Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.
“We have a short growing season here. I would like to get as big a head start as possible on my seedlings. I plan to start my seeds indoors but also have a pop-up greenhouse, and would like to know how early I can start seeds indoors (under lights) and then transfer to my garden before transplanting to the garden. I am interested most in times for tomatoes.” Question from Melissa of McDonough, New York
Answer: When planting tomatoes in areas with cooler, shorter summers, you need to consider the variety as well as starting/planting time. In general, it takes about six to eight weeks to yield ready-to-plant starts from seed. Using heat mats, keeping indoor conditions warm, and providing lots of light will hasten growth. Most tomatoes produce fruit between 60 to 85 days after planting, depending on the variety. Choose tomatoes that produce early and are shown to yield good-tasting fruits in cooler climates. Your average tomato colors up and gains its best flavor when days and nights are warm. You can’t count on these conditions further North, which is why the variety is important. (Click here on a full guide to growing tomatoes from seed to harvest.)
Good Tomato Varieties for Northern Gardens
‘Juliet’ (60 days, paste tomato): The award-winning’Juliet’ is a red paste or sauce tomato that also tastes great fresh. It grows quickly and will perform well for you.
‘Polbig’ (67 days, slicing tomato):Here’s a tasty, red slicing tomato bred for growing in cooler climates. It also has very good disease resistance.
These are just three of many early, cool-tolerant tomatoes you might consider.
Plant your finished tomato starts outdoors after the threat of frost has passed. Some eager tomato gardeners plant theirs earlier outdoors and protect plants with hoop covers and frost cloth. This is an option, but I find it safer to simply grow mine to a larger size indoors and then harden them off before planting. Your pop-up greenhouse sounds just perfect for the job.
“I have a problem with my EarthBoxes (self-watering containers) staying too wet. I need better drainage. Which of your products would you suggest I try? Thanks!” Question from Larry of Mooresville, Indiana
Answer: There are several things that you can do to fix this problem. First, remove all of the old potting mix from the boxes, and make sure that the self-watering system and holes are free and clear. It is not uncommon for them to get plugged up with soil and roots over time. Next, choose a very fast-draining potting mix. I suggest using Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Mix and boosting its drainage with added Black Gold Perlite. Consider four parts potting mix to one part perlite. Finally, be sure not to overwater the boxes. Allow them to dry somewhat between watering. I hope that these tips help!
Brussels sprouts are a fall crop. (Photo by Jamain)
“I’d like to grow Brussels sprouts in my garden for the first time this year. When do I plant, and how much water do they need?” Question from Amber of Bay City, Michigan
Answer: Brussels sprouts are a cool-season crop for fall. This means that they need cooler temperatures to grow well and set Brussels sprouts, and they do this best in the long, cool period of fall. In your northern zone, start plants from seed in early summer, and get them in the ground no later than August first. When starting plants from seed, it can take as long as two months to grow seedlings to planting size. You may also be able to purchase starts at your local garden center.
Grow Brussels sprouts in full sun and light, fertile, well-drained soil amended with compost, such as Black Gold Garden Compost Blend. Feed them with an all-purpose vegetable fertilizer at planting time, and give them plenty of water if weather conditions start to become dry. They like soil with light, even moisture. As they grow upward, they may require staking. (Click here to view a few good varieties available from seed.)
From upper left: blossom end rot, late blight, and tobacco mosaic virus.
Tomatoes are the roses of vegetables–everything attacks them. So, gardeners can count on experiencing any number of tomato diseases in their growing experience. It pays to grow disease-resistant tomatoes, but lots of the best heirlooms don’t fall into this category. That’s why tomato growers need to be armed with knowledge and IPM (integrated pest management) tools to keep harvests high. Learning how to spot the most common tomato diseases is a start.
Plant diseases are typically either fungal, bacterial, or viral. Some cause quick plant death, but others can be managed–allowing gardeners to eke out a harvest until the end of the season. But avoidance is the best starting point.
The four keys to avoiding tomato diseases are:
Start with healthy plants.
Choose a disease-resistant variety.
Plant them in disease-free soil.
Give them the best care.
Starting with healthy plants, a healthy environment, and keeping plants stress-free will help keep them disease-free, but pests or diseased weeds, or even wind can still bring disease into the garden. People can, too. Gardeners need to stay watchful.
