For a long time, I have been trying to grow tomato plants. There has been some success, and some failures. For a total of around 10-15 plants, grown in grow bags, I would get around 20-30 tomato, which seemed very low. There would be plants where the leaves were drooping, or the buds would remain small, and not get converted to fruit. And it was worrisome, because I could read about other people who would get much more fruits from each plant that I was getting; even if you tried to pretend that they were exaggerating, the plants they had and the photos of tomatoes on the plants were not really fictitious. They were indeed getting a number of tomatoes on each plant.
There is a Facebook group of which I am a part of, where the growth is done by organic principles. So, no artificial fertilizer, no pesticide, only organic additives and pesticides. I use my own compost, and use other stuff such as buttermilk, the water from washing chicken and rice, and so on, to ensure that the plants got enough additives through organic methods. Further, I am open to adding stuff from outside as long as it is organic.
Here is an image of one of my tomato plants that is in a bad condition. The leaves are yellow, seem to be falling off, and overall, the number of tomatoes that one gets from this plant is pretty low. Many of the buds dry off and fall.
This is in the midst of some other plants that seem more healthy, although I am still not very happy with the number of tomatoes that are being produced on these plants. The quest is to figure out what needs to be done, what needs to be added, and these need to be organic additives. I already spray with Neem oil dilution for pests, spray with other organic materials and also add compost from time to time. And apparently tomatoes are heavy feeders and need these additives on a regular basis.
I had heard people on many Organic Gardening Facebook groups talking about the benefits of seaweed extract. I did some amount of research, and apparently those who have used it swear by it; although it is as yet hard for me to exactly qualify as to the exact benefits provided by adding Seaweek extract. It was difficult to find seaweed extract, but at a recent flower show, there was a vendor who had a packet of seaweed extract. I was excited to see this, since I had not found this earlier.
This was the extract in powder form, and the idea was to add a small pinch in around 300 ml of water and spray it on the plants; and do so every 2 weeks. I did this once, and need to do it again. It is of course difficult to directly measure whether any future benefit is because of seaweed because I add other stuff; but if the tomatoes come out better, I am fine with whatever was the reason. I want more plants like these.
There is a Facebook group of which I am a part of, where the growth is done by organic principles. So, no artificial fertilizer, no pesticide, only organic additives and pesticides. I use my own compost, and use other stuff such as buttermilk, the water from washing chicken and rice, and so on, to ensure that the plants got enough additives through organic methods. Further, I am open to adding stuff from outside as long as it is organic.
Here is an image of one of my tomato plants that is in a bad condition. The leaves are yellow, seem to be falling off, and overall, the number of tomatoes that one gets from this plant is pretty low. Many of the buds dry off and fall.
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| An unhealthy tomato plant with yellow leaves, Get a print of this plant |
This is in the midst of some other plants that seem more healthy, although I am still not very happy with the number of tomatoes that are being produced on these plants. The quest is to figure out what needs to be done, what needs to be added, and these need to be organic additives. I already spray with Neem oil dilution for pests, spray with other organic materials and also add compost from time to time. And apparently tomatoes are heavy feeders and need these additives on a regular basis.
I had heard people on many Organic Gardening Facebook groups talking about the benefits of seaweed extract. I did some amount of research, and apparently those who have used it swear by it; although it is as yet hard for me to exactly qualify as to the exact benefits provided by adding Seaweek extract. It was difficult to find seaweed extract, but at a recent flower show, there was a vendor who had a packet of seaweed extract. I was excited to see this, since I had not found this earlier.
This was the extract in powder form, and the idea was to add a small pinch in around 300 ml of water and spray it on the plants; and do so every 2 weeks. I did this once, and need to do it again. It is of course difficult to directly measure whether any future benefit is because of seaweed because I add other stuff; but if the tomatoes come out better, I am fine with whatever was the reason. I want more plants like these.
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| Leaves and flowers of a seemingly healthy tomato plant, Prints of this image here |
