Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Try pollinating by hand. I just rub my hand from one flower to another and spread the pollen.

For pollination... I use an old toothbrush.... works every time, every flower...

A Potassium boost will definitely help...

and if you use pottassium bi carbonate you will get additional ph buffering too.

I've been adding abit of sulphate of potash every now and then as well. Gonna add some tonight and then bring a sample into work to get tested for everything.
Only need 20ml's to get about 20 different elements
The joys of working in a lab

last year my tomatoes were an absolute mess, they grew so fast and got so out of control I lost most of the crop because I couldn't see the fruit or it rotted on the growbeds or the rats go it. This year I am pruning the plants every day. I prune off the growth that is @ 45 degrees to the main stem, inbetween athe main stem and a side shoot straight away. Then when the truss sets fruit, I prune all leaves below that truss. As soon as I have a plant I am going to keep I start the pruning, all the rest are getting pulled out. They are setting heaps of fruit.

Monya, do you just prune the leaves below set fruit? or all branches below set fruit?
I thought you were menat to do it when the fruit ripened, not when it set... I'd best get pruning.

I may be doing it wrong KP, just if I waited until the fruit ripened, the bushes would be enormous. I take off the branches.

OK cool, if nobody contradicts you before I go home, a-pruning I shall go.

May I give some input here?
It is true that tomatoes shouldn't get any excess of nitrogen, which may indeed be an issue in AP where nitrogen levels can't be controlled very well (or very accurately if you prefer).
But I am not sure if adding any form of Potassium (in growing area) will reduce excessive nitrogen content or uptake, if there is and. If there was a tendency to a lack of potassium (which is often the case), adding some will be a good thing as there will be the necessary building blocks for strong stems and all around cell structure.

I am not a fan of stressing the c**p out of tomato seedlings or young plants either, by drying them out or by any other drastic means. But I'd rather recommend start growing them in a controlled environment with a specific diet that prevents excessive and bullish growth from the start. This diet would obviously include rather low nitrogen,

Anyway: has anyone thought of a symbiotic plant-partnership, when growing tomato plants directly (perhaps from seed) in AP. If you grow them together with high feeding and quickly growing leafy vegetables that are absorbing higher quantities of Nitrogen and actually little Potassium, you should be able to lower the actual Nitrogen availability for toms by symbiotic methods.

The taste of tomatoes on the other hand comes in fact mostly from genetics. So, the first thing to assure is to chose a "tasty variety" - either as a result of commonly accepted consensus or from personal preferences. Just choosing some random market or consumer variety, may not end up in any tasty harvest, no matter what conditions you have or whatever you feed. Why? Simply because such varieties are often breed for their shape, their bright color, even their regular caliber, long shelf life, resistance against common pests and diseases etc. As you can't have everything in a single breed, there's not much chromosomes left for excellent taste!
When adding some form of Potassium-sulphur component, it's actually the sulfuric part that improves the taste. Even though science doesn't completely grasp yet, how different elements and substances produce taste, sulphur is known as one of the elements that plays a big role in the "taste giving" of vegetables. But then again, as I said - any tomato will not be any tastier as it's genes allow it to be in the first place. Adding excessive amounts of sulfur will not improve the taste either - the plant only needs ENOUGH sulfur, to produce the taste that the tomato is able to produce from it's genetic qualities. And last but not least, - only in respect to the particular climatic conditions it grows and ripens...

Hope this helps

Controlling just how much nitrogen that the plant gets is really hard in ap and even in a dirt garden there's only so much you can control. Pottasium may not stop the plant from taking up excess nitrogen, but will help it to not go to fat.
You don't need to stress the cr*p out of plants, just enough to make them fruit early. Once they've gone to flower then they will keep producing alot more and alot earlier no matter how much nitrogen is available to them coz they put alot of there energy into the fruit instead of growing.
So while they are still growingf and are strong the nitrates are devided between fruit production and plant growth.
I know that i will be "stressing" my tomato seedlings b4 i put them in ap.

PS: about pruning...

You can actually prune foliage at anytime as long as you leave a little for photosynthesis. Although tomato plants grow that quickly that you can't do much wrong anyway. Though It is commonly said, to not prune any leaves that are close to already set fruit settings or fruits - because (only) those are supposed to deliver some of the (mobile) nutrients/elements to the fruits.

