Tomatoes
Crop Growth Enhancement Field Tomatoes - Trial 1
Plant type:
Field tomatoes (Roma).
Application method:
The tomatoes were planted ~2 weeks before we treated the field. We tested different components of John's blend. One part was shanked in (photo 1), and another component sprayed on the plants, on 14 July ’23 (photo 2).
Location:
A commercial tomato field near Lodi, California
Results:
We treated about 1,200 plants per each of three different treatments, compared against the many acres of conventionally treated tomatoes.
On 26 Aug ’23, we came back and again counted the fruits and the blossoms. The fruit count per plant/section was on avg 2.7x higher in the treated sections than the untreated sections.
On 16 Sept ’23, we counted the fruits again. (photo 3) While the three treatment conditions had different results, the best treatment had an avg of 1.92x fruit per plant than plants without our treatment. Not only were there more tomatoes/plant in the treated sections, many were ripe a few weeks before the tomatoes grown in untreated soil. We also saw many ripe tomatoes on the plants grown in treated soil that were larger than nearly ripe tomatoes on the plants grown in untreated soil.
The results are sufficiently promising, that we are expanding soil treatments in 2024.
Photo 1: Shanking in biochar.
Photo 2: Spraying on biologics.
Photo 3: Counting tomatoes.
Crop Growth Enhancement Greenhouse Tomatoes - Trial 2
Plant type:
2 types of tomatoes.
Dates: Winter Dec’23-April’24.
Application method:
The tomato farmer who hosted field trials in 2023, brought us his field soil, his fertilizers/amendments and schedule. Each tomato was planted in a 20 gal “bag”. Side by side comparisons of his soil+his fertilizers@his schedule+ tomatoes from seed (12 plants), compared against his soil+his fertilizers@his schedule+ tomatoes from seed+ SAI amendments (19 plants). Note: we added to the soil, and did not take away his fertilizers. We think that we can cut the fertilizer use by up to 30%, and reduce the irrigation water use by up to 50%; those variables are being explored in 2024.
Location:
Location: A commercial greenhouse in N Marin, California.
Results:
The tomato plants receiving the SAI amendments on top of the base level farm soil and fertilizers, produced over 3x more blossoms per plant, and resulted in a harvest of 3.5x more tomatoes/plant, and 3.7x more weight of tomatoes/plant, when compared to the plants grown using the commercial farming “best method”.
Image left: Harvested from control plant
Image right: Harvested from treated plant
Crop Growth Enhancement Cherry Tomatoes - Trial 3
Plant type:
Indigo Rose cherry tomatoes.
Dates: Winter Dec’23-April’24.
Application method:
The materials were mixed by hand in the proper ratios 30 cups per pot.
Location:
A residence in Woodside, California.
Results:
A control group (no additional amendments) was made, in addition to 5 different ratios of ratios (photo 1, 27 May ‘23). Brevity prevents listing them all, so we’ll oversimplify for this one page overview. The plants treated with the amendments grew taller earlier, then seemed to slow down their growth, instead putting their energy into more blossoms and more fruit (photo 2, 21 June ‘23). The untreated plants kept growing taller and spindlier into September. Re: blossoms, the treated plants hit their max # of blossoms ~ 3 weeks before the untreated plants, and early on the ratio was 5x greater for the treated plants (which drifted lower as blossoms became fruit). Early on, the treated plants had up to 6x more fruits than the untreated plants, and peak # happened 2+ weeks before the untreated plants (photo 3, 4 Aug ’23). Final harvest was on 16 Sept ’23, and the treated plants averaged a harvest 2.3x more fruit/plant than the untreated plants, and the best treated group produced 2.7x more harvested fruit than the untreated plants.
Photo 1: 18 plants test bed.
Photo 2: Treated vs untreated
Photo 3: Cherry tomato cluster
Crop Growth Enhancement Cherry Tomatoes - Trial 4
Plant type:
Chocolate Sprinkles, and Yellow Cherry tomatoes.
Dates: April - June 2024, Date of photo: June 8, 2024
Location:
Planted on 19 April 2024, in a backyard garden in Redwood City, California.
Application method:
Raised bed, amendments thoroughly mixed with existing soil.
Results:
Plant. Height Width Volume # Blossoms # Fruits
Control plants:
Chocolate Sprinkle 41cm 48cm 0.026 qm 22 12
Lemon Cherry 48cm 45cm 0.093 qm 19 22
Treated plants:
Chocolate Sprinkle 82cm 62cm 0.254 qm 54 34
Lemon Cherry 65cm 67cm 0.257 qm 37 41
Overall evaluation:
After 7.5 weeks in the soil, the SAI treated Chocolate Sprinkle plant is over ~10x larger plant volume, with 2.5x more blossoms, and 2.8x more fruits, than the control plant.
