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Grow or Bloom nuits?

W

wordwiz

Two of my tomato plants have formed pre-blossoms, one has about eight, the other four. The tallest plant is less than 2' high, the other less than 18" (both are Celebrity, a determinate that should reach about 4' when mature). They are only five weeks old, eight if I count since germination which is a bit ahead of schedule - they are 73 day plants and I never, ever, come within two weeks!

I'm trying to decide if I should switch to a bloom nuit. EcoGrow or EcoBloom.

Experiences?

Mike
 
i'd stick with grow till they turn around 3' tall. let it get established a little more before it starts expending energy on blooming
 
EcoBloom is super high P (3-35-10) while the grow is high N (20-6-12). Normally I say go for bloom, but not in this case. I think you'd be best blending them maybe 2:1 grow:bloom. Slowly adjust that to 1:1 might work. It seems that the Bloom is for flowers only and the Grow will produce more leaves than fruit. I've never used these before, maybe call the company and see what they say.
 
Zander,

I was thinking along those lines except going 1:1. I just added Grow today, two quarts which should last for several days. The next time, if I add it at 1:1 is would be equal to 2:1 since I don't drain the old nuits.

One reason I want to cut back on the N is because it can contribute to BER, a problem I have with container plants.

I predicted that based on Growing Degree Days I should have blooms by about next Wednesday, give or take a day or two. Depending on how quickly these open, I should be very close! I found a cheap ($10) thermometer/hydrometer that keeps high/low readings so this winter I should be able to log all the data.

Still haven't decided about switching to a HPS bulb, probably won't as long as the blooms set fruit and the maters ripen at a normal rate. Tomatoes are not photoperiodic so the higher red probably will not help that much but would contribute to the plant getting taller.

Mike
 
I believe photoperiodicity is the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of day or night and not type or color of light. Tomatoes apparently love red light which is one reason why some growers use red plastic mulch for tomatoes
 
Derrick,

From what a guy told me, tomatoes are not as responsive to different light spectra as other plants. Being hit with more red light, according to him will not induce blooming or setting fruit. I do not know - that's why I'm trying this grow.

But tell me, which bulb would you pick:

HPS.jpg


or

MH.jpg


Mike
 
Do a test to see if bloom nutes are really needed. I use to switch when whatever was growing was covered in blooms, but now I don't bother. I've haven't seen even a slight reduction in production. I will however add a little calcium nitrate (1/2 -3/4 tsp per gallon)when I see little tomatoes start to form.

There's a lot of bad hydro information on the intraweb. Most is placed by shills in the business. I prefer a simple approach and it seems to work extremely well for me
 
Be careful mixing different nutes together. Doing so with some types makes them insoluble to the plants. Check the labeling carefully to see if it says not to mix it with anything.
A lot of the 2 part hydro Nutes must be mixed with water, not directly together or they do bad things. That is all over their instructions. Just to be on the safe side, I would mix them into a bucket of water before feeding. Fill bucket, Mix in Nute type A and stir it up good, then add Nute type B and mix again.
 
wordwiz said:
Derrick,

From what a guy told me, tomatoes are not as responsive to different light spectra as other plants. Being hit with more red light, according to him will not induce blooming or setting fruit. I do not know - that's why I'm trying this grow.

But tell me, which bulb would you pick:

HPS.jpg


or

MH.jpg


Mike
Click to expand...

When I did Hydro Maters, there was a big difference in mine between using MH and HPS lights. MH gave darker leaves, with a stockier growth and less flowers, where as HPS created lighter colored, taller and leggier plants. The HPS ones also Bloomed a lot more, and were more stable in setting fruit.
Both were 400w setups.
 
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