Hello Folks,
This year, I put 3 tomato plants on my apartment porch, one on my neighbors porch 20 feet from me, and one on a farther porch 100 feet away. All in 5 gallon buckets with the same soil mix. They all get close to the same amount of sun. All 5 plants are different varieties.
Near my 3 plants and the one near neighbor, we have bird feeders. The birds sit on the tomato cages and there are a fair amount of droppings on these plants. The leaves on these 4 plants are curled and appear sparse. The far neighbor does not have a bird feeder and her tomato plant looks gorgeous.
Do bird droppings that are more often than usual harm the tomato plants? Could they transfer some tomato disease?
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- Cool Member
- Posts: 68
- Joined: Wed Jul 31, 2013 10:38 am
- Location: Northcentral Illinois, Zone 5a
Thank you folks for your responses. Sorry for my delay in a response. It seems I don't get an email when someone answers my post.
Anyway, I moved the bird feeder to a different part of the property. I moved the tomato plants a little closer to the building where they will get shade a few hours earlier than they did. And I talked to the lady whose plant looks good and found that she puts more water on her plant than I put on mine.
The soil in all 5 buckets is a mix of Miracle Grow garden soil, Schultz garden soil, a little perlite, 8 year old 9-12-12 tomato fertilizer, and new Jobes Biozome 2-5-3 tomato fertilizer. I sprinkled more of both fertilizers on the soil a week ago and watered it in. I am now, once or twice a week, going to use a weak solution of soluble general purpose fertilize with some old kelp stuff mixed in.
As for watering, my little moisture meter said I put enough on the plants but, I'm going to put more now, as the lady with the nice plant does. The 5 gallon buckets have holes near the bottom, and I don't think this soil mix could hold excessive water so, I don't think I can over water the plants.
I don't really think the plants get too much sun but, I'll give it a try. The plants do get some reflected light from the concrete porch and some from the brick building but, the building is 6 to 8 feet from the plants.
I hope my changes work. We'll see.
Thank you,
Harry
Anyway, I moved the bird feeder to a different part of the property. I moved the tomato plants a little closer to the building where they will get shade a few hours earlier than they did. And I talked to the lady whose plant looks good and found that she puts more water on her plant than I put on mine.
The soil in all 5 buckets is a mix of Miracle Grow garden soil, Schultz garden soil, a little perlite, 8 year old 9-12-12 tomato fertilizer, and new Jobes Biozome 2-5-3 tomato fertilizer. I sprinkled more of both fertilizers on the soil a week ago and watered it in. I am now, once or twice a week, going to use a weak solution of soluble general purpose fertilize with some old kelp stuff mixed in.
As for watering, my little moisture meter said I put enough on the plants but, I'm going to put more now, as the lady with the nice plant does. The 5 gallon buckets have holes near the bottom, and I don't think this soil mix could hold excessive water so, I don't think I can over water the plants.
I don't really think the plants get too much sun but, I'll give it a try. The plants do get some reflected light from the concrete porch and some from the brick building but, the building is 6 to 8 feet from the plants.
I hope my changes work. We'll see.
Thank you,
Harry