River wrote:I have looked at lots of information. Some folks swear by Tomatoe tone and other organic fertilizers designed for tomatoes. Then I read if u have compost and manure it's not necessary.
Add chemical fertilizer 13-13-13 and they state that works well. Even though research supports low nitrogen for tomatoes to keep the green growth down and produce more fruit.
It's all somewhat confusing. The last couple of years I have grown tomatoes in containers and I know that I have to add some kind of fertilizer especially with all the rain that we receive. I used the miracle grow but I want to try something different to see if I can tell a difference. Plus I am going to also plant several in my garden this year.
What do y'all like to use or not use?
If you were growing in the ground, then even with the application of compost and manure I'd tell you that a balanced fertilizer is still a necessity. I'd use TomatoTone in this case.
Since you are growing in a container, you can't really use compost or manure (well you can, but it means the container mix would break down such that you'd only be able to reuse it maybe 1 year, driving up the costs substantially). When I successfully grew tomatoes in a container (two indeterminate plants in a 40 gallon Rugged tote), I poured a strip of Happy Frog organic fertilizer between the plants and that was all that was needed to get a very good harvest. But as said above, you don't have to use a strip or band of fertilizer and instead can add it over time as the plants need it.