Dixana
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Posts: 729
Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:58 pm
Location: zone 4

What do you use for fertilizer?

There is so much info out there for what to use/how often etc.
So what has worked well for you guys? I'm going pretty much organic this year but please feel free to list the non organics as well. :)

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Gary350
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Posts: 7419
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I save all my wood ashes from the wood stove. Today I mixed up a 5 gallon black plastic bucket of dry compost material, some dirt, and some wood ashes with a plywood top on the bucket. I keep it in the garage every time I have to pee I do it in the bucket about 7 or 8 times a day.
In about a week or so it will start to have a very strong Ammonia smell that is when I move it to the yard in direct sun light so it will get hot during the day. The buckets has several cracks in it from ice freezing it during the winter. It will be completely composted in 30 days. I start a new bucket about every week.

I use lime, 15/15/15 fertilizer and compost on my Tomatoes.

I use 6/12/12 and lots of compost on my potatoes.
Last edited by Gary350 on Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

GreenThumbGrowing
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Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 6:33 pm
Location: united states

I like to use mostly organic fertilizer with a little non organic. There are a lot of additives you can use to get healthy plants with high yields. Some can be bought at the store. If you don't wanna spend money then stuff from your house and yard or friends is great. Composting kitchen scraps year round mixed with lawn clippings and tree leaves and whatever else you have is a great way to make rich compost to add to your garden. One helpful piece of advice that comes to mind for tomatos is that if the soil doesnt have enough lime in it then your tomatos will get rotten spots on them while still green or just before picking. the best way to prevent this is to add some lime every year or add small amounts of powdered lime to your plant water from time to time. Happy gardening!

Annemieke
Full Member
Posts: 46
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:25 am
Location: Netherlands

I started a topic about fertilizing a week ago too. You will find the topic in the next link: :wink:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24160

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Best thing for tomatoes is just good rich organic soil. I just put compost and a little crunched up egg shell in the planting hole with them. When it's warm enough to mulch the soil, I top dress with more compost and mulch on top of that.

Otherwise I never add any fertilizer. This year I'm trying for the first time, occasionally watering with some sort-of-compost-tea (see the AACT sticky in Compost Forum).



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