Fertilizing and rainy days, a quick container question.

[squirrel789]

Hello TV folks,

This may be a silly question, but I am new to both fertilizing and growing tomatoes in containers. Although I have learned a lot here at TV. Anyway here goes:

It's lightly raining all day today here. I had hoped to use some of the TFF I just got and wondered if this is a waste or not. I know that rain washes out nutrients, and that typically in most containers (5, 10, or 15 gallons), the water moves through quickly and probably it would be a waste to add any TFF since it's water soluble and not time-release and would it likely wash out with the rain.

However, my experimental setup is a 170 gallon container (2' deep horse trough w/drainage holes) with multiple plants and I wondered if fertilizing during a light rain might help wash that TFF down, but not out. The hope being that it will put the nutrients right near the roots where I assume it should be.

The mix has some compost but no garden soil (other components are sphagnum peat and vermiculite), and the starter plants were planted about 14" vertically down in the container. Am I wasting my TFF here, or might this be a good method?

Also will the peat or vermiculite absorb any of the fertilizer and keep in reach of the roots, or do these components only retain water?

I guess the same questions would apply to an automated soaker-hose-on-a-timer system, which I assume will be necessary later this summer as it's hot and dry here in July/August? Would I skip the regular watering and water only with TFF, which would take awhile because of the big container size. Or, perhaps just add the TFF in addition to a morning and/or evening watering regimen?

Any thoughts are appreciated, and I really love this forum. I've been obsessing over my container patio garden as it's my first time without an in-ground space to work with. I've have a million questions to ask, and I really appreciate those you have taken time to help with the ones I've asked so far

Thanks!