If you have never experienced serious tomato diseases in your garden, you can feel confident planting heirlooms or family favorites with less resistance. But, always choose disease-resistant varieties if you have experienced diseases in the recent past. You might also consider growing tomatoes in containers to ensure that soil-borne diseases are not a problem. (Click here to learn how to grow tomatoes in containers.)
Top Disease-Resistant Tomatoes
Mountain Merit is an All-America Selections Winner that resists five common diseases. (Image care of AAS)
Before reading the depressing litany of common tomato diseases, feel encouraged by the power of super disease-resistant tomatoes. Plant breeders constantly work hard to create new and wonderful tomato varieties able to beat diseases and produce high yields of delicious tomatoes. When identifying a disease-resistant tomato, refer to the Tomato Disease Resistance Code list below to better understand the code system. Here is an example of five good, tough tomatoes that resist multiple diseases.
‘Galahad’ (F3, GLS, LB, N, TSWV): The new, 2020 All-America Selections Winner ‘Galahad’ is a big, red, slicing tomato with excellent flavor that resists five diseases!
‘Granadero’ (F2, PM, TMV, V, N, TSWV): Sauce tomato lovers should try this super disease-resistant paste tomato with uniform, red, well-flavored fruits. It is also an AAS award winner.
‘Mountain Merit‘ (F3, LB, N, TSWV, V): Lots of large, red tomatoes with good, sweet flavor are produced on this compact bush tomato.
‘Toronjina’ (F2, LM, TMV): Highly disease-resistant plants produce lots of sweet and tart, orange cherry tomatoes on shorter indeterminate vines.
‘Sakura‘ (F2, LM, TMV, N): Red cherry tomatoes are produced early and in abundance on this long-vined, highly disease-resistant tomato.
Good cultural practices will also help tomatoes fight disease. Plant them in very well-drained, aerated, raised beds amended with Black Gold Garden Soil, and keep plants strong and vigorous by feeding them with a tomato & vegetable fertilizer. It also helps to encourage air-flow by spacing plants well (3 to 4 feet apart, or wide enough to walk around) and keeping them pruned (click here for a tomato pruning tutorial). Drip irrigation helps keep plants drier up top, which can reduce the spread of diseases. Remove and discard infected plants as you see them, and at the end of the season, clean all plant material from your vegetable garden for good measure. Then at planting time, mulch tomatoes with a layer of straw or Black Gold Garden Compost Blend to help keep disease-carrying weeds at bay. (Click here for more tips on how to grow robust tomato plants from seed to harvest.)
Tomato Disease Resistance Codes
Tomato late blight (Phytophthora infestans) damages foliage, causes stem cankers, and destroys fruits.
When seeking out a disease-resistant tomato, you will see these codes indicating resistance. The most common diseases are covered in this piece. (Adapted from Johnny’s Seeds Growers’ Library)
HR = High Resistance IR = Intermediate Resistance
A | Anthracnose | Fungus
AS | Alternaria Stem Canker | Fungus | Alternaria alternata f. sp. lycopersici
V | Verticillium Wilt | Fungus | Verticillium albo–atrum
Tomato Foliage Diseases
These are the first tomato diseases that you will see and experience. All leaf spot diseases start from the bottom up–beginning with older leaves. Here are the top 5 most common types that you will see.
Bacterial Leaf Spot
Bacterial leaf spots are small, brown, and dry.
The common leaf spot (Xanthomonas spp.) results in spots that are small, dry, brown, and often surrounded by yellow halos. It disease intensifies and spreads further with excess rain, overhead watering, and when plants are planted too close together. As it progresses, it can also cause spotting on fruits and cankers on stems.
You cannot get rid of bacterial leaf spot once you have it, but you can slow its damage. To reduce its proliferation, increase airflow by pruning off unnecessary and badly infected branches. Keep it from taking hold in the first place by spacing plants well to encourage airflow. Cleaning up your garden yearly is also essential. The disease is maintained from year to year on infected crops and weeds in the tomato family.
Early Blight and Late Blight
Late blighted leaves show large brown blotches.
These two blights are the most common diseases of tomatoes.
Early Blight (Alternaria tomatophila and Alternaria solani): The leaf spots are pretty distinctive; circular lesions appear, reaching up to a half an inch in diameter with dark concentric circles inside. Early blight can occur at the seedling stage by causing seedling rot (damping-off). At later stages, it causes leaf blight on older leaves, stem cankers, and black fruit rot.
Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans): The deadly disease first causes large brown leaf spots on older leaves, followed by stem lesions, and discolored, oily patches on fruits. It’s the noxious disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine, which is a testament to its severity. It kills tomatoes more slowly, but it destroys fruits and will eventually kill whole plants. Tomatoes subjected to drought stress will die more quickly.
Late blight gives diseased tomatoes an ugly oily look.
Both early and late blight diseases are controlled by avoidance, cleanliness, and rotation. The blights survive and overwinter on infected plant material or in the soil. To prevent tomato blight, plant only healthy plants that you have grown from seed or purchased from a reliable grower. Also, plant only blight-resistant varieties (check out this list from Cornell University). If you find diseased plants, immediately remove them from the garden, and keep them from the compost bin. Bag and toss them instead. Keep beds weeded to remove weedy tomato relatives that can get blight, like nightshade and ground cherry. Next, rotate crops on a three-year cycle to help keep soil disease-free where you experienced blight. That means planting your tomatoes in a new spot each year and allowing three years to pass before planting them in the same spot. The soil should be rid of the disease after this time.
Powdery Mildew
Powdery mildew starts as white, dusty spots on leaves.
Powdery mildew (Erysiphales fungi): The easy-to-identify powdery mildew is a common fungal infection that attacks leaves, causing white, powdery looking surfaces and blotches, particularly from mid to late summer. It is not deadly, but it will cause plants to decline more quickly and put a stop to good fruit production.
To stop powdery mildew, give plants plenty of sun, water, and airflow. Prune off diseased stems as you see them (clean your pruners well after cutting any diseased plant). Finally, apply the organic fungicide Green Cure, which quickly stops powdery mildew. Apply it, at first sight, to stop the disease in its tracks.
Tobacco Mosaic Virus
Tobacco mosaic virus causes leaves to become disfigured and discolored.
When tomatoes contract tobacco mosaic virus, they develop yellow mosaic patterns across the foliage and leaves often become elongated and almost ferny. Once you have it, or any other virus, the only thing that you can do is quickly remove and dispose of the plants and then rotate your crops. The best means of control is prevention. Grow resistant tomatoes, and make sure you buy seed or purchase plants that are certified to be disease-free.
Tomato Wilts
Fruit wilts can kill susceptible plants quickly.
These affect the whole plant causing overall wilt and decline. Both diseases exist in the soil. The best means of beating them is to plant resistant varieties. When susceptible plants become infected, it’s a death sentence. Plants must be removed from the garden.
Fusarium Wilt (F)
Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum sp. lycopersici) is the most common tomato wilt. At its first signs, older leaves wilt, turn yellow, then brown, and then fall. The stunted plants will eventually die. To beat it, look for resistant varieties, discard diseased plant material, and rotate on a three-year cycle.
Verticillium Wilt (V)
Verticillium wilt (Verticillium albo–atrum) is less common than fusarium wilt and is typically seen late in the season when soils are cooler. Its first symptoms are v-shaped blotches on the lower leaves, followed by browning veins and blotches. Symptoms then spread upwards, causing wilting and leaf damage. If you were to cut into the stem, the internal veins would be brown and discolored from the ground up to 12 inches. Treat it as you would fusarium wilt.
Tomato Fruit Diseases
Aside from the ugly oily patches caused by late blight (above) and the common black-based fruits caused by blossom end rot or irregular bases caused by cat-facing (see below), most other tomato fruit problems are fungal or bacterial.
Anthracnose Tomato Spot (A)
Anthracnose spot has damaged this ripe tomato.
Anthracnose tomato spot is a fungal disease that appears as sunken bull’s-eye marks on ripe fruits. Several steps can be taken to reduce the disease on developing fruit. Refrain from overwatering, which will reduce moisture on the leaves and the spread of the disease. Remove and dispose of damaged fruit, and prune to increase airflow can keep fruits from developing this disease on the vine.
Various Fruit Rots
Various fruit spots and rots can attack fruits.
There is a whole suite of fungal and other fruit rots that can damage good, ripe fruit on the vine. You can always identify a fungal spot on fruit by its bull’s-eye appearance. The center of the eye is where the fungal spore took hold, and the radiating circles show its progressive cycle of infection. The treatment of these diseases is the same as for Anthracnose tomato spot. Good airflow is always key in keeping fungal diseases at bay.
