EarthBox Fertilizer Comparisons 2020

[MsCowpea]

The birds are definitely pecking the tomatoes—they can even create quite a big hole. They are not after insects.
A while back I did think the bird damage was greater when there was a drought but I haven’t verified that point though I think it is a possibility.

[MsCowpea]

Updates:
This is one plant. Some boxes were planted a little later. Top photo shows branches that have stretched way beyond the cage.
Really gorgeous to look at. Loaded. All organic box. It is not a deep green color but still green.
1 cup 8 5 5, 1 cup Dr Earth, 1 cup BioActive. ( just to get rid of half used bags.)
Supplemented with organic Big Bloom (expensive) for 4 weeks. Not sure if that is helping or if the fertilizer is running the box still.

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[MsCowpea]

Update: EarthBox Container

I had a chance to finally do a blind taste test on an organic (non-OMRI) VS total synthetic box. Both Juliets. The organic box (MicroStart) had no supplementation and is starting to look a little less robust and beginnings of disease though it has lots of fruit. The synthetic box looks great. It may have been planted a bit later but I don’t have the date.
It is a 9-4-12 (2 cups) supplemented weekly with 1 Tsp hydroponic fert + 1/4 tsp Epsom salt, and then switched to 4 tbls. TTF for the last 4 weeks.

Blind taste test: Juliet won’t Knock your socks off ( I grow mainly to dehydrate) but like my other test where I did the same org. vs syn. . there was a difference.
Organic was better, slightly sweeter. Not a huge difference but still a difference.

Then I just got a brand new toy: a brix tester. Perfect timing. This I thought was interesting as it doesn’t rely on an individual’s opinion.

Organic Juliet I retested and the results were closer . Got just above 6.
Synthetic Juliet on average, close to 6. Just a tad lower.
So despite the blind taste testing where organic tastes a little sweeter, the actual brix difference seems marginal.

( I did test Black Cherry and got 8. Did Mountain Magic and got close to 7.)

Now if someone grew those conventional juliets with nothing to compare they would think they were fine. I know with my Momotaro test, the organic’s flavor was obviously so much better. No contest. This Juliet test you may not notice it so much. And this is a closed container experiment, inground would be different.

But everyone has their own preferences. I think most people love what they grow and can’t imagine there would be a difference they would even care about. I just like to experiment.




MicroLife 8-4-6 (not OMRI certified) Organic

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[MsCowpea]

The all synthetic box of Juliets does look absolutely fantastic . Big Juliets. Huge plant (6 feet). Lots of blooms. Healthy looking. It just looks like it will power on longer. It has been getting a supplement for weeks (the other organic box got nothing) but I think it is the conventional fertilizer (that has a timed released component to it) that is driving it. You can’t tell but there is a lot of fruit.

All synthetic EB

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[MsCowpea]

General observations: This wasn’t an organic vs synthetic experiment but without planning I had two different boxes, same tomato. I preferred organic fertilizer in the box as there is a taste difference (blind taste test) to me compared to all synthetic boxes. Only way to tell is do 2 boxes.

I haven’t taste tested whether organic in the box with synthetic supplementation is the same as all organic.
I think I have another box of Juliets that I can test using both . That would possibly mean there would be flavor components derived from the organic strip and then synthetic fertilizer to enhance nutrient availability as the plant gets older.

Again these are really small tests done really just for me. Not to convince anyone of anything. Best to do your own experiments if you are looking to make some changes in your methods.

[MsCowpea]

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I dug out some old EarthBox instructions. As you can see they said to mix in the organic fertilizer in the potting mix, not as a strip. I did that for many, many years as my oldest box is probably 20 years old.

Mixing in does work very well (I didn’t reuse, used it elsewhere) BUT I am guessing that the strip on top allows you to scape off any mucky part and add new mix on top. So the choice is yours. Maybe 1 cup mixed in and the rest as a strip -vs -all of it on top. See if there is a difference. Seems to me that it would be better to keep as much (if not all ) on top to avoid mucking up your mix. Yet any mixed in might kick in and feed the plant faster. I don’t know.

[Ginger2778]

I know the EB forum folks say it allows the roots to grow into the fert, but burning isn't an issue with organics. One video I saw showed a man just mixing the old strip(organic) in when he did the replenish.
Loving this thread.

[MsCowpea]

My failed EB ‘dry-farm’ experiment. These were picked before the flavors could have concentrated.