After 7.5 weeks in the soil, the SAI treated Lemon Cherry tomato plant is over 2.8x larger plant volume, with ~2x more blossoms, and 1.9x more fruits, than the control plant.
These results are in line with results seen at other sites, with other soils, and with other tomato types.
Tomato plant right: control
Tomato plant left: With John's blend
Click on image for next study
Plant type:
Cherry tomatoes. Still trial no. 4
Photo of tomato roots
The roots tell the story. Therefore we cleaned the roots of the plants in order to compare them to each other.
Roots from left to right:
1) control.
2) Johns Blend calculated by volume.
3) Johns Blend calculated by volume + water retention agent.
Note that the Johns Blend treated plant is larger, and with the water retention agent, it is larger still.
4) Johns Blend calculated by area.
5) Johns Blend calculated by area + water retention agent.
The JB @ area started slower but caught up and surpassed JB at volume. The harvested tomatoes of the plants in weight correspond well to the size of the roots.
Tomato roots according to discription to the left.
Crop Growth Enhancement Cherry Tomatoes - Trial 5
Plant type:
Juliet Cherry tomatoes
Date of photo: October 24, 2024
Results:
JB treated plants were taller and wider, and had roughly 3.2x more plant volume. JB treated leaves were only slightly larger. Blossom counts, roughly 5x more in the JB plants, Aug through early Oct.
Our first frost happened a few nights ago, which killed the tomato plants. The control plant yielded just 3 tomatoes total (ripe and unripe), with an average size of 3.17gr. (left in the photo above) That works out to 9.51 gr of tomatoes/plant. We did 4 different JB treatments: 2 were at 9 tomatoes/plant, and 2 were at 8 tomatoes/plant. The treatment with the largest tomatoes, the 3 ripe tomatoes on average weighed 14.5gr, while the 5 green ones were slightly smaller. (right in the photo above) If allowed to ripen, that’d be 8 * 14.5gr, = 116gr. 116 gr per plant / 9.51 gr per plant = 12.2x more weight of tomatoes per plant, for this last field trial of 2024. (This result is higher than what we usually see with tomatoes, typically around 3-5x more weight of tomatoes/plant, observed at 4 other sites with 5 tomato types.)
Tomato plant right: Treated with John's blend
Tomato plant left: Without John's blend
Crop Growth Enhancement Cherry Tomatoes - Trial 6
Plant type:
Roma tomatoes.
Date of photo: Aug 14, 2024
Results:
(r) The average tomato harvested on 14 August, the planted treated with JB weighed 99.8gr (with the largest being 130 gr), and the control average was 58.6gr, for a difference of 1.7x increased weight per fruit. In addition, the JB treated plant was producing 1.99x more tomatoes/plant. 1.7 * 1.99 = 3.4x more weight of tomato per plant, about in line with our tomato results at many other locations. At an additional harvest survey on 29 September 2024, more than 5x more tomatoes were harvestable (and were considerably larger than) the control tomatoes. (We don’t wish to represent that our soil amendment will reliably produce 15x more weight of tomatoes/plant, though it has been demonstrated here. Instead, in nearly all of our other tomato field trials, we routinely see 2-4x more tomatoes/plant, with each tomato (on average) weighing more, so something in the range of 3-5x more weight of tomatoes/plant seems achievable.)
Tomato right: from treated plant
Tomato left: from untreated plant
Click for next study.
Testing our water retention agent on Cherry Tomatoes - Trial 7
Plant type:
Cherry tomatoes.
Dates: midt June to end of August 2024,
Application method:
Raised in pots with planting soil. Control received no treatment, A + B was treated with our organic water retention agent. Control received 100% of water, A received 50% of water, C received 30%. In addition, fertilizer is given to the plants in different doses. Control gets 100% of fertilizer once a week. Plant A got 80% fertilizer of control, and plant B gets only 60% of control.
Location:
Balkony in Berlin, Germany.
Results:
The weight of total harvest of crops: Control got 100% of harvest (largest), A got 79% of control, and B got 59% control. The crop production reflects quite correctly the fertilizer dosages, but shows no reduction due to reduced water in plant A + B. Meaning, plant A + B produced the same amount of crops compared to Control with the consideration of reduced fertilizer use, but the additional reduction of water use had no effect on A + B.
Tomato plant right: control
Tomato plant left: With John's blend
Plant type:
Cherry tomatoes. Same trial as no. 7
Reaction to a drought experience measured by moisture meter:
During the growth period we could not water the plants for about a week during a heat dome. The two moisture meters shown in the photos tell the story. The control plant with its 100% water dosage showed dry soil and had otherwise first signs of exhaustion in the leaves through drought. With plant A, which received just 50% of the water of Control, the moisture meter showed wet soil and the plant looked really well. It can also be seen in the images that the soil of the Control plant looked dry (photo to the right), while the soil of plant A (photo to the left) shows still wet soil.
Tomato plant right: control
Tomato plant left: With our organic water retention agent
Click on image