Tomatoes

"getting liquid feed into the dripper system is a non-starter"

Ought to be possible to have a pot of "concentrate" attached and it will be diluted by the dripper system. Dunno if there are downsides, or lots of cost :( but it would mean that the plants were fed continuously, rather than periodically, which I would have thought was better (obviously the dosing needs to be the same in terms of "X gm or ml of plant food per plant per week", but the plants will benefit from little-and-often)

http://www.1st4irrigation.com/1st4_FeedersFilters.htm

 

Thanks for the suggestion kristen.

A while back I looked into the possibility of an in-line liquid feed supplement to the automatic irrigation system and drew a blank. I tried Hozelock and they were no help. I even tried in this forum, here
http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=9526
and was advised to stick with solid feed, being supposedly the way the pros do it.

I agree that in theory the liquid method should be technically no great challenge, and I note from your link that there may be systems on the market that I missed last time I looked.

That said, I do not understand the objection to the solid granular method. You suggest that with liquid supplement the plants are fed continuously as opposed to periodically, presumably contrasted with the solid method. But I don't see any difference. Provided that you keep the surface topped up with granules which get dissolved by the water dripping from above, the feeding is no less "continuous" than with the liquid method.

 

"You suggest that with liquid supplement the plants are fed continuously as opposed to periodically, presumably contrasted with the solid method"

No, actually I wasn't thinking! I was contrasting with the "once or twice a week from a watering can" method :o

I suppose if I was being picky I could say that with a diluter you can adjust the feeding - increasing nitrogen or phosphate at appropriate parts of the season, or even the concentration of the feed. But I just use Tomarite all through the season, so that's a moot point!

So my only issue would be can you get solid / granular feed of the right nutrient / chemical balance for Tomatoes. It must exist, surely??

 

Some of my green toms are falling off the trusses when you pick them and have a look at them they have gone soft and a little white around the top any body got any thought on this. cheers

 

Anybody know what causes mould on toms.

 

I feed mine well after the final truss has set. Just because the fruit has formed doesn't mean the fruitlets are not taking up nutrients.

I increase the potash ratio (the K in the NPK) in the feed late in the season in order to encourage ripening.