I've used this before and also found it to be of good quality. It's cheap to buy but gives great results.

Agree that it hard to beat the price and the results, if you aren't opposed to synthetic ferts (I'm not) are great for the price.

Dave

Squonk, I agree it's an excellent product and very economical.

I've used that company's fertilizer for the past several years. The tomato & vegetable formula you show is 9-12-12. It used to be 2.50 a box at Walmart. This year it's 2.79 for the 4-pound box.

The same company makes another fertilizer for Dollar General. It's in an almost identical box and carries the header "Flower & Vegetable" fertilizer. It's only 2.00 for the 4-pound box.

Other than those two products, the only other purchased products I use in my tomato beds are bonemeal and Epsom salt in the planting hole. I do heavily amend my beds with composted horse stall bedding and other composted organic materials.

When fertilizing my raised beds, I apply about 2 pounds of either product per 100 square feet and work it into the soil. I side dress each tomato plant again at fruit set with a small handful cast around the plant out in the area above the root zone.

When planting in containers, I add one small handful of either the Pennington 9-12-12 or the 6-10-10 halfway up in the tub and then another small handful about 2 or 3 inches below the surface when I first fill the tubs. I'd guess the total amount runs somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 cup per 10-gallon growing container with one plant per.

The tomatoes always respond with vigor to both products in raised beds and grow tubs.

$2.79 at your WalMart eh? Well, I was surprised and over joyed to find it was $1.98 again this year here. I snagged up all they had on the shelf (6 boxes) lol. The other brands, in the same size, were nearly & over ten bucks.
My sowing practice mirrors yours except I don't add bonemeal. I thought about it. I haven't because of the fear of the added nitrogen. I didn't have a real bad problem with blossom drop but I did lose some. How did your plants respond to the bonemeal? Did you have any blossoms drop?

I add bonemeal because it adds phosphorus to the planting hole.

I see. Can I top dress with bonemeal? Or, must it be added to soil when transplanting?

Bonemeal may vary in analysis, but the last one I used was something like 5-15-0. Maybe you're thinking of bloodmeal which indeed is high in nitrogen. I think phosphorus is important early on to "pre-set" the tomato plant with regard to it's later flower development.

As far as adding phosphorus after the plants are set in the ground or the containers, I would use either a side dressing of some sort of flower/tomato formula like the Pennington 9-12-12 and scratch it in a little, or use one of those instant "plant Tang" type fertilizers like BloomBooster or Miracle-Gro Rose Formula and mix it at 1 Tbs per gallon.

If you also didn't put the Epsom salt in the planting hole, it can be watered in with the BloomBooster by mixing in 1 Tbs Epsom salt per same gallon of water. I usually water two plants with each gallon of that mix.

I am having trouble finding the Pennington brands of fertilizer. Our Walmart isn't carrying it this year (or it's been sold out) I'm not even seeing the empty shelves! Does anyone know anywhere else where I can get some?

can't find it in stores too this year 2011, anyone know?