Nitrogen Fertility Options for Organic High Tunnels
Cordelia Machanoff, Program Aide
Cornell Vegetable Program
It is transplant season for high tunnel tomatoes, particularly on farms that have just completed an early spring greens crop. Now is the time to plan for fertility for the longer season tomato crop. Conventional high tunnel growers can rely on soluble fertilizers which are injected through drip irrigation at a precise rate. However, organic tunnel fertility is more challenging, particularly in regards to long season nitrogen delivery. Most organic nitrogen sources are not injectable and must be applied prior to planting. These often come with unbalanced ratios of other nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium and magnesium. Several years of foliar sampling in high tunnel tomatoes throughout NYS has shown that organic high tunnel tomatoes generally start out with sufficient or even excess nitrogen, but go into a mid-season dive in foliar nitrogen levels.
Given the longer season and higher yields of tunnel tomatoes, a nitrogen fertilizer to inject or side-dress will help prevent mid-season deficiencies.
Our recommendations and pre-plant and in-season organic nitrogen sources are provided in the PDF below.
This work is part of a 2-year project between CCE Cornell Vegetable Program and NOFA-NY with support from the New York Farm Viability Institute.
Nitrogen Fertility Options for Organic High Tunnels, May 2017 (pdf; 1094KB)
Upcoming Events
Niagara Region Vegetable Meeting
August 14, 2024
Clarence Center, NY
We'll start this meeting off at Root Down Farm to hear late season disease management updates in peppers and cole crops, plus current best management practices to limit fungicide resistance. Potato variety recommendations and disease control questions in potatoes will be addressed.
Then we'll head to Kreher's beet field to view and discuss alternative weed control technologies. The beet field is an on-farm demonstration of various flame weeding protocols in comparison with stacked tool cultivation equipment. One or two weeding robots will be on-hand for live demonstrations and discussion of the technology's current abilities and future potential. We'll also cover industry updates and a review of late summer disease management in squash.
2.0 DEC credits will be available in categories 23, 1a, and 10.
2024 Chipping Potato Twilight Meeting
August 20, 2024
Dansville, NY
Join us for a brief, on-farm meeting including insect pest updates and viewing of the chipping potato variety trial. 1.0 DEC credits in categories 10, 1a, and 23 will be offered. Dinner follows!