Does EVERYONE fertilize their tomatoes?

[SueCT]

Well, thank you very much.

[SueCT]

Thank you for that info, Bill, I will check it out. Just received some TTF.

[bower]

I do most of my fertilizer at planting time: bone meal, chicken manure this time, chopped up kelp, and compost, but I also have seen the plants need more fertilizer when they start to ripen. This year we are late, but the fruit are not growing as fast or as big as sometimes and I think they needed more fert... already before they do ripe.
Last week I fed my container plants some more 5-4-3 chicken manure and topped with an inch of compost, for lack of anything better. Plants responded well but A week later I'm seeing little white roots on the surface as I have seen before. Granular ferts just don't work for me as a top dressing. And I 've been reading this and other threads and googling around TTF but it doesn't appear to be available in Canada. Today I spent the whole hot afternoon in big box stores, searching among other things the SOLUBLE fert that I need for my tomatoes. Canada version.

And I found something finally. PROMIX organic based with mycos soluble fert, it is 9-16-16. They give a dilution rate (2 TBS to 5 liters or roughly a gallon of water) but I don't know how the application rate should go for my container plants. They say a gallon for 5 sq meters in the garden or 10 8 inch pots, instead of yay much for x number of 8 ft tall tomato plants. Help, anyone? It's evening now so I guess to apply in the morning.

[gorbelly]

Bower, I would apply that at a tsp/gallon to container plants. But I wouldn't dose it out--I would use it to water the entire pot, i.e. watering normally to drench the pot until it starts to run out of the bottom.

I'm sure there are many different ways to approach it, though. This is just how I do it with the TTF in my container plants.

I will water with that very diluted solution every third or fourth watering. Since you already have some granular in the containers, maybe a little less for you?

[bower]

Thanks for the advice Gorbelly! I know the 'dialed in' guys are doing the fertigation that is little amount and often. Yeah I was thinking apply some then water as required for the day. Or mix it up per the dilution rate and then dollop that into the water water.
It is stronger than TTF at 9-16-16 afaict.

Bill was saying gauge it to the plant and I do have a pair of plants in container that are not setting as well as the others something went amiss. So I may try a bit heavier on them.

I'm also thinking to make some kind of mulch-topping to protect the little surface roots I provoked with the chicken manure. I have some crispy dried kelp I could crush up and mix with peat - neither would encourage surface rooting as long as I'm watering the soluble stuff deep into the container.

[lapk78]

Originally Posted by b54red

For many years I only added some fertilizer when preparing the beds along with lots of compost and organic matter like manures. As the season went on I did notice after the first good rush of fruit that the plants tended to slow down a lot so I started fertilizing at that point and it definitely helped production and plant health. I decided to experiment and with two beds prepared the same I treated one normally and the other I tried fertilizing every 10 days or so. The production from the bed getting the nearly weekly feeding was much better. I was using Miracle Grow at the time. When I found Texas Tomato Food and started feeding with it every week to 10 days I got a significant jump in not just healthier plants but far more fruit set and far more production for a longer time.

I start out giving the young tomato seedlings a lower than recommended dose of Texas Tomato Food fertilizer up til the time they start blooming then I give them the full one TBS to the gallon ratio every week to 10 days. My production and fruit set has been phenomenal since. I now use this method with most of my vegetables but with most other than tomatoes I use the Vegetable formula fertilizer from Urban Farms and the results have been really amazing.

Bill

If I may ask, are you still using TTF? Are you still using it at 1 Tbs/gal? How much of this solution do you give to each plant? Up until now, I have always used SWCs and the fertilizer was simply place in one big fell swoop. Thanks!