Tomato Chemistry

 For years, I've nuked our raised beds with every kind of fertilizer imaginable. In December or January, I pull last year's tomato plant carcasses out of the bed and then whack it with raw DOW chemical, some LGBTQWERTY organic nutrients and then some PETA-approved, sustainable animal fertilizers. Cumulatively, I use about triple the fertilizer I should.

In January, February and March come the San Diego rains. It's not much for normal humans, but for us, it's a decent amount of water. It turns my fertilizer blitz into a charming tea for the plants, read: Roma tomatoes. This has worked forever. This year, it failed. All we got was monster tomato plants with plenty of fruit that never ripened.

Preparing for my garden in Alabama, I bought this soil test kit. 

Testing the Nitrogen.

Here's what I discovered.

Tomatoes want a pH of about 6 and a moderate amount of Nitrogen. They want a lot of Phosphorus and Potassium. I had:

• pH = 8. No surprise, San Diego is known for hard, alkaline water.
• Nitrogen: High. Probably not a problem.
• Phosphorus: High. Excellent!
• Potassium: Low. Oof!

It turns out that the high pH combined with the low Potassium was fatal. The high pH inhibits Potassium intake in general and there wasn't a whole lot of the K to ingest anyway.

Next time, we're testing the soil before we plant.