MOFishin
Senior Member
Posts: 126
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 1:33 pm
Location: Central Missouri 6A

Fertilizing tomatoes.

What kind of fertilizer do you use for tomatoes? What NPK? Do you have different ones for different parts of the growing season, like higher nitrogen earlier on and high phosphorous later, etc?
Just curious how other people do it. Thanks!

If I had tomatoes in the ground I would only add nitrogen and nothing else. My soil tests high in everything else.

PaulF
Greener Thumb
Posts: 910
Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:34 pm
Location: Brownville, Ne

All my tomatoes are planted in ground. I do a soil test every third year just to be sure what is going on with the soil. Following that recommendation the soil gets what it needs to be a balanced growing medium. If during the growing season it looks like the plants need a boost I will side dress with a low N fertilizer, usually one that indicates it is for bloom production. Most years no additional is required.

For seedlings very early on I use a liquid plant food that has a higher N content and then at half rate, double the water or however you want to figure it.

In containers, the first fertilizer I have used the higher N liquid at full strength, then in ten day to two week intervals gone with the lower N, higher P and K liquid plant food. As watering is done in containers, the nutrients get flushed out and need to be replaced. Higher N levels will cause lots of vegetative growth but at the expense of blossom creation and therefore less fruit.

The same happens if there is too much N in the soil, lots of plant and no tomatoes. That's what I do.

User avatar
Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

15-15-15 works good, you only need about 1 tablespoon per plant the day you plant the plants.. Do not put nitrogen on tomatoes when the temperature is above 80 degrees.

This year I planted beans in the same row as the tomatoes, I also planted a row of beans between each row of tomatoes. Beans add nitrogen to the soil for the tomatoes.

I have harvested about 200 lbs of tomatoes from 8 plants and harvested beans 4 times. We have 34 lbs of beans for the winter. Now I am letting the beans crop go to seed so I have seeds to plant next season.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Most of my tomatoes are in pots. I use MG potting soil fresh for each tomato in an 18 gallon container. I add 1/2 cup of tomato (9-12-12)or citrus food (6-4-6 plus micros) as a starter. The tomatoes get a tablespoon more at the first flowers, first fruit and monthly thereafter. It works for me. I water once daily (except when it rains) In self watering pots I can water every 3 days or so until the tomatoes mature, then they need daily watering. I have a 5 gallon reservoir.



Return to “TOMATO FORUM”