No, don't fertilize right away, it can burn the new roots. Give them a couple of weeks. I suspect the soil you're using already has fertilizer in it, and you won't have to fertilize for a while. It's dilute enough that it won't bother the newly transplanted roots.

Many do what is called a 'hole prep' of some kind. Mixing the dry nutrients of choice well into the bottom of the hole.

Otherwise it all depends on how much work you have done on amending your soil before planting. Established gardens that have been well amended regularly with lots of compost and organic matter and that have an active soil micro-herd don't require much. New garden beds are another matter.

Once you get first fruit set you will need to feed well if not before then.

Dave

Just some common sense - I would concentrate on getting the roots to max out at the time of transplant. I usually give my seedlings a bit of a nitrogen boost just before transplant, but when they go into the dirt, I feel they need something to boost the root growing function. So, I usually give them a bit of root encouragement fertilizer. the next best thing would be some "Root Tone" or other root encouraging hormone.

If you've done your job with getting a good balance of nitrogen and "K" and "P" stuff, then you will have good success with your transplants.

This season, I will have a bit more than 250 plants and they seem to love my methods. My approach to growing garden plants is to really think about what the plant will need a any given stage in their growth. This usually guides me in the right direction on what I do.

Hope this helps.

I always give them some manure in the planting hole and some diluted fish emulsion. I wouldn't use any chemical fertilizer though.

Look up Ear;'s Hole Method on this form.

Watch out for fish emulsion. I planted out tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and okra yesterday and used a cup of diluted Neptune's Harvest fish emulsion and seaweed to water in each plant. This morning I found some okra and pepper plants completely uprooted, probably by a raccoon looking for fish. And, by the way, bumper crop and Miracle Gro both have a lot of fertilizer in them.

Much depends on the soil prep. that the plants are going into. If you have "Loaded" the soil to the highest safe nutrient levels then adding more could do more harm than good. However if you have gone easy on broadcast fertilizers than placing more fertilizer at the root zone will often give the transplant a boost.

I plant at high density in soil in two greenhouses and usually work considerable amounts of fertilizer into the soil prior to planting. I never add additional fertilizer to those plants. In the field I sparingly broadcast and work in fertilizer and then when I plant (with a water- wheel planter) I dissolve a pound of Miracle Gro fertilizer in each 150 gallon tank of transplant water, enough for about 400 plants.

Many tomato growers fail to supplement plants later in the growing season when plants need it most. With Calcium, Magnesium, Phosphorus and minor nutrients I try to incorporate in soil prior to planting, especially with P since Phosphorus(P) is not very mobile in the soil. Plants almost always respond to later Nitrogen and Potassium supplementation beginning at about the first harvest.