Fertilizer and Feeding Schedule

[SuntannedSwede]

Hello all,

I recently transplanted about 9 Riesentraube cherry tomato plants in my raised beds. I'm completely new to gardening so I've been picking over the forum a lot, looking at different approaches to fertilizing plants. I'd like to keep it organic if possible, is tomato tone the way to go? I've heard that biweekly feedings of liquid fertilizer are best, would that work in my situation?

[zipcode]

Organic liquid fertilizer is very expensive and not worth the price imo. With raised beds you have the advantage of minerals from soil, which should be enough if you don't grow intensively.
I'd say tomato tone or similar sounds pretty good as easy general purpose fertilization for a beginner. Start with lower amounts, like 2 spoons at planting, and then once fruit start forming ramp up the amount, like 1 spoon per 1-2 weeks. This is amount per plant with one stem. If you don't prune, you need to reevaluate.
Of course, a lot depends on what is already available in the soil, but one can do with just manure based fertilizer very well usually.

[SuntannedSwede]

Thanks zipcode- I imagine the tomato tone is just sprinkled on top of the soil around the plant? Was considering pruning one row of vines to see how well they produced compared to plants that were left alone, would I add more fertilizer if I didn't prune them? Sure appreciate you taking the time to help me out

[Gardeneer]

I also think that organic fertilizer is good but very expensive. I do howevere use some compost and manures to amend the soil.

On the " prune or not prune", I also happened to have one Riesentraube in a 15 gallon pot (shared w/ a Tumbling Tom), I only prune the lower leaves to give the TT some head room. By doing so (not pruning laterals) I am shooting for a more bushy and compact plant, as the cage is not even 4ft tall.
I am experimenting "NO PRUNE" to see if I can keep the indeterminant plant size more compact, like determinants. Managing over 6ft plants is quite challenging when you are 5' 8".

Gardeneer

[zipcode]

Riesentraube is one of the few op cherries that do well pruned since it doesn't have a genetically limited low number of flowers per truss (like Galina and others which have like 8-10). I am growing one this year, it's oddly compact, and has a serious desire to form sideshoots.
SuntannedSwede, I recommend mixing the organic fertilizer with the soil at lest a bit, otherwise the benefits will be seen only much later, except nitrogen, which from what I understand, will be more easily available without microbe activity.

[Tracydr]

The thing about organic fertilizers is that the bang is bigger than the expected buck. No salt buildup,no burning and many organics have the added benefit of growth stimulators ( kelp amd alfalfa are famous for this), amino acids and fats from things like fish emulsions and trace elements. Neem seed meal even gives some systemic bug protection according to some places I've read.
When you foliar spray kelp/fish emulsion or compost tea it can also help prevent leaf diseases and increase the immune system whereas inorganic fertilizers just provide the raw ingredients,usually just NPK.
Since you are growing in determinants you don't really need to follow a set schedule or change the nutrients during different parts of the growth cycle.
What I do is start with a big handful of dry organic fertilizer at planting,then I foliar spray or water with kelp/fish emulsion about every two weeks,more if I'm needing to hand water,less if I'm getting plenty of rain.
I collect rain water and when I fertilize I just mix some kelp and fish emulsion in a weaker solution than the side of the bottle says,into the water tank.
You can also use homemade compost, seed meals from a feed store ( alfalfa,soy,cottonseed meal) and worm castings. Making teas from worm castings or compost can really help the immune system of your plants. I use a lot of worm tea on my citrus plants in the greenhouse.

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

I also think that organic fertilizer is good but very expensive. I do howevere use some compost and manures to amend the soil.

On the " prune or not prune", I also happened to have one Riesentraube in a 15 gallon pot (shared w/ a Tumbling Tom), I only prune the lower leaves to give the TT some head room. By doing so (not pruning laterals) I am shooting for a more bushy and compact plant, as the cage is not even 4ft tall.
I am experimenting "NO PRUNE" to see if I can keep the indeterminant plant size more compact, like determinants. Managing over 6ft plants is quite challenging when you are 5' 8".

Gardeneer

That is really interesting but I don't quite understand how you're planning to keep it smaller without pruning the top as it grows out of the cage?

I've been debating growing some plants in containers much smaller than you're using, and pruning them fairly sternly, (depending upon container size and the variety's natural size), in years when I particularly want seeds and fruit samples from that plant. Objective being to make it easier to keep the plant in a good growing area, but separated from other tomatoes, and to make it easier to protect it if it hasn't managed to produce mature fruit and early frost/freeze/blizzard leaps on us.

[SuntannedSwede]

Thanks all for the help, learning a lot

[zipcode]

Originally Posted by JLJ_

That is really interesting but I don't quite understand how you're planning to keep it smaller without pruning the top as it grows out of the cage?

I think he meant that if you don't prune, the plant height will be smaller but it will be (much) broader.
I usually prune to one stem, and comparing my garden one year to my neighbour who didn't prune I think at all, mine were roughly 3 times taller. Some very fast growing tomatoes, like Matt's wild cherry will still grow hugely tall even if you don't prune (if you ever want monstrous plants to impress the people this is the one).