Newbie Advice on planting tomatoes

[TomatoNut]

No, I never plant seeds directly into the Scotts Humus and Manure, I merely add a little to my planting areas. Oh, I recently read an article on making your own compost, and one of the items you can add is paper. Would paper hurt? I don't see how newspaper would be good because of the ink? But I like to draw, and what if I were to throw one of my discarded drawings in there?

 

[Chuck]

No, I never plant seeds directly into the Scotts Humus and Manure, I merely add a little to my planting areas. Oh, I recently read an article on making your own compost, and one of the items you can add is paper. Would paper hurt? I don't see how newspaper would be good because of the ink? But I like to draw, and what if I were to throw one of my discarded drawings in there?

Newspaper paper is OK except for the slick colored paper. Years ago printers ink was a chemical but now all of it is made from soy. It's safe to use in compost. It will compost a lot faster if you shred it up into small pieces. Or you could make yourself a little worm farm, they love newspaper. I think the only thing harmful in your drawings would be if you used acrylics or oil based paints. That wouldn't be good for composting.

 

[headfullofbees]

The reason that earthworm castings are so good, is the huge range and numbers of beneficial microbes which come from a worm into their castings.
It is my opinion that this makes it an invaluable ingredient for a bacterial actively-aerated compost tea, whereby the numbers of these bacteria mushroom.
They do not last long at that level in the soil, but for the few hours that numbers are raised, it is my belief that they make enough extra nutrients available to plants to see a difference overnight.
It also means a normal presence of any of these bacteria missing from the soil.
In my view, this makes worm castings go much further, and a better economic choice.
There are many "recipes" for a-a ct, just add a couple of handfuls of castings to the brew.