Lime is not acidic.

Unless yer talking about the citrus fruit lime?

"tomato tone" Is a very good fertilizer for tomatoes and peppers. I would stay away from making your own unless you really have alot of experiance in that field.

Ron

If you can get fish do it! After cleaning my fish I save the waste and freeze it and add it to my holes when planting.If your freinds fish ask them to save the waste!This is the absolute BEST tomatoe food you can get and it's free!

Lime is alkaline, not acidic.

You grow in containers. You have stated that several times and you need to include that in your posts to avoid getting answers that are only applicable to in-ground gardening.

Fertilizer needs - types, amounts needed, and frequency of application - for plants grown in containers is very different than for plants grown in the ground. No matter what plant it may be.

So you need to shift your focus to fertilizer needs for containers only. There are any number of good container fertilizers made and sold. Tomato Tone is one and there are many discussions here about it the search will pull up for you to read.

Unless you have an extensive working knowledge of nutrients and how they work, trying to make your own fertilizer mix for containers from basic ingredients is a waste of time, money, and effort and you risk the health of the plants. Read through the many discussions on fertilizing container plants found over on the Container Gardening forum for many good brand name recommendations.

Dave

To add to above posts the tomato plant requirements for nutrients change as the plant growth stages progress. Nitrogen and Potassium are needed in higher levels later in the fruiting stages of growth.

I cant see the point in adding 2 cups of agricultural lime on top of 2 cups of Dolomite lime, as Dolomite lime contains exactly the same as agricultural lime plus added other ingredients ??

I cant see the point in adding 2 cups of agricultural lime on top of 2 cups of Dolomite lime, as Dolomite lime contains exactly the same as agricultural lime plus added other ingredients ??

A lot of people praise tomato tone, some of them very knowledgable growers. I have never personally used it though. I had fertilizer (and soil composition) issues for a few years and finally did a lot of research last year before starting my garden. I would reccommend Dyna Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6 (has calcium, Magnesium and other essential micronutrients) for a standard tomato fertilizer. Then, when they start to bloom, add a little extra K with something like Protekt 0-0-3 to help with the process.

- Steve

I also used Foliage Pro 9-3-6 (and Protekt) on both my in-ground and SWC tomatoes last year with very good results. I fertilized 'weakly weekly' as Al Tapla suggests, that's 1/2 or quarter strength the recommended dosage on a weekly basis.

Foliage-Pro sales tag team hits this board too.

It has nothing to do with the FP "sales team." Simple the fact that it is such a great/ideal fertilizer than many heavily knowledgable gardeners, like Al, use.

Fertilizers, just like the vitamin trade, are a bunch of hype with little return. Most of it gets washed out of the system it should benefit.

If you plant tomatoes in a quality soil, the nutrition the tomatoes need will be provided by the soil and no fertilizers are needed. This is especially true if you provide the soil rather than amending your back yard dirt (container gardening).

Fertilizers were invented for big commercial farmers to give them a cheaper method of increasing yield in lousy soil. It is allot easier to just dump some fertilizer on your soil than to improve the soil to provide nutrition. There should be no need to use fertilizers in small scale gardens.

If you want good tomatoes or any other food crop, improve your soil to a good loose loam with 5 - 20 % organic matter and you are done. Invest your $$ into this and forget about fertilizers.

If you are compelled to spend money on something, invest in soil conditioners instead of fertilizers. Conditioners add enzymes and microbes that increase soil health and nutrition. Kelp has some cool enzyme action or look up John and Bob's.

Heck, adding some red worms is way better than drowning your plants with fertilizer.

I have one year of experience in tomatoes. However, I have pretty much memorized some horticulture pages out there since. I have no advice except for folk living in Southeast Texas. That would be to get your plants fed weekly. A 18-18-18 or maybe even a 21-21-21 would be suffice. Then again, my topsoil holds nothing, but my secondary loam holds everything with the exception of N. Very important to have a strong plant from the start,right?

That recipe looks similar to the Steve Soloman organic fertilizer recipe from Mother Earth News that I used last year. I only applied it once, about a month before planting.
I had nice, productive plants last year, but I also used worm tea throughout the season. I have always had great results with worm castings/tea, so it's hard to tell whether the fertilizer mix had much of an effect.

What about organic fertilizers? Any suggestions? I have used Tomato's alive and other Gardensalive.com products.

Jay...I used to use TomatoTone, which is a fine fertilizer, but I really like TomatoMaker better!

It has a high percentage of humic acid (feeds the microbes in the soil which help the plants uptake of nutrients).

URBAN FARM TEXAS TOMATO FERTILIZER IS SOME OF THE BEST FOR HI BRIX CROP

I think the subjects of which tomato fertilizers and which tomato varieties... are the hot buttons of forums like this. Probably it is best to go with the flow...and see what the majority of seasoned gardeners do. Undoubtedly, fertilizing is a critical factor in container growing. The best advice I ever got on the subject...containers need food often and diluted.

I also happened to believe that trying to make a fertilizer recipe' of your own is unnecessary and might even cause bad side effects.

As mentioned, "Tomato Tone" Is a good one.
Another one is MG Shake-N-Feed for tomatoes and peppers., which has Calcium. For routing general feeding MG Blue water soluble can't be beat, economically. You get a big bang for the buck. The only thing that it is missing is Calcium.
You need some controlled amount of Calcium here. Dumping a lot of lime is not the way to do it, IMO.
I uses 5-1-1 mix for my potting. The recipe calls for ONE TB spoon of dolomitic lime per gallon plus ONE TB spoon of slow release granular fertilizer per gallon, ALL MIXED AND WET BEFORE POTTING. .

Seysonn

Abusive pricing.

PC

Abusive pricing., ..PC ?

My garden soil is pretty much establish. So I feed my tomatoes sparingly. Then you have to be able to READ your plants' lips (LOL). If the foliage looks pale, they need more nitrogen. If it looks to dark, probably you have over fertilized.

Also, I fertilize at low strength but more often. Nitrogen can leach beyond the plants reach, especially it watered too much or rains often. That is why slow feeding has the advantage. I heard the story, this fellow GW member mentioning that " fertilizes his plants when it rains a lot. Some people might think that I am crazy .. but that is when my plants need fertilizer.." Of course he was talking about growing in fabric bags.

Like they say : YMMV

Sey

"Abusive pricing., ..PC ?"

Yes, as digdirt mentioned this thread was 5 years old and resurrected by someone preying upon obsessive tomato growers to shill a product, that while it may have good ingredients, they are not fully disclosed, and it is priced at a steep multiple of what other much more economical options offer with the same classes of ingredients.

PC

O' yeah, that . Got it. Don't want to mention the name..

But tomatoes need the same kind of fertilizer like peppers, potatoes,.. and many more.

Sey

Depending on where you live, I'd be afraid of putting fish in the ground. We have fire ants galore here. I'd be afraid it would attract them instantly.

Really, prestons has said it all....