lemoncait
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Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2009 6:46 pm
Location: Washington State

Fruiting fertilizer

Hi!
I guess I didn't realize all the different types of Fertilizer before..

But I'm wondering, I bought miracle grow for plants and vegetables to use for all my veggies AND flowers..

I feel that maybe it made the leaves/ect too big, and now my plants arent fruiting.

Do you think it's too soon to tell, or maybe I used too much nitrogen?

Do you have any advice on what to buy for fruiting? (I'm much better with names, then the solution mix, I still can't find what the one I have is..)

Ive heard rose fertilizer? Would a tomato fert, miricale grow or bonnie..ect, work?? or is the stuff I have basically the same??

THANKS!!

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Kisal
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Location: Oregon

Too much nitrogen in a fertilizer will produce foliage at the expense of flowers, and of course, flowers are what you need if you want your plants to produce fruit. :)

Compost would always be a good choice, but I no longer have a compost pile, and I'm not sure I want to get back into the work of having to maintain one. (The primary reason I gave up composting is because I no longer drive, and getting the right balance of greens and browns to create a good pile would be difficult. I have plenty of greens but almost no access to browns. [img]https://bestsmileys.com/clueless/4.gif[/img])

I just use a fertilizer that is specifically designed for vegetables and flowering plants. I didn't get particularly good results when I used Miracle-Gro, although I can't say the results were notably bad. Anyway, this year I'm trying a couple of other brands. :)

Tomatoe man
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Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:25 pm
Location: Eastern MO

I have had the same problem in the past. Which fertilizer? It seems nothing erver was good to give results of nice fruit. Last year I bought 3 boxes from the "Garden Patch" They are fantastic. They send the proper fertilizer I just add water to the bottom of the container. I have fruit now. They range in size from little finger to tennis ball size. I hope to be at picking size in 2 more weeks. I have 6 plants and I would think there are at least 200 tomatos coming on now. I plan to purchase more boxes for next year and grow sone other veg's.

TZ -OH6
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What are the three numbers on the box? and how often are you fertilizing?

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rainbowgardener
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Location: TN/GA 7b

[quote="Kisal
Compost would always be a good choice, but I no longer have a compost pile, and I'm not sure I want to get back into the work of having to maintain one. (The primary reason I gave up composting is because I no longer drive, and getting the right balance of greens and browns to create a good pile would be difficult. I have plenty of greens but almost no access to browns. [img]https://bestsmileys.com/clueless/4.gif[/img]) /quote]

Kisal - I know you are an experienced gardener, so I was sorry to hear that you gave up on composting, which I think is key to good organic gardens, maybe to good gardens period. If you've read my Keep It Simple posts, I have composted for years with very little but what my little city yard produces... weeds, spent flowers/plants, shredded remains of old tomato vines and woody plants, kitchen scraps, etc. I cheated a little at times by raking up fall leaves neighbors had piled in the street, because my yard doesn't produce a lot of leaves and last fall I cheated a little more by bringing home some bags of leaves that people had sitting out at the curb. Otherwise I just throw in whatever I have at the time I have it. (Always covering the kitchen scraps with weeds or leaves or whatever, so they don't smell or attract critters.) I turn the pile 3 times a year when I want to get to the finished compost at the bottom. I water it when I'm watering the garden. Otherwise I don't do anything.

The leaves are about the only brown I add, except the coffee filters and paper towels that are in the kitchen scraps, and occasionally some brown paper grocery bags, torn up. It's very little work & low maintenance and doesn't require additives from off the property. It doesn't heat up very much (gets a bit warm, but never hot) and earthworms, pill bugs, etc do a lot of the breaking down. But it produces lovely finished compost and the only weeds that ever sprout from my compost are volunteer tomatoes and squash.

Maybe you can reconsider and just find a way to compost that fits within your current lifestyle?

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Kisal
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:04 am
Location: Oregon

There are major complications in my life that preclude me from getting leaves, cardboard boxes, or even a newspaper. I'm trying to resolve some of those issues, but it's slow going. :(

I used to compost all the time. In fact, I usually had a minimum of 3 piles going, in addition to my 4 x 4 x 4 wire bin.

It wasn't by choice that I stopped composting. I became very ill and couldn't even go outside. No gardening at all. I was lucky if some of my days were good enough that I was able to sit on the porch or out on the patio. I'm much better now, and out of the wheelchair, but I still have to take it kind of easy. Maybe I'll be able to start a small pile again soon. I hope so. :)

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

Sorry to hear about your illness, and glad that you are getting better. It's really nice that when you can't be in your garden yourself, you can still be sharing your expertise here... and you've done a great job of that.

I didn't mean to sound judgmental and my message wasn't just for you. I just think for newbies sometimes, reading all this stuff can start to sound hard and kind of rocket-science-y. I want people to hear that you can do this at all kinds of levels and it doesn't have to be difficult, real time consuming, or take a laboratory..

Best wishes in your continued recovery!

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freedhardwoods
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Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 9:32 pm
Location: Southwest IN

TZ -OH6 wrote:What are the three numbers on the box? and how often are you fertilizing?
Good question. I thought I would bump this post to see if they would answer.

You can cause more problems in many plants by over fertilizing than under fertilizing.

myron26155
Full Member
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2009 2:01 pm
Location: Orlando

lemoncait wrote:Hi!
I guess I didn't realize all the different types of Fertilizer before..

But I'm wondering, I bought miracle grow for plants and vegetables to use for all my veggies AND flowers..

I feel that maybe it made the leaves/ect too big, and now my plants arent fruiting.

Do you think it's too soon to tell, or maybe I used too much nitrogen?

Do you have any advice on what to buy for fruiting? (I'm much better with names, then the solution mix, I still can't find what the one I have is..)

Ive heard rose fertilizer? Would a tomato fert, miricale grow or bonnie..ect, work?? or is the stuff I have basically the same??

THANKS!!
I've heard that one of the very best tomato fertilizers is a product called " Tomato-Tone" .
Personally I've never used it but I have heard it works well. You can find it here:
https://www.totallytomato.com/dp.asp?c=19&P={023E7C00-8FEC-40A3-BD50-48FCE5404082}.

When I'm ready to bloom my plants I switch to a fertilizer with a lower nitrogen content and is higher in phosphrous and potassium.[/url]



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