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I was ‘dry farming’ an EarthBox. Had plants with tomatoes but pretty much diseased. So couple days ago I stopped watering some of the boxes to ‘dry farm’ them. (Now, I know this is not really ‘dry farming’ maybe just Dry EB.). They look terrible anyway. The best tomato I ever had was ‘dried farm’. (Even with watering them, I can never imagine that tomatoes picked from such disease plants with destroyed leaves would have the optimum flavor anyway but I went on with it.)

DH ruined that experiment as he went and picked all the tomatoes that I was withholding water DESPITE having been told DONT PICK THEM. Maybe one is left. He picked them off another box as well but left a few green ones. I had to stop all my yelling and bad words as I didn’t want a neighbor to call police on lady screaming about tomatoes.

[MsCowpea]

Marsha, that is interesting. Still seems like the spent organic fertilizer would be mucky on top. Or maybe be high in salts??? I have no idea. I will soon see when I check some of the earlier boxes going down in a flame of glory. Marsha, you use tomato tone and get rid of the top part, right?
Seems better to remove some and then add new mix.

[Barb_FL]

For tomato tone, the instructions say to use 2 cups for every cubic ft of mix, so an earthbox has 2 cubic ft of mix, so last year I used 4 cups; some was mixed in, some in a strip. This year, no strip at all.

When I only used the strip, when I removed it, it was like the plants never found it and was the consistency of Silly Putty. I usually threw it into the raised bed.

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Elaine - Off topic - but what did you think of Stonington Blend? I asked my hydro store about carrying it; Apparently, they had their mixes at one time.

[Ginger2778]

Marsha, that is interesting. Still seems like the spent organic fertilizer would be mucky on top. Or maybe be high in salts??? I have no idea. I will soon see when I check some of the earlier boxes going down in a flame of glory. Marsha, you use tomato tone and get rid of the top part, right?
Seems better to remove some and then add new mix.

Yes that's what I use, and what I do. When I replant, the strip looks like mud. Don't really want to mix it in.

[MsCowpea]

barb, stonington blend is right on topic. But I can’t tell you one way or another. I top dressed it on regular containers and will side dress one of my raised beds with it. But the plants had so many other inputs I wouldn't be able to tell what is doing what. Plus some of these containers are succumbing to diseases. Some are still OK. I will use it on a couple Earthboxes next season. it is so easy to just use one thing in EB.

Re: how did your plants do with tomato tone? With some mixed in and some in a strip? If it didn’t do great I wonder why? Tomato tone is what most use. Did you use any supplements? What mix did you use?

I think the plants do ‘find ’ The fertilizer or it dissolves downward like a synthetic strip. Otherwise plants wouldn’t grow. This year, I did several boxes with all of that organic fertilizer on top. 3 cups is so much I have to strip it in the front AND between the plants as well. or front and sides if there is only one tomato. But pretty much all of the tomato plants grew like crazy. They looked great. I think I only mixed it in one plant but that one did do fantastic until disease knocked it down. If I didn’t want to reuse the mix I would mix some NS 8-5-5 (Or a combination of organic fertilizer) in the potting mix and strip the rest. I have done that many times over the years. But to reuse I still am thinking it is better to keep it on top (or just a little mixed in.) I know what works as I can look at my plants—what I don’t know is how they will grow when I reuse the mix and that takes another whole season to evaluate.

[MsCowpea]

. Yes that's what I use, and what I do. When I replant, the strip looks like mud. Don't really want to mix it in.

That is what is funny about the internet. Unless the gentleman mixing the mucky stuff back into the earthbox posts a pic of his tomato
plants the next season we don’t know if they are the greatest looking plants or stunted and poorly looking. What you do sounds much more sensible.

Now it looks like I have to mix some mucky sh- t back into a box to compare with no mucky sh-t. That is too much . Even I have my limits on experiments.

[Barb_FL]

I used mostly TT mixed throughout (plus some crabshell), the plants took off and then I switched to supplement with Greenleaf Mega*Crop down the tube.

https://greenleafnutrients.com/product/mega-crop/

It's mostly organic ingredients (like Texas Tomato Food); even easier because just scoop it down.

And definitely worth getting the sample (very good size) - MEGACROPSAMPLE

[MsCowpea]

And how did your plants do or were they too effected by bad weather, etc to tell. (Oops, I think you answered this. They took off which sounds very good.) TT and mega crop sounds like an interesting combo.

The mega-crop really doesn’t have too much in the organic dept. . Pretty much a standard hydroponic formula if you look what is in it- and I don’t mean that as any type of criticism.
Calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate , and (correction) some of the rest of it would be synthetic. It is much like the hydroponic fertilizer I got. Seems like a good conventional supplement in the EB and it has more K than N for the times when you need more K. How did you like it?

