Once your tomato plant are growing well , you may question what else you’re able to do to keep them healthy . Many gardeners sharpen on fertilizer as a growth enhancer for their tomatoes . This usually works , but there is a good stress for what your Lycopersicon esculentum plants really need if they are to thrive and give maximum take .

When to Fertilize Tomatoes

The absolute best time to fecundate is before the tomatoes are even constitute . Fortifying the soil beneath the plants before the plant life are add together to it means that the nutrient are already there , ready to be unbarred , and you head for the hills no danger of “ burning ” or other untoward effects from fertilisation while the plant is growing .

If your plant are already growing , then use lowly amounts of fertilizers or habituate organics that do not cauterize ( such as compost and weak manure ) . A good rule of thumb is to sidedress every month with a scummy nitrogen fertilizer . Too much N will cause the tomato plant plant to focus on the plant life itself and not setting yield .

The best prison term of Clarence Day to utilize most fertiliser is in the eve , when the sun is decline , and after watering or a rain . Chemical plant food can launder through without impart much welfare in the grime if they are water after coating and they can “ broil ” in the sun and either lose potency or burn the plant as well .

Fertilizing Tomatoes

Compost and scant manure ( such as chicken leavings or vermicompost ) can be used at any meter . It should be diffuse lightly over the ground around the plants . Do not dig it in or otherwise disturb the dirt as this can harm the Lycopersicon esculentum ’s root .

How To Fertilize Tomatoes

The best fertilizer for tomato , whether while they are develop or before planting , is extremely productive dirt . Compost is your best beginning for creating this . Manure ( composted bovine , chicken , louse , etc . ) is also excellent , peculiarly as a pre - treatment for dirt before plant .

If the plants are not in the soil , then mix the compost in well with the upper layer ( first two or three inches ) if you may . If not , spreading it over the top of the soil and allowing the rain and perhaps your own watering to crowd it into the soil . If you compost / manure your soil in the hebdomad or two before planting and again after harvesting before winter , within a span of class you ’ll have some of the best garden soil on the planet . Keeping up this regiment twice yearly mean no need for artificial spraying or fertilizing without sacrificing awesome fruit .

Good Tomato Fertilizers

Commercial Tomato Fertilizers

Commercial fertilizer meant specifically for tomato plant are uncommitted . Most are atomic number 19 - rich because once efflorescence begins , love apple will require to concentrate on fruit production rather than the growth of the works .

Chicken Poop Fertilizer for Tomatoes

For the constitutive grower , though , things are a little simpler . If at all useable , apply crybaby dough and leavings . This can be spread around the plants at any meter , but if you have only one shot at it , do it when the first buds just begin appearing on the bow . The leavings of chickens are unremarkably very rich in both potassium and atomic number 7 , especially if the chickens are ranged ( not cooped up ) .

Cow Manure for Tomatoes

moo-cow manure is another smashing one , though it is really best used before planting and after harvest . debar manure from dairy farm farm as they are often given a lot of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks , which leave sodium in the stain – not adept for plants in bombastic quantities .

Compost for Tomatoes

Compost is respectable for tomatoes at any clock time you want to add it . Quality compost , either made yourself or purchased ( beware of some problems this could have , such as diseases in the compost ) , can be spread on the ground around the plant to add nutrition to the soil .

Compost Tea for Tomatoes

Compost Camellia sinensis is probably the good room to interject nutrients like a shot to the plants without cut into the soil . It can be poured directly onto the fundament of the plant to souse into the root . Most compost Camellia sinensis is nitrogen and potassium plentiful as a function of how it ’s made . Manure afternoon tea is also a near substitute if compost is not available for brewing .

Although the flora are usually the focus , remember the true secret to a lavish , healthy , productive garden : Plants are only as honorable as the soil . Focus on filth health !

Want to learn more about fertilizing tomatoes?

delay out these helpful site : Best Time to Fertilize Tomatoesfrom NC Cooperative ExtensionGrowing Home Garden Tomatoesfrom University of Missouri Extension

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tomatoes in garden with text overlay guide to fertilizing tomatoes