Bacterial Spot and Bacterial Canker
This shows bacterial speck on developing fruit. (Image by Chris Smart)
Some bacterial spot diseases of leaves can impact fruits. Bacterial fruit spots are smaller than those caused by fungal diseases, brown or black towards the center, and often surrounded by rings of yellow or green. In the case of bacterial canker, the spots are ringed in white with a green or dark-brown center. Sometimes the spots are raised. When fruits have bacterial spots, this means that it is time to remove and dispose of the whole plant.
Tomato Disorders
Blossom end rot is a common fruit disorder caused by a calcium deficiency.
Disorders often look like diseases, but they are caused by either nutrient deficiencies or adverse weather conditions rather than disease-causing fungi, bacteria, or viruses. Even better, they can be cured.
Fruit blossom end rot (caused by calcium deficiency), splitting or cracking (caused by excessive water or temperature fluctuations), fruit toughness, cat-facing, and reduced productivity (caused by cool temperatures) are the most common disorders of tomato fruit. Leaves with nutrient deficiencies can show all manner of yellowing or poor pigmentation, but if you feed your tomatoes well with a tomato fertilizer all season, your plants shouldn’t suffer any nutrient deficiencies (unless you have soil with severely acid or basic soil pH). Problem solved. Generally, if you plant your tomatoes in warm conditions, feed and care for them well, you can avoid most tomato disorders.
Can’t find your tomato problem here? Then ask our garden experts on our Ask a Garden Expert page and upload a photo of your plant! We will help you identify the problem and gprovide solutions.
“I have a Key Lime tree that keeps losing the flower buds, so we never get any Key Limes. Do you have any suggestions for the soil that may help? I water the tree every other day during the dry season, and every 3-4 days during our rainy season. Thank you.” Question from Jenifer of St. Petersburg, Florida.
Answer: You can always expect some natural bud drop in any citrus, including key lime (Citrus × aurantiifolia). Flower buds and blooms will typically occur in waves from mid to late winter. If your key lime is losing all of its buds, then many different factors could be the cause. These can include:
Excessive water or extreme drought
Extreme temperature fluctuations
Pest or disease problems
Nutrient deficiency
Leaf loss due to hurricane damage
Dry air
You seem to be watering your tree quite a lot. If it appears to be very healthy, then water it less and make sure you are feeding it with a fertilizer formulated for citrus. Reducing water can actually induce flower bud set! If it looks unhealthy, send a picture, so I can better target the specific problem.
“Could you please tell me the name of this flower? It’s a perennial and has spread some.” Question from Ray of Boliver, New York
Answer: You are the lucky owner of a population of very pretty bulbs called striped squill (Puschkinia scilloides). This early spring flowers naturally spread but are not invasive. The blue-striped blooms are very attractive to early bees and have a delicately sweet scent if you pick one and take a sniff. Once the bulbs flower, they will set seed by mid to late spring, then the foliage will dry and disappear until the following spring.
I love this little flower and have it in my own garden planted beneath early daffodils. Striped squill pairs well with many other early bulbs, and is very no-care. Enjoy them!
My daughter is picking off Colorado potato beetles from potato plants.
For the past 14 years, I have grown my vegetables in a community garden plot, which has provided a real education in plant pests, diseases, and weeds. Why? Because these mega veggie gardens are pest hot spots, and summer is the worst time of year for the beasties. Bad insects always attack my beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplants–threatening to destroy fruits and foliage, and sometimes spreading disease as they munch and crunch along. I must use every tool in the toolbox to fight them. And, if they beat my crops, I often start them again, if there’s time and the season allows. Sometimes beating pests is just a matter of retooling planting time.
The five most common vegetable garden pests that I battle in mid to late summer are Colorado potato beetles, striped cucumber beetles, flea beetles, Mexican bean beetles, and harlequin cabbage bugs. (Cabbage loopers and squash vine borers are also a problem. Click here to read about cabbage looper control, and click here to read about squash borer control.) Each return year after year with regularity, but some years are worse than others. The severity of the previous winter usually indicates the severity of my pest problems–the milder the winter, the harsher the pest problem.
Last winter was pretty warm, so this summer, the pests are rampant. Here are some ways that I have learned to overcome them.
Colorado Potato Beetle
One often sees Colorado potato beetles mating on top of a potato plant.
