Tomato Challenge!

[A Year On The Plot]

The Tomato Challenge is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. The idea is to see which home made liquid tomato feed produces the best results.

The rules are simple. I will grow 15 tomato plants all of the same variety. The 15 plants will be divided into 5 groups allowing me to test 4 different liquid feeds plus 1 group of 'control' plants which will receive NO feed at all. The aim of the experiment will be to see what effect, if any, the feeds have on the end results.

I am looking for some suggestions as to home made liquid feeds. I don't have access to any comfrey at the moment, but I'm willing to give just about anything else a go.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Tomato Challenge

Cheers

Richard

[taff]

wood ash and sheep poo in a bucket.

[zazen999]

What feeds are you using?

[A Year On The Plot]

wood ash and sheep poo in a bucket.

I pass a field of sheep on the way home from work. Was thinking about seeing the farmer to see if I could collect a bag of their little gifts!

What feeds are you using?

I will use one shop brought feed, probably a bucket with sheep poop seeping in it and probably one with horse poop doing the same. Any thoughts yourself?

Richard

[Poolcue]

How about a nettle tea fertiliser?
I am sure it wouldn't be difficult to locate and free too.

[Currysniffa]

What about Comfrey tea ?Growing and Using Comfrey for Gardeners including Comfrey Liquid Fertiliser or Tea

[zazen999]

I pass a field of sheep on the way home from work. Was thinking about seeing the farmer to see if I could collect a bag of their little gifts!

I will use one shop brought feed, probably a bucket with sheep poop seeping in it and probably one with horse poop doing the same. Any thoughts yourself?

Richard

Comfrey - worm fertiliser - seaweed...

[super trowel]

I was just about to say seaweed D'oh!

[A Year On The Plot]

How about a nettle tea fertiliser?
I am sure it wouldn't be difficult to locate and free too.

Yeah, I'm seriously thinking about nettles. There is a huge patch that comes up every year near us that don't get treated with weed killer.

So I'm thinking

1) Shop brought Feed
2) Sheep Poop in water
3) Horse poop in water
4) Nettle Tea
5) Control - NO FEED

I think I may set up a wormery, but probably won't be ready in time for this years crop.

Cheers

Richard

[taff]

nettles is for nitrogen innit, so your leaf growth would be lush.....

[Leeds_lad]

"Compost tea"
I follow this chap on youtube and followed his method. You'd be surprised at how easy it is an the effect it gives!

E-Z Compost Tea (Simplest method on earth) - YouTube

[Florence Fennel]

Hello AYOTP, hope your trial goes well. Whereabouts in the country are you? Pop your location into your profile so we can keep an eye on you!

[SarzWix]

I think you ought to try to replicate the shop-bought: rather than randomly trying single things to add to water, as that isn't going to be a fair comparison. The shop bought has a balanced amount of N:P:K, whereas nette tea, as Taff points out, is only high in nitrogen, so those plants would crop poorly in comparison to those getting more potassium. So I think you need to do a bit of research before you start, to make it a fair trial.

[chris]

nettles is for nitrogen innit, so your leaf growth would be lush.....

Perhaps they're going for the tallest tomato plant

[dod]

Richard,

This certainly sounds like an interesting experiment. A few issues occurred to me though.

1. sometimes different fertilisers might be used during diferent stages of growth, e.g. a high nitrogen one for growth early on, and a high phosphate and potassium one for flowering and fruiting.

2. feeds made from "teas" of plants, manures, etc. might not have the same composition each time they are made, in terms of their N:P:K ratios, and a single batch used over several months might not be stable.

3. a commercially available fertiliser will have a known major nutrient ratio (and possibly also trace nutrients), and for comparative purposes it would probably be useful to know what the comparable levels are in the "made" fertilisers (the results could be down to this). I'm not sure how you would do this simply, the only way I can think of (aside from sending samples to a lab) would be to use aquarium test kits (at least for nitrate and phosphate), although some dilution would probably be required.

I'll look forward to seeing how this progresses.

Dod