Tomato alternate growing systems

Thnaks for the detail ........ opt1 is interesting could you tell me a bit more about:
"Canna compost + worm compost FBB, seaweed meal mychorrhizae fungi, and Cal/mag."

I am a user of FBB ... but the rest is new to me.

 

hi seaweed meal can be bought from any garden centre.
I have a small wormery from worm city and have found that the compost benefited everything in the garden.
Mycorrhizal fungi exist in nearly all soils. These extraordinary fungi provide a secondary root system for the plant. Imagine a wider and more efficient network attached to the plant’s roots beneath ground. A network composed of fungi with spreading spidery arms extending beyond the plant roots. These fungi are highly efficient at absorbing water and nutrients (particularly phosphorus) from the soil.

The fungi are living organisms that live in mutual benefit with the plant – the plant provides carbon and sugars for the fungi, as it provides the nutrient supply to the plant. can be bought online i use vaminoc . rootgrow is very expensive

Canna compost along with Bio Bizz can be bought from any online hydroponic site
i use a local shop great stuff hydro look at any web site it will give details

Regards Alex

 

Bio bizz has an odd NPK ratio, the grow formula is 4-3-6 and the bloom is 2-7-4. Toms need a lot of potassium (K) going into flower. Commercial tomato hydro nutrients are always K heavy for this reason. The commercial tomato base nutrients typically have very low N and zero Ca, so the N:K:Ca ratio can be manipulated by the grower for each stage of growth by using a combination of potassium nitrate (N:K) and calcium nitrate (N:Ca). Toms dont need more than 40ppm of phosphorus (P) at any stage.
The greenhouse sensations fomulation will work great for chilli`s but its not ideal for toms. Its probably better value than the biobizz but like most shop bought its overpriced. The 2.5L AB concentrates contain less than 65p in raw chemicals. With a dilution rate of 5ml AB per litre you`ll have the following ppm (plus whatever N, Ca and Mg your water contributes) N=107, P=55, K=165, Mg=17, Ca=78, Fe=2.15, B=0.25, Mn=0.45, Zn=0.05, Mo=0.05, Cu=0.1

 

John BER is a mainly due to calcium issues, there`s a lot of suspects though. Not enough Ca in the solution, too much P in the solution causing Ca to become unavailable (favourite if using a lot of phosphoric acid for ph control), not enough water moving through the plant due to hot weather shutting down transpiration or infrequent watering. In hot weather, the plant takes up calcium it missed when it cools down or at night via root pressure. Calcium uptake is much slower than many of the other elements and its not mobile in the plant so it cant be relocated, for example from the older leaves.

 

What is AB ? .......... not familiar with that term

 

AB is a two part concentrated nutrient, part A and part B. Part A contains all the calcium which, in concentrated stock solutions has to kept seperate from phosphates and sulphates to prevent reactions that form insoluble precipitates. Greenhouse sensations part A contains all the calcium nitrate and some of the potassium nitrate. Part B has the other potassium nitrate and everything else. Splitting the potassium nitrate between the A and B evens up the weight of chemicals in each poly bag to around 280g.

 

I have been using Autopots for several years. They are gravity fed and work well for me.

 

Bio Bizz grow and bloom is used together once fruiting has begun giving an NPK of 6-10-10

 

I there a float system to regulate water rate .. or is via a dripper ?

 

There is a float valve that regulates the liquid.

 

Got room for a newbie folks! I thought I was an experienced gardener (I'm knocking on a bit) but over the last two or three years I have considered that the tomatoes I grow are lacking in the taste that I recall from some years back! This was when I grew in soil but of course the drawback was the short season and the inevitable pests and disease, so over the last few years I have invested in greenhouse growing with solid floor so no borders and I don't fancy knocking out the concrete! looking through this thread I was very interested in the input from you gardeners particularly when Quadgrow was mentioned I have used this system now for two years I found that the crops were very good but something is lacking taste wise! After reading the very detailed input from alexmac could I ask you if I can purchase the ingredients for your compost mix from one supplier if so would you let me know! I would really appreciate any help
Tom

 

hi Tomhip
The compost I use is either levington M2 or Canna terra professional mixed with worm compost which I make myself
As these are both peat based I also use additives.
Typical make up
80% levington or Canna
20% worm compost
50 grams calcified seaweed
100 grams fish blood and bone
20 grams mycorrhizal fungi dusted on roots when potting up
feed with biobizz grow and bloom when first fruits begin to swell
Grow and bloom together give npk of 6 10 10
Levington seaweed and FBB can be bought from any garden centre
Canna terra prof and biobizz can be bought from any local or online hydroponic supply shop.

Regards Alex Ps for some reason I could not log in as alexmac no matter what I tried

 

Grateful thanks Alex for your detailed advice the only stumbling block I see is the worm cast but I think I have seen another high grade compost advertised somewhere that contains wormcast,
Just one further point we are talking about Quadgrow! And I notice that you do not place the plant food in the water container along with the water but feed the plants when ready from the top is this correct! I hope this doesn't seem stupidly obvious but I would like to get it right this year cause as you know it's a long time to waste growing crap.
Again my thanks Alex.
Kind regards
Tom