The surest way to attract Colorado potato beetles to your garden is to plant potatoes, but if you don’t have potatoes, they will go for your tomatoes and eggplant secondarily. (Fortunately, they don’t appear to be attracted to tomatillos.) The fat, striped adult beetles emerge from the soil in late spring to feed on emerging potatoes, and then lay clusters of orange-yellow eggs on leaf undersides. They yield highly destructive little orange larvae that eat foliage nonstop and grow quickly. You can kill the insects at any stage, but it’s easiest to pick off the adults and eggs. (Click here to view the full life cycle of these beetles.) The beetles can complete up to three life cycles in a single season, so once you have them, you generally have to fight them all summer.
A Colorado potato beetle larvae eating tomato leaves.
These insects are highly resistant to insecticides, so it pays to choose non-chemical methods of control. Time and time again, I’ve found that well-timed cultural control and proper winter cleanup are the best means of battling them. Cultural control is essentially picking off the adults, eggs, and larvae and/or pruning off egg- and larval-covered leaves and branches. I generally smash picked specimens, but you can also drown them in a bucket of water. Beetle picking should start in mid to late spring and continue until all signs of these pests are gone. (To learn everything there is to know about Colorado Potato Beetles, visit potatobeetle.org.)
Spotted and Striped Cucumber Beetles
Here are the symptoms of bacterial wilt, which is spread by the striped cucumber beetles.
As their names suggest, striped and spotted cucumber beetles favor cucumbers, but they also attack melon vines. Small, striped or spotted cucumber beetles look so cute and innocent, but they are so destructive. Every year my cucumber crop is a crapshoot. Why? It’s not because of the damage they cause by feeding on plants and fruits. It’s the catastrophic bacterial wilt that they spread from plant to plant. Once cucumber vines get cucumber bacterial wilt, there is no turning back. The leaves will start to show droop, and eventually, whole stems will collapse, and the vine will die.
These pests may have two to three cycles in a season and are next to impossible to control, even with harsh chemical insecticides. Floating row cloth cover can keep them at bay, but it’s a hassle and does not allow pollinators to reach the plants, though some cucumbers are self-pollinating, particularly Beit-Alpha types like ‘Diva’.
Striped and spotted cucumber beetles are similar in size and color.
Tiny jet-black eggplant flea beetles are the smallest summer pests in this list, but they can devastate an eggplant in a matter of days. They attack many other veggies, like radishes, potatoes, turnips, and spinach, but with less ferocity. The small but numerous insects leave little pockmarks all over a host plant’s leaves. Badly damaged leaves barely function, resulting in poor, weak plants that produce puny fruits.
If you want to grow eggplant, you have to protect them from eggplant flea beetles. There are plenty of insecticides that will kill these insects, but only a few non-chemical cultural practices will stop them. The best method that I have found is protecting plants with summer-weight floating row covers that transmit a lot of sunlight while physically keeping insects from the plants. The key is covering plants early and then securing the row covers at the base, so the tiny beetles cannot crawl beneath them. Holding cover edges down with bricks, pins, and even mulch or compost works. The only caveat is that you may need to hand-pollinate plants for fruit set.
Good fall cleanup of infested crop plants will also keep populations down from year to year. On average, eggplant flea beetles will complete up to four generations in a single season. (Click here to learn more about these pests.)
Harlequin Cabbage Bug
Harlequin bug adults will quickly destroy broccoli, kale, cabbage, and other brassicas.
These ornamental stink bugs are the worst enemy of summer kale, broccoli, and other brassicas. They suck the juices from the leaves, causing pockmarks all over them. The most striking destruction I have ever witnessed was with enormous Portuguese kale that I had nurtured to a bold 2′ in height through spring. Once the numerous beetles started to attack in early summer, the plant had no chance.
There are a few management practices that will help stop these bugs. Floating row covers can also be used, as was suggested for the eggplant flea beetles, but harlequin cabbage bugs are big enough to pick off by hand if you have the time and can handle the slightly stinky smell they emit when disturbed. Spraying them off with a jet of water will also help knock them back. Small nymphs are also susceptible to treatment with OMRI Listed®insecticidal soap.
Two to three generations of harlequin cabbage bugs can occur each season. By late summer, they are no longer a problem, so that you can plant your fall cabbages and kales with confidence. (Click here to learn more about these pests.)
Mexican Bean Beetle
Mexican bean beetle larvae do serious damage to bean leaves.
