garden, week 2

Orange Blossom tomato plant looking healthy

Today I fertilized with a 2-4-1 fish fertilizer that I bought at Gardenhood. Neptune, I believe, is the name. The working formula is 1 oz per 1 gallon of water, which I am eyeballing.


This week I fertilized everything, herbs and all. In two weeks I will fertilize the tomato plants and any other "heavy feeders", but I will leave the herbs be.

Juane Flamee looking frisky

Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifters, bored

All the tomato plants appear to be healthy and growing. I fertilized at inception, so I'm going to try and do this without overfertilizing, which some have recommended to me. Walter Reeves suggests that you avoid the overfertilization, given that it might put the energy of the plant into the stalks rather than ultimately into the fruit.
I do have to admit a concern. Reeves and others have indicated that 10-10-10 fertilizer is the norm. So my 2-4-1 seems...weak.


I have a second concern. No one is clear on how much fertilizer each plant gets. The instructions say basically to soak. So I'm soaking. It comes out to a gallon of water per plot.


Maia's plot is not doing well so far. The pepper plants have all but died, but I'm waiting to see if the small shoot where the jalepeno plant was is actually jalepeno, or just some weed. The cucumber appears to be rooting, albeit one at a time. The eggplant and bell peppers are doing great. Maia's tomatoes (just visible in the back--sweet olive grape tomatoes) are doing brilliantly. Basil appears to be slowly rooting, and the chives pound away.

Maia's plot with miniscule cucumber (front and center--three plants)

Speaking of which, chives will always be part of my garden. It sends up beautiful purple chutes, which I keep in a bud vase. They give the kitchen a fragrant air and shot of color.