Well, I'll chime in with a straight face, MOL..... my 'maters are all in pots, and need water at least twice a day, I mix up some MG in a bucket and pour some into each bucket I have next to each plant, I keep that water-bucket there so all I have to do is dip out some water and not drag the hose all over the yard.. so essentially I am giving each 'mater some liquid fertilizer each time I water...I won't even speculate at what strength but the water is blue, from the MG... most of my 'maters are getting pretty big, they are from last year's planting Tom brought me.... but they are still setting fruit so I keep them going even tho' they are pot-bound now.....I speculate that the only thing that keeps them going is the liquid fert., by now, because any other nutrient in the potting-mix has been long-gone..... works for me.... sally

Several things: First raised beds that have to be watered daily? Something in wrong there. Even in the heat of the deep south a raised bed seldom requires daily watering. Frequent shallow watering only encourages shallow rooted and water dependent plants. So can you clarify why you feel they have to be watered daily? Second, nitrogen always tests low even with a professional soil test - in fact most of the labs don't bother to test it - simply because it is so volatile. Home test kits are exceptionally unreliable. So great care is usually cautioned against going over-board with making corrections based on home test kits results and even professional tests will make only minimal recommendation on adding nitrogen since too much N is worst than too little in many ways. Third, while the Fox Farm product is fine the "with each watering" instructions is normally intended for plants grown in containers where the nutrients can leach out every time you water. Even then one often sees the recommendation for diluting it to half strength. So a raised bed dosed with 6-4-4 every time you watered - even if it was only weekly - would be heavily over-fertilized. Big bush huge green plants with lots of blossom drop, blossom end rot, and very little fruit production results. Plus you get lots of run-off wasted fertilizer and ground water contamination issues. The Neptune's product is also quite good and its 2-3-1 rating much more in keeping with the recommended ideal levels. So one or the other but you sure don't need both. If I were going to use the Fox Farm I would dilute it to 1/2 strength and give each plant (tomato plants I mean as that's what we are talking about here and other plant needs differ) a 1 gallon dose (depending on plant size) no more often than every 3 weeks. This of course depends on what amendments were added to your soil prior to planting. With the Neptune's - 1/2 strength dose weekly or full strength dose every 2 weeks. I much prefer the Neptunes. IMO the secret to proper use of fertilizers is just like watering - taking your clues from the plants themselves - not some fixed schedule. Learn the signs the plant will display of various nutrient deficiency and the symptoms it shows of nutrient excess and when in doubt - less is better. Hope this helps. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Symptoms of Nutrient Deficiency in Tomato Plants

It is getting awfully late in Missouri to fertilize now. The season is quickly coming to an end. If you feed them now they will go back into a leafy growth mode when what they need to be focused on now is ripening the existing fruit. Next year plan to feed them more than just the one time much earlier in the season. This is assuming they are in the ground. If these are in a container then fertilizing is a whole different ball game, a totally different set of guidelines. Dave

i can only tal from my own experience and after gardening since childhood this is my own experience, soil preparation is much more important than the side dressings(not that side dressings dont help. another thing i found to be very important is oxigen in the soil, the lighter and fluffier the soil the better the plant growth and production. peat moss seems to do wonders so does horse manure compost, and very light fluffy compost. some of that bagged cow and steer manure i find to be counter productive because it is so dense almost clay like. i use that to add to sandy soil along with compost. for side dressing i use any organic fertilizer with a nitrogen ratio no higher than 6. makes very little difference which i use. if i find rose food on sale i'll use rose food same for bulb food and flower food, the only thing i stay away from is tree and shrub food and food for acid loving plants. i sometimes add a little more calcium in the form of bone meal,hydrayted lime and gysom if the soil is too alkalaine. i'm still confused about foiliar feeding as far as how effective it isbut in general the first feeding is liquid fertilizer, when flowering both liquid and granular, when fruit forms granular, at first harvest granular, if they look like they need a boost one more feeding around the second week of august. so far so good, but the plots with lighter soil the plants are twice as healthy with twice the yield. plus i would give them at the least 3 square feet per plant to grow, too close blocks necessary air flow and the second most important element--- the sun !!!!!!!!!!!!!