Question about feeding Texas Tomato Food

[jhouse]

Hi, just have a question about feeding -- my soil is just moist, (we've had so much rain haven't needed to water), plants are adults and have fruit just starting to ripen -- I know to use 1 TB per gallon, I'm using gallon jugs to water the food in, but how many gallons of solution per plant? Is it possible to overfeed them this way?

Thanks, I did look on the TTF thread but couldn't find the answer!

Jan H.

[b54red]

If your soil is really moist then I would use 1 oz to the gallon and give each plant about a half gallon each. If the soil is less moist then go with the 1TBS per/gal and give at least a gallon for full sized plants.

It is possible to overfeed young plants but I don't know if I have ever managed to do that with mature plants as long as you don't get the mix too concentrated. I only use a higher concentration if my soil is very damp and the plants really need a feeding.

Another thing you can do if the plants are not setting like they should is feed even more frequently for a short time. However if the plants get really dark green and over vegetative it is a good idea to give them less for a while or skip a feeding and just water them.

Bill

[jhouse]

Thanks b54red!

I hadn't gotten an answer this morning, so fed 2 gallons per plant at 1 TB.

Soil was not terribly moist so I think it'll be okay, getting thunderstorms tonight so some of it might leach out. . . fed them in morning.



Jan H.

[bbjm]

I had not fertilized for a few weeks so I fed each plant a gallon of water at the higher rate of 2TBS/gallon. I had not watered and it had not rained in several days. The next day I had a lot of split tomatoes that I normally associate with heavy rain. I don't know if it was the gallon of water or the TFF or a combination of the two. Regardless, from now on I am going to make sure I water a day or two before I dump a gallon of fertilized water on my plants.

Bret:

[jhouse]

oops. will let you know if mine split. . .the dang rain they were predicting hasn't happened yet. . .

[SueCT]

I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. I have a lot of organic matter and highly moisture retentive soil and had not fertilized them at all this year so I gave each plant 2 gallons at 1 Tbsp/gallon. I will probably not fertilize again until mid August if this was an over feeding, and that will likely be my last feeding of the year. I did not have any tomatoes close enough to ripening to cause any splitting.

[Barb_FL]

When I use to use TTF a lot, I never made the concentration more than 1 TBL per gallon. So if I wanted 2 TBL, it would be in 2 gallons.

[Barb_FL]

Originally Posted by SueCT

I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago. I have a lot of organic matter and highly moisture retentive soil and had not fertilized them at all this year so I gave each plant 2 gallons at 1 Tbsp/gallon. I will probably not fertilize again until mid August if this was an over feeding, and that will likely be my last feeding of the year. I did not have any tomatoes close enough to ripening to cause any splitting.

That sounds right to me.

[jhouse]

thanks all. I did 2 gallons (1 TB per) because they said to drench the soil, I just wasn't sure how much it would take to drench.

[b54red]

Originally Posted by bbjm

I had not fertilized for a few weeks so I fed each plant a gallon of water at the higher rate of 2TBS/gallon. I had not watered and it had not rained in several days. The next day I had a lot of split tomatoes that I normally associate with heavy rain. I don't know if it was the gallon of water or the TFF or a combination of the two. Regardless, from now on I am going to make sure I water a day or two before I dump a gallon of fertilized water on my plants.

Bret:

It wasn't the TTF but the amount of water. When it is hot it doesn't take a lot to cause some splitting especially in blushing or ripe fruit. I only apply a higher than 1 TBS/gal if the soil is very moist or if I am going to apply some more water afterwards. Too much of a concentrated mix can cause some problems as I found out one time when I experimented with a small bed of tomatoes that I fertilized at the rate of 1oz/gal weekly. The result was plants with a very stunted root system that died early when the temperatures got really hot and they didn't have the roots to pull in the amount of moisture they needed. I have not had any problems with occasionally giving mature healthy plants a slightly higher concentration when the soil is moist and the plants looked like they needed a boost.

Bill

[bbjm]

Originally Posted by b54red

It wasn't the TTF but the amount of water. When it is hot it doesn't take a lot to cause some splitting especially in blushing or ripe fruit. I only apply a higher than 1 TBS/gal if the soil is very moist or if I am going to apply some more water afterwards. Too much of a concentrated mix can cause some problems as I found out one time when I experimented with a small bed of tomatoes that I fertilized at the rate of 1oz/gal weekly. The result was plants with a very stunted root system that died early when the temperatures got really hot and they didn't have the roots to pull in the amount of moisture they needed. I have not had any problems with occasionally giving mature healthy plants a slightly higher concentration when the soil is moist and the plants looked like they needed a boost.

Bill

That makes sense. Thanks, Bill.

Bret