I finally used that expensive soil test kit I bought last spring

Bought a $60 soil test kit from the local farm supply in March because my tomatoes kept coming out small and bitter. Ran all the tests and turns out my pH was perfect but my nitrogen was through the roof from over-fertilizing. Has anyone else gotten results that made you scratch your head?

3 comments

3 Comments

dakota_murphy902mo ago

Did you try watering more to flush out some of that excess nitrogen? I had the same issue with my peppers last year and just cutting back on fertilizer for a season made a huge difference.

alex_hall912mo ago

Watering more definitely helped me with my tomatoes when I had that nitrogen overload. The leaves were super dark green and curled under like crazy. I gave them a good deep soak every other day for about two weeks straight and it really flushed things out. Also switched to just plain water with no fertilizer at all for the rest of that season. The new growth came in way lighter green and the plants started setting fruit again. Just be careful not to drown them, you still want the soil to dry out a bit between waterings.

troy_palmer761mo ago

My pH was dead on too and it was driving me crazy until I tested the nitrogen. I was dumping fish emulsion on everything thinking more was better but it messed up my whole season. The leaves on my Roma tomatoes got super dark and curled downward like claws. I ended up flooding the bed with about an inch of water three times that first week and it took like a month but the new leaves finally started looking normal again.