the soil. Fertilizer salts do help plants (in a limited way with macro-nutrients) but you may as well be growing hydroponicaly in that case and you will have reduced the phytonutrients anthocyanins and flavonoids in your harvest.

So, where are the holes in my reasoning?

Hope your garden is doing well:o)

[George.com]

either treat the soil as a gorwing medium and feed nutrients directly to the plant or treat the soil as the source of nutrients and feed the soil.

rob

[Billy]

But the results won't be equal. The later will be more nutritious and and the former will attract more insect pests.

[man]

:On Sun, 25 May 2008 23:52:37 -0500, Ignoramus22089 : wrote: : ::I was a little turned off by the prices of fertilisers sold for ::gardens (at home depot), but I have a bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer for ::lawns, the sort that does not have any herbicides (ie, not a weed and ::feed type, just feed). :: ::Would you say that this is approproate for garden with tomatoes and ::peppers and so on. :: ::Thanks : :I too was turned off by what I saw at Home Depot and bought nothing. I :usually use a 5-10-5 or 5-10-10. Last few years I've used 15-30-15 :Miracle Grow, only 1/3rd as much. I'm looking around for alternatives :now, but finding nothing I like. Used to be I could buy a 20 lb bag of :5-10-5 for $8 or so in a local hardware store but I haven't been able to :find anything like that anywhere. It boggles my mind, frankly.

I found an inexpensive source, being a 20 lb bag of 16-16-16 at Ace Hardware. Brand is Shultz, and it includes micronutrients. They market it as pretty much all purpose including vegetables (photo of tomato). I figure it might be a little high on the N, but I think my tomatoes are a bit N starved at the moment, anyway. I plan to use it very sparingly and it will probably last me for a few years since I've determined to lean on homemade compost very heavily. I figure with enough compost, very little is needed in the way of commercial fertilizer (if any).

Dan

[Billy]

You may want to try to intersperse beans or peas among your other crops or rotate them as a crop on different patches in your garden. This will give you food and put nitrogen in the soil. Additionally, you can avoid chemical fertilizers, which cannot help your soil and risk damaging the micro flora and fauna that promote healthier plants. Chemical nitrogen quickly accumulates in the leaves of plants, which in turn attract plant pests to them.

[Persephone]

How many NG members are using worm castings, or liquid worm castings, for tomatoes and everything else ?

They're supposed to be spectacular in improving the soil (which according to organic gardeners, helps plants more than chemical fertilizers). I'm just at the beginning of my program, so wondered about others' experiences.

TIA

[zxcvbob]

Last year I mulched my peppers with shredded office paper. The worms loved it; I had to replace it several times. The dirt was almost nothing but worm castings by the end of the year.

I'm gonna do the same thing this year if it ever stops raining.

Bob