Made up my tomato hills today. Plan to put in six tomorrow. Like to have the first ripe tomatoes.

I got one of the gardens turned, rowed, and covered before the next wave of weather. Feels good.

Blossom end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency. The ash your adding sounds like its moving the PH scale of the soil and that makes the calcium available for the maters. To much ash and you will lock it out again.

Crush egg shells and put them in a jar. Cover with vinegar for a few hours to make the calcium available to plants.

Got milk.............50 50 mix with water. Ends that calcium problem.

https://balconygardenweb.com/milk-uses-in-the-garden/

The feed store once sold lime in small bags. I used that to prevent blossom end rot for several years. It worked. The store closed. The following year the rot returned. A neighbor told me to try wood ash from my fire place or burn pile. It worked. Been using it ever since.

I'm using Alfalfa meal or pellets around tomato stems. Cheap and easy.

Sounds like you guys have the soil worked out in your area. Ash, Calcitic and dolomite lime all raise the soils PH, ash probably the weaker of them. Dolomite lime is mainly magnesium so you need to know what lime your working with. IMO it sounds like soil ph is the issue there and not necessarily calcium. I would not just go throwing ph modifiers in the soil , Ive done that in the past . If you want you can fallow this link to get your soil analyzed, very cheap, and they will tell you where your soil is at and what you need to add. http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/

To make things more complicated I have ran in to major calcium deficiencies with large amounts of rain , even though the soil has the calcium. With the soil in the correct PH range I use gypsum.
Folks also use some match ends for sulphur and epsom salt for magnesium. Ill use magnesium every couple weeks. Works well for peppers and tomatoes. I wont be doing much this year since I have a new 100lb puppy. Hes killed a couple hundred dollars worth of plants this winter, haha. Going to work on fencing in the areas.

any one have a connection for cow crap? I would prefer cows not used for milk or dairy farms , the less steroids and herbicides in the field the better. Have shovel will travel.About 2 hrs around dfw. Not looking for store bought stuff.

No way I'm putting these six babies out in my cold wet garden with another cold front coming next week

appears to be a lot of it in the off topic section lately, just not sure how you shovel it for your garden

I live in horse country. That mighty be better for you. Theirs is mixed with wood shavings. They stack it up and let it compost. One near me loaded my pickup bed with a front in loader.

Looking good everyone . I spent the last two days taking down a 30x100 high tunnel I got for a steal off market place . 
Now I'm researching which direction I want it facing, site prep etc. I will take any advice you guys have. I will also follow up with you guys on this project.

Soil has been turned, ph levels adjusted, and potatoes planted. Everything else will have to wait another 30 days or so before we can plant. Mid 30s here this morning

I plan to put my tomatoes in Saturday.

I'll let you come shovel cow crap off my farm for a couple cases of beer.

Thanks but I dont drink.

If we weren't so far apart we could get ya some, with 33 cows there's a plenty.

I have as much cow stuff as you want . Bring a 18 wheeler

The forecast low tonight is 38° and 42° for Friday night. Long warming period after that. Plan to get ER done Saturday. Its been too long. Got a hankering for home grown tomatoes.

I wasn't going to offer you one anyway.

Have any of yall ever grown chestnut trees?

I’m a big fan of chest nuts!

BLTs on the way. Put all six in the ground a few minutes ago. Felt great to get a little dirt under my fingernails and to work up a little sweat. My neighbor is on a walker. I went ahead and transplanted six tomatoes and three bell peppers for him. I plan to wait a couple more weeks before I put in my peppers.




This is old news but I went ahead and took the picture while I was out there. Onions are starting to bulb and cilantro is abundant.