Like Colorado potato beetles, it’s the larvae of Mexican bean beetles that do the harshest damage to bean plants. The adults emerge in late spring, but they rarely cause major problems on bean plants until midsummer. The adults are orange, black-spotted beetles that lay clusters of orange-yellow eggs below the leaves, much like the Colorado potato beetle. The unusual larvae are fuzzy, bright yellow, and devastate leaves as they feed along the leaf bottoms.
You can control these pests as you would Colorado potato beetles with one exception – destructive harvesting. Destructive harvesting is the harvest and total removal of infested plants from the garden. After picking all the beans from an infested plant, the whole plants should be pulled, bagged, and taken far from your garden. (Click here to view a YouTube video from the University of Maryland about destructive harvesting.) Beans can be replanted as late as mid-August for early fall harvest.
A Mexican bean beetle adult on a bean leaf.
In general, regular weeding, good plant care, and excellent garden clean up, in summer and fall, will help keep pest populations down. Clean the ground of all leaf litter and weeds as needed, and amend the soil with top-quality amendments for vegetables, such as Black Gold® Garden Compost Blend and Garden Soil, and your plants will be more robust to resist the many garden pests that threaten to destroy them.
“Which vegetables will tolerate some shade?” Question from Trish of Newton, New Jersey
Answer: There are some vegetables and herbs that will tolerate some shade in the day, but most will not. Those tolerant of the partial sun are greens, such as lettuce, arugula, kale, and some herbs, such as lemon balm and sweet woodruff.
Berries, such as lowbush and tallbush blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) and woodland strawberries (Fragaria vesca) will also tolerate shade. In fact, both naturally grow in forest openings and are an excellent crop for spots with a little shade. Currants and gooseberries (Ribes spp.), raspberries (Rubus spp.), and elderberries (Sambucus spp.) will also tolerate partial shade conditions. With that said, maybe what you need is a berry patch!
Most other vegetables need a minimum of 6 hours of strong direct sunlight when growing most other vegetables, especially tomatoes, peppers, squash, corn, and others that need lots of sun to produce. More sun is always better. Clearing away some of your larger tree branches might help offer more light for a sunnier vegetable patch.
“What are your best tips for natural pesticides?” Question from Jacquelyn O’Neil
Answer: It depends on the pest. Generally, we recommend purchasing OMRI Listed products approved for organic gardening. But, we also advocate managing pests through IPM (integrated pest management) to keep populations down without the need for harsh chemicals. Integrated pest management employs a variety of tactical techniques for pest control (see infographic below). Monitoring plants, keeping them in good health, and catching pest problems early on will stop pests before they take over.
We also recommend keeping your plants, pots, and topsoil surface clean and refreshed and dead, dying, or infested stems pruned off. It is amazing what a little cleanliness can do to keeping plants pest-free. (Click here to learn how to properly clean house plants.)
We have loads of BG articles on the subject. Here’s are five popular pieces:
“What are good nutrients for hydroponic [growing]?” Question from Jay of East Liverpool, Ohio
Answer: It depends entirely on what you are growing and what hydro growing method you’re using. Fertilizers are either granular (slow-release or standard) or liquid (water-soluble). If you are growing in a medium for hydro, such as Black Gold coco coir, perlite, rock wool, orspecialty mix), then you can choose either a granular fertilizer or liquid feed. If you are growing directly in water then you can only use liquid feed.
Growing with an all-purpose fertilizer may successful, but it is better to purchase a product with the right nutrition for your specific crop. If you are growing edibles, choose one that is formulated for vegetables, fruits, or herbs. Most of these will have either a balanced N-P-K (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) ratio (such as 10-10-10) or a ratio that’s more geared towards foliage growth (12-10-5) or fruiting (4-6-3). Just as a reminder, nitrogen encourages foliage growth, phosphorous generally supports flower, fruit, and root development, and potassium supports overall growth. Read the label and make sure the fertilizer you choose will accommodate the plants that you want to grow. If you grow organically, pick an OMRI Listed fertilizer.
To help you determine what would be best for your crop, consider the following.
Three most common fertilization problems:
Not determining your irrigation water quality (bad quality water can poorly impact even the best fertilizer choices.)
Fertilizing with the wrong formulation for your crop
Over-fertilizing or fertilizing too often
Poor quality water can really impact how your hydro plants grow and the fertilization regime you should adopt, so test your water. (Click here for a list of water-testing facilities in Ohio.) Then find the best fertilizer for your crop and apply it as directed.
