10/15/15

1) 18in

2)12in

3)13in

Rather surprising after the fast start of the PM with fert that all 3 plants grew 5 inches this week.

10/22/15

1) 25in

2) 18in

3) 16in

The potting mix with fert is doing better now but surprisingly enough the PM with no fert has grown faster than my constructed pm with fert. Obviously the store PM has fert in it but appears much better.

10/29/15

1) 39in

2) 23in

3) 18in

The store bought potting mix with added fert is doing way better than any other medium with a weeks growth of more than triple the others. My constructed potting mix barely grew which surprised me. Monday I will be doing another round of miracle grow on the 2 plants and will take measurements every thursday. I am still keeping everything single stalk and now have 2 sets of flower buds on the potting mix with fert.

Thanks for sharing....but I would love to know the ratios you used in #3 medium. Plus, organic ferts like Tomato Tone must break down before usable to the plant. This takes time.

I would say about 50% peat moss. 30% manure, 20% perlite. I knew the tomato tone takes awhile but it seems like the longer it goes the worst it gets on my constructed potting mix. I was always curious on this and this is my first year gardening so I experiment a lot so the science fair idea worked out great.

How about flowers ? are there any flowers on any group ?

And how does the foliage look ?

A few picture might be helpful to get a picture !!!

Sey

will get some out tomorrow

potting mix with fert

potting mix no fert

our fabricated mix with fert

I have 4 kumatos growing on them now with about 20 more flowers. Temp hit 92 today and the leaf miners and cabbage loopers are hitting my tomatoes hard.

I'm rather curious what your hypothesis is because you've got multiple variables and a really small sample size. And why did you choose foliar height as a data point?

Because it was a kid's science fair project that neither of us wanted to go crazy over. I was, however, curious on what to plant my tomatoes in and will use what I find this year for next year's crop. If there is more time we could throw in more data like poundage of tomatoes but that depends on the weather. It was just a fun non time consuming experiment.

Since this is a Father and Son fun science project , we leave it that way.

OTOH, it is to early to tell. The smaller plants can catch up and then there is fruiting which is the ultimate goal not the foliage.

Good luck and continue having fun !

Sey

Gotta love a science experiment you can eat!

11/5/15

1) 47in

2) 35in

3) 31in

The other 2 mixes are catching up with the store bought potting mix with fert which does have an extra set of flowers. Oddly enough #1 and #3 have tomatoes on it while the potting mix without fert has flowers with no tomatoes yet. The last week has seen temps in the low 90s but will be high 80s the next couple days and then dip into the low 80s which should help. Back next thursday.

I think the reason the SB mix provided a bigger foliage has been b,c it had readily available form of fertilizer, where as with your home made, it took a little longer and more slowly to get the nutrients to the plant.

I predict that eventually the growth in SB will slow down IF you don't feed it.

Sey

11/12/15

1) 53 in w/ 9 tomatoes

2) 44 in w/ 0 tomatoes

3) 40 in w/ 1 tomato

They all have flowers but the potting mix with fert has 9 tomatoes with many on the bottom bunch. The others do not have as many flowers even on the bottom and the potting mix with no fert has 0 tomatoes forming. The premade potting mix with fert is now keeping pace and I will see if it catches up as the weeks go by. We still have temps in the mid to upper 80s and next week there are a couple high 70s with low 80s. Great tomato weather(but my winter crops are not so great lol).

It would be surprising to have the plant in the PM w/no fertilize to thrive.

Sey

11/19/15

1) 65in with 9 tomatoes

2) 55in with 4 tomatoes

3) 51in with 1 tomato

Still have very warm weather down in central florida. One thing I have noticed with all my tomatoes is that even with optimum temps now I am not seeing a bunch of tomato production. Anyway, my non fertilizer tomato plant finally has 4 tomatoes and I noticed my premade mix with fert that is lagging behind actually had a sucker about 8 inches long that I somehow failed to see even though this is a single stem so maybe that was holding it back a bit. It did outgrow the potting mix with no fert so who knows maybe it takes off in the next couple weeks.