Anyway, some people prune until the plant looks completely naked, and pretend it improves yield. Others let the jungle grow and say that their yield is the same. I guess the specie and variety shall play a role here as well. Pruning sprouts and having just a single or double branch that produces fruits, is what is normally done in greenhouses (with most greenhouse varieties). There is no general role here, I suppose and one has to go by trial and error somehow. Always consider that for having best yield, a tomato plant should have short distances between each cluster!

Tomato plants are indeed having very different behavior, depending on climate, circumstances and conditions. Some people say they are extremely forgiving and are hassle-free, while others (with different conditions and climate) systematically run in trouble with toms. As or me, the biggest issue with toms are the preferences of white flies and spider mites to infest them. Even if I spot them early and get rid of'm - in most cases they have carried (and infected the plants with) some bacteria or fungus already! I live in a very exposed area indeed - others may be luckier and not even bother.

Dear Jono,

That was what I was actually saying, it's hard to control in AP and that's why one may in fact choosing the option (just for tomatoes) to grow seedlings separately before "repotting" in AP - or why not trying some symbiotic plants as suggested for a change.

Not sure about if that could be used as a general role! In some case it may in another it may not. Depends on the metabolism of the plant at the time of adding Potassium. If it's high anyway, it will probably not change much. In commercial hydroponics, increasing Potassium drastically is only used to actually stress tomato plants at final ripening stage. Then they will not have any vegetative growth and put any available resources in the ripening process. Personally, I wouldn't do that anyways, - but certainly not at some other (earlier) stage. Just because....

Ask Blake: "you never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough".



I think that is not working at all in such ways - you can't stress plants into early flowering (what ever means you use to get them there) and simultaneously expect them to having enough resources to continue vegetative growth and build fruiting cluster, after cluster. You can't stress and intimate- and encourage vegetative growth in the same time! While both are certainly not mutually exclusive, the plants obviously shouldn't be stressed. All they need is to be well developed, big and strong enough and having a decent root system as well, to perform that sort of heavy lifting. By any stressing or forcing them into early blooming and fruiting (especially in an early or premature stage - that was what you were saying, right?), you actually hinder and prevent them from the bigger task. If you want early- but less fruiting, (in case you have a short season) stress them, - if you want them to develop well and have best yield later - better just let them do that task in their own time. SERIOUSLY

Thanks All!!

Well I'm home, so a-pruning I shall go.

If you had read the first post carefully one of the ways suggested in that article was to plant into a "tumbler" sized pot and let them get a little rootbound and exhaust the nitrogen that was in there, therefore stressing them abit and kicking them into producing flowers and fruit. Then it doesn't really matter how much nitrogen they have access to coz alot of it will go to fruiting and not growing. That doesn't mean to say that the plant stops growing at all, i mean my plants have trippled in size over the last few weeks and i already have tomato's about 3cm in diameter and the plants are about 70cm odd tall and still growing. And strongly too.



I think the logic behind this is that the plant will preferentially take up pottasium over nitrogen. A plant can only take up soo many nutrients in a day, so if you provide it with ennough pottasium then it won't take up as much nitrogen.
Its like feeding yourself. If you only have junk food to eat (say for example icecream) then your prob gonna eat alot of it because it won't fill you up as much and you'll get fat and unhealthy (like nitrogen in tomato's), but if you have healthy food then (like fish for example) you'll fill up alot quicker and not eat as much and be alot healthier for it. But you've still gonna eat some unhealthy food to get a balanced diet.
Its the same with tomato's. If you give them only nitrogen then they're gonna get fat and lazy and just become big bushes that may eventually get around to actually giving you some fruit and it you only give them potassium then they're gonna be this little active stick figure trying to hold up alot of fruit.
So if you "stress" tyhe plant in the begining and provide both nitrogen and potassium in ample quantities then you've re-programmed the tomato's to take a balanced diet or nitrogen and potassium.

Next season, or when i free up some more space in my gb's i'll do a trial. One thats been stressed and one thats just been left to its own devices and see which one produces more. They'll both have the same amount of potassium available but one will be stressed and the other not. I think that you may find that the one that hasn't been stressed will have alot of leaves and be big, but not necessarily produce as much as they will flower too late and the fruit won't ripen.