Nocturnal
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Apr 10, 2015 5:55 pm

how to amend soil for my black krims?

Just picked up some Bonnie black krims yesterday, and was wondering how to give them best success in the soil.

Stuff I have to work with:

Chicken manure
Coffee grounds
Compost that has varying degrees of rottedness, primarily made up of chicken poo and wood shavings and also grass
Fresh seaweed
Crushed-ish shells and little bit of sand and pebbles from the beach (natural deposits found around rocks)
Cedar bark and hemlock needles

imafan26
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Posts: 13947
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Chicken manure has calcium and will raise the pH as long as your soil is not alkaline, it may be fine in small amounts. Some people will add lime or calcium to tomatoes at planting for BER
coffee grounds and compost are o.k. - I only add about 20% to my soil at most, but I plant in pots, compost other than vermicast causes problems for me in pots.

Adding stuff from the beach, I don't know, it may improve drainage, but if your beach is on the ocean, it will contain salts which would not be good for most plants, except maybe asparagus. Fresh seaweed needs to be rinsed well, it contains a lot of salt. You can add it to the compost pile after it has been leached of salt, but not too much of it.

The garden got some free seaweed from an ocean cleanup and they dried it but did not wash it. It was added to the compost pile and when it was done, the compost was tested. It was too saline too be useable. It took another year of adding more material to the pile and watering it to leach it out to be useable.

I just need a good deep soil with amended with organic matter. Tomato roots are deep so make sure they have room to spread.

Tomatoes like a pH anywhere from 6.0 to 6.8 but will tolerate up to a 7.4.

If you are organic, people do like tomato tone which is not certified organic but meets organic standards

Otherwise I pretty much use citrus food for everything. I mix in 1/2 cup into the soil as a pre-plant and side dress at first flowering, first fruit, and monthly thereafter. How much depends on the size of the plant. Vigoro citrus food is 6-4-6. I get it from home depot. They also sell tomato tone (3-4-6). So they are similar, citrus food contains micronutrients which is why I prefer it for most things I grow. Low numbers under 10 usually do not run into issues with too much growth.

Whatever you use, do not add too much nitrogen at the start. Chicken manure is about 1.6-1-, not all of it will be available immediately. So it is slow release. It also contains calcium because most manure comes from layer hens and they are fed calcium for stronger shells. What goes in comes out.

If you are growing in the soil and you have not done it before, get a soil test and they will give you specific recommendations for tomatoes or organic fertilizers if you request it.

Nitrogen is best delivered in divided doses as 2 or 3 side dressings. Too much nitrogen and you will get a lot of leaves, and a very big plant with few fruit. Less nitrogen you can still get a big plant with fruit. Organic or low nitrogen (no nitrogen side dressings), you will get a smallish plant with fruit.

I don't have hemlock around here, but cedar bark is one of the rot resistant woods, it may take a while to breakdown.



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