When to Fertilize/Stop Fertilizing

13 years ago

Sorry if this has been addressed elsewhere but a quick search did no yield what I was looking for. When is the best time to fertilize your tomatoes in order to maximize fruit production? Should you stop fertilizing once blossoms have set?

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Comments (3)

korney19
13 years ago
This is a touchy subject for me, being single, no kids that I know of, etc.

If you had kids, would you only feed them when they were young? When they were teens? When they wanted to reproduce?

I know tomatoes aren't people but I would feed them regularly, and believe they may need more food as they got bigger, or as they were reproducing. I would probably only cut back on water & food near the end of the ripening cycle, shortly before picking.

Another factor that many don't take into account is Determinates and Indeterminates. Both should have different needs. Much of Agriculture methods & recommendations from the 1940's thru 1990's would seem to be for field tomatoes which are usually determinate. They don't really apply to indeterminates that home gardeners try to keep producing fruits all year until the plants die of frost or disease.

For the most production, both determinate and indeterminate, I have found that fertilizing early with a high phosphorus ''starter'' or ''bloom booster'' fert stimulates or produces a higher number of flowers & therefore more potential fruits. If you are growing indeterminate varieties, I would continue to fertilize thru much of the season, NOT just to blossom set, but as long as clusters are developing, say, within a month of your fall frost date.

On A SIDE NOTE, we have noticed that extra fertilizer during times of Early Blight later in the season has either prolonged the health of the plant, almost "beating" any blight, and reinvigorated plants to look as if they never had any diseases! Not to mention increased fruit sizes and lbs/plant. This was done at locartion #2, Jerry's house in the 'burbs, using a simple Hoze-On type fertilizer injector drawing fertilizer from a bucket. Definitely not a scientific study, but the plants looked BETTER at the end of the season than early in the season!
digdirt2
13 years ago
Agree and I think you'll find that most of us have some sort of regular feeding program for our plants.

There was a great recent discussion here on the timing of the feedings - shortly after first fruit set and then approximately every 6 weeks after seems to be a minimal sort of regimen for in-ground plants. This is based on the life cycle of indeterminate varieties. So if you were to "stop fertilizing once blossoms have set" you'd likely be limiting your future production.

Of course if you are growing in containers you would need to feed much more frequently.

Dave
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gardningscomplicated
13 years ago
dave - Could you post a link to that discussion? I did a quick scan back through the topics, but didn't see it. Thanks.

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When to Fertilize/Stop Fertilizing

Comments (3)

korney19

digdirt2

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