Best ways to add calcium?

[Dace]

I know that adding egg shells to the garden is good in the long run but in the mean time....my Brandywines keep dropping their flowers and have only set a couple of tiny toms. I scratched in a little bone-meal 3 weeks ago and not seeing much of an improvement. The lady at the nursery suggested a liquid calcium supplement but I would rather focus on correcting my soil rather than just give my Brandywine a liq boost.

Can someone advise? I have some gypsum and I am thinking that may be good to add to the soil but I don't really know enough to make the best decision.

 

[OaklandCityFarmer]

I would highly recommend getting your soil tested before add any amounts of calcitic limestone or calcium carbonate to the soil, which are the best ways to add calcium to the soil. This is best done in the late planting season and done over several years, which is why I say test the soil. Both calcitic limestone and calcium carbonate will change the pH of the soil. Gypsum has a low calcium content (around 20%) but can improve calcium levels slightly.

I would recommend using the liquid product recommended and adding eggshells to the soil. They breakdown rather quickly and their effects are seen quite rapidly (usually within a week or so).

The best way to keep your garden with all the nutrients it needs is to add plenty of organic matter before during and after the growing season. That way you only have to supplement small amounts when needed.

 

[patandchickens]

Dropped blossoms (rather than fruit set) can be due to cold nights... where do you live and whats' your weather been like lately? (Or lack of pollinators but that's prolly not an issue this time of year)

As OaklandCityFarmer says, I would not do wholesale calcium additions without a soil test from a lab. You could dry, crush and bury a couple eggshells around each plant (not too many - more is not necessarily better) but only if you have not had any cold weather lately and have plenty of bees around.

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Dace]

Good feedback...I had no idea that the egg shells went to work so quickly!

Unfortunately I did not wait very long for a reply before I went to work...I took a small margarine tub and filled it with composted chicken manure, a sprinkling of organic veggie fert and some gypsum, I added this mix to the base of my toms... I hope it was not enough to have a negative impact.

As for not setting fruit, I live in So Cal and it has been warm, mid 60s at night up to 80's-90's. We did have a really brutal heat spell a couple weeks ago and everyone seems to be having some tomato issues right now, (according to the nursery folks) and the hot spell is taking the blame. All I know is that my other toms are producing but my Brandywine does not seem to want to

Edited to add: When I built this bed it was filled with compost from the dump. After planting the garden nothing was thriving so I did a soil test....it was not fertile at all, depleted in nitrogen & potash (or potassium can't recall but the nursery told me to add bone-meal to correct that) and was low on the other items (2 I think?). Turns out that the compost is made nearly completely of wood chips, not nearly enough green material for a healthy balance. So while I have not tested again, I have been able to improve it's fertility by adding a lot of organic matter and composted manure....but I know that the soil is lacking

 

[bills]

I could see nitrogen being deficent in that chip type compost. High carbon items like leaves also cause the problem. Apparently the nitrogen is used up in breaking down the compost, and a supplement should be added, before growing in it.

I would expect that type of compost to be quite acidic as well, but then tomatos's usually like soil slightly on the acid side..