felixfisher•9d agoMost Upvoted

Tried growing tomatoes in pure compost instead of soil mix - got completely different results than I expected

I planted two sets of cherry tomatoes last spring. One in my usual 50/50 mix of garden soil and bagged compost. The other in nothing but straight compost from my local nursery's pile. The straight compost ones grew twice as fast at first, then around August they just stopped producing and the leaves curled up bad. The soil mix ones kept going until October. Anyone else tried this and seen the same thing? Was the compost too hot for long term growth?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.pat8d ago

Huh, that's Real interesting! I've been messing around with straight compost beds for a couple years now and I've seen the same thing. The plants go nuts for a while but then they seem to hit a wall. Did you check the pH on that straight compost before you used it? I found my nursery's pile was running pretty alkaline last summer and that's when my plants started showing those curled up leaves.

derek_schmidt68d ago

Man, that's a bummer about the straight compost ones crashing like that. I've definitely been there with plants going wild then just giving up.

margaret3048d ago

Oh man, my buddy tried that once and his tomato plants just gave up halfway through summer.