Texas Tomato Food doesn’t claim to be organic which is good as it Is not. They just tell you they have these great organic inputs but for the life of me I can’t find all of their ingredients on their website. Can somebody show them to me? They should list all sources of their nutrients online. I only know what is in it because I have some. I had to buy it to find out.

Mega crop is very good for showing their label immediately and that tells you what is in it.
I will get a sample. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Ginger2778]

I used mostly TT mixed throughout (plus some crabshell), the plants took off and then I switched to supplement with Greenleaf Mega*Crop down the tube.

https://greenleafnutrients.com/product/mega-crop/

It's mostly organic ingredients (like Texas Tomato Food); even easier because just scoop it down.

And definitely worth getting the sample (very good size) - MEGACROPSAMPLE

Ooo samples!☺ ill have to try it.

[Barb_FL]

I liked it a lot; I got the sample last season and then bought the 22 lb bag. I even left a review. You have to pay for shipping on the sample.

I had tried using the Masterblend formula (Masterblend, Calcium Nitrate, and Epsom salts) but too much of a drag pouring it down the EB. My plants with MEGACROP were beautiful until they weren't (weather). I thought the Masterblend formula worked great also but since my setup is manual (me), it was just too time consuming. I did make some Masterblend formula for those Coir Bags though and still think that one of them got nutrient locked.

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I stopped watering 2 of my Coir Bags; doing the coir-slab dry farming I guess. just waiting for the tomatoes to ripen and out they go.

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I really do like Texas Tomato food also. The local Hydro store guy told me about Earth Juice which is an organic liquid product. They don't even sell it; I would never buy a liquid product from Amazon. He's giving me some samples of the Roots Organic fertilizer products which were also good. I bought some of the Terp Teas but will wait until next season to open them.

[MsCowpea]

Let us know how your ‘dry farmed’ tomatoes taste. No watering should make them better, right? Wonder how many days it would take to make a difference. In real ‘dried farming’ I think they just water to establish and then they never water again for the whole season. The tomato
sugars and solids are super concentrated.

I use a lot of Earth Juice products. Their old formulas like Big Bloom are strictly organic and meant for applying manually not thru a drip.
I just purchased some new Earth Juiice SeaBlast products from Amazon. Organic, but they say you can use in a hydroponic system, which I think you need when you are putting it down an EB tube. Unfortunately, the phosphorus number on both of them is really high but when looking for organic products you can’t be too choosy.

“Beautiful until they weren’t (weather)”. I can so relate to that. I can barely stand to look at my once gorgeous plants looking so ugly. Can’t wait until they are gone.

[MsCowpea]

Barlow Jap

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This is from a box that I didn’t pay much attention to. It has 1/2 tomato tone, and 1/2 BioActive. It didn’t really grow all that well.
Sarah Black and Barlow Jap. Sarah did absolutely nothing. I can hardly tell there are two plants and they are only about 4 feet.
I put different inputs down the tube and didn’t keep track that closely. But it didn’t grow well from the get go. The last input was some liquid seaweed from Johnnys few days ago.

There are not a lot of tomatoes (none on SB) but this one was pretty good. It was tart and sweet at the same time and I usually prefer sweeter tomatoes,
I would be really disappointed if all my tomato plants looked like these but the flavor was good.

[MsCowpea]

Feb. 8, 2020

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I don’t even know the variety of this tomato. It was planted with a later group and was either one of the transplants DH rescued or one I had reseeded-but in that case it would be a Momotaro. If it is it is the most prolific one I have ever seen. This is one tomato. It is a monster plant- counted over 40 tomatoes- big and small. Looks to be a medium size tomato.
The branches are all over the place and severely kinking and bending from the weight of the tomatoes. ( One big branch had already broken off in the wind.)
I had to take a swimming pool noodle and make cushions so I could unkink the branches and make them curve gently. I slit the noodle to the middle so it would slide over the metal wire of the cage. I had no support that high that I could tie the plant onto. Had to do it on synthetic Juliet as well. This one could have been pruned a bit to increase airflow-totally jammed in.

Then I thought , hmmm, whitefly might think I am inviting them to a party with that bright yellow so I took some brown paper and covered them as best as I could.
The box has that triple mix of organic fertilizers and hydroponic fertilizer (measly 1 tsp) 3 times. Then TTF weekly.
It is only just starting to show signs of early blight which unfortunately means it’s days are numbered.

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