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Show Fertilizing Tomatoes Nearly Doubles Crop Two research men of the soils department de-partment at the University of Wisconsin, Wis-consin, found that tomatoes need a lot -of fertilizer and pay a big profit on it, even on land that already is quite fertile. They report that compared with unfertilized tomatoes the best treatment treat-ment increased yields enough to net $244 extra to the acre above' fertilizer fer-tilizer cost This was on the basis of the 1943 cannery price; actually these tomatoes were sold on the Milwaukee market at a higher price and greater return for the fertilizer. Most profitable of the fertilizer programs tested was a broadcast application of 500 pounds 6-6-20 to the acre 500 pounds 3-12-12 at the side of the row. At a fertilizer cost of $20.00 to the acre, this treatment increased in-creased yields by 69 per cent Row applications alone were not able to bring out top yields and were less profitable on the acre basis. The 6-6-20 fertilizer which was broadcast gave just as good results as more expensive formulas containing con-taining larger amounts of either nitrogen or phosphorus. These results were secured on a Miami silt loam soil which contains medium to high amounts of phosphorus, phos-phorus, a fair amount of potassium, plenty of boron and has a reaction ranging from just below neutral to slightly alkaline. The variety of tomatoes grown was a rather late one named J. T. D. Berger and Truog think it is possible that an earlier variety would have paid off even better on fertilizer, since about one-third of this crop was caught by frost before It ripened. |