EasyBloom Forum

An EasyBloomer recently asked a question about why her tomato plants are not producing tomatoes and her carrots are small and spindly. I responded to her with the following reply...

I think I may know the problem for both your tomatoes and carrots. Having heard what you just mentioned (i.e. your tomatoes are 5 feet tall and have not produced fruits yet, your carrots have small spindly roots), I would guess that your soil has too much nitrogen. Nitrogen is possibly the most coveted of nutrients from a plant perspective. A plant that has plenty of nitrogen will take that nutrient and invest it in new green leaves. It’s kind of like the economy, where the plants play the role of a rash investor. If the economy is good (aka there’s plenty of nitrogen available for everyone), the rash investor will use it all in high yield but high risk investments. The rash investor will not invest in the future in case the economy goes sour. Future investments from a plant’s perspective would be taking nutrients and produce flowers, which eventually turn into seeds and the future generation. As for the carrot, the root is the storage organ that keeps nutrients safe to use at a later date. Both are investments for the future.

So, what’s next? I looked at your environmental data. You definitely have plenty of light. The temperatures looked fine. (The temp for the tomato seemed a bit low, but the data was from March. I assume the temperatures are higher now. Tomatoes love warmth!) My suggestion would to try to leach some of the nitrogen out of the soil and then fertilize again with a fertilizer that has relatively more potassium and phosphorous. Leaching the soil is done best when you have well-draining soil (which is best for both the tomato and carrot as well). You would drench the soil with water. The water should not have any fertilizer in it. Tap water or water from the hose should be perfectly fine. If the water moves quickly through the soil profile, it will drag nitrogen with it (along with other nutrients). When the soil has dried a little bit, fertigate (that is the actual scientific term; combination of fertilize and irrigate) the soil with a low concentration of a fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro’s Tomato Plant Food. That fertilizer has a high potassium concentration (it’s NPK is 18-18-21; that refers to the concentrations of nitrogen/phosphorous/potassium). You might also want to try a 5-10-10 fertilizer that is purposely low on nitrogen. I hope this is helpful for you. If you do have any other questions about EasyBloom or growing big, beautiful plants, feel free to contact me. Happy Gardening! Robby Flannery, Ph.D. Senior Horticulturalist PlantSense, Inc.