Fertilizer for tomatoes can be delivered through foliar feeding.
Summer fruiting crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants will benefit from a side-dressing of fertilizer when they first set fruit and every 4 to 6 weeks thereafter.
Feed fruiting crops that have flowered and set fruit with liquid balanced fertilizers such as compost tea, comfrey tea or solid organic fertilizers in powder, pellet, or granular form. Liquid organic fertilizers can be watered-in around the base of plants or applied directly to crop leaves as foliar feeds. Solid fertilizers can be applied as a top dressing or band of fertilizer around the base of each plant.
Best tips on How to Grow Tomatoes.
Amount of fertilizer. If a manure fertilizer was used at planting time, reduce the fertilizer rate by one-half. Manures are generally high in nitrogen. A balanced fertilizer contains equal or near equal parts nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
When using a commercial organic or non-organic fertilizer, always follow the label directions on the package. Too much fertilizer can be as or more harmful to plants than not enough.
For higher yields of fruiting crops such as tomatoes and peppers, extra phosphorus and potassium should be given after flowering and fruiting.
For higher yields of leafy crops and crops that have overwintered in the soil such as autumn-planted onions, a top dressing of nitrogen rich fertilizer will act as a crop booster.
Fertilizer timing. It usually takes 10 to 12 weeks from the time transplants are set in the garden for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants to ripen their first fruit. Fertilize these crops with a side-dressing, one month and then again two months after transplanting—as a guide.
Foliar feeding. Vegetables can take a limited amount of nutrients in through their leaves; this is called foliar feeding. Use a watering can with a fine rose and foliar feed with compost tea, comfrey tea, or seaweed extracts.
Foliar feeding is particularly helpful as a boost or tonic for plants that are lagging or off to a slow start. Foliar feeding commonly results in plants gaining a deep green, healthy look soon after feeding.
Dry fertilizers are generally watered in after they are applied as a side-dressing. Foliar feeding does not require watering of the soil before or after applying fertilizer. Foliar feed when the soil is already moist or when the weather is particularly dry and plants can use both a watering and fertilizer application.
Click on these other article titles for more information:
Fertilizer Side-dressing Vegetable Crops
Organic Fertilizers and Soil Amendments
Vegetable Plant Nutrients: Sources and Deficiencies
Hi !…Very nice website. I grow tomatoes in big plastic containers 12 inches dia and peppers in rectangular beds of 4 feet by 9 inches. I had lots of peppers both cayenne and Bell type.
I grew one Beefsteak tomato plant but it did give only one tomato all over the year. Foliage was good but one side thick branch was becoming brown and then dried, seems to be Anthracnoes. I bought new pots and new soil and put some Heirloom varieties and in one old container I left old and new soil mixed up and Bonie’s Beef master variety from Wal-mart. Will it do or they will get diseases again. I threw away old tomato plant branches away. Can I also put solution of Bayers Adanced formula for 3 in one treatment of diseases? I put this solution in only one pot which was diseased. Thanks in advance for early responce.
Once you have had a disease, it’s best to start with all new soil. Diseases can live on in the soil. Try an All-America Selection tomato such as Celebrity if you continue to have problems with heirlooms. AAS selections grow well around the country in all types of gardens.
Hi, Im about to start growing bush tomatoes. I would like to know how many litres of fertiliser each tomato plant needs
The best fertilizer for tomatoes is aged compost worked thoroughly into the soil. Do this during winter or at least a few weeks before planting. Generally if you spread 2 inches of aged compost across the planting bed twice a year the soil will be renewed and nutrient rich. If you do not have aged compost use a commercial organic planting mix. If you are buying boxed or liquid fertilizer, choose an organic fertilizer with the ratio of about 5-10-10. Follow the directions on the label.