How to Fertilize Your Tomatoes

Do you love tomatoes? Do you love them so much that you grew your own? You made a great choice since tomatoes are fast growing and delicious vegetable/fruit. Now that you’ve waited 6-8 weeks from the seed to a now approximately 6 inch tall plant, you should think about giving it as much sun as you can in a warm area. But that’s not the only thing you should do to make sure your tomatoes will grow as delicious as possible. Did you know that tomatoes are heavy feeding plants that need fertilizer? There are special fertilizers made just for tomatoes. Ideally you should fertilize even before planting, but you should still fertilize every week to 10 days. Two tablespoons is recommended.

Make sure your packedged tomato fertilizer has a Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium ratio of 5-10-10 or 10-10-10. You should always keep the soil moist and to accomplish this you can cut some grass or hay to make sure the moisture level is constant. Make sure you never endanger your tomato babies by placing them in direct contact with fertilizer. That could burn your tomatoes!

Organic tomato liquid fertilizer comes as liquid fish fertilizer or organic compost. Well aged manure is great for your tomato as well. If you decide to use liquid fish fertilizer, apply them at 3 week intervals. Once your plant is up and running and you see smaller tomatoes growing, you can kick back a bit and won’t have to water or fertilize as much.

You should plant your tomato when winter has past and spring has come. Tomatoes love sunlight and thrive at 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Ideally, your soil should have a pH level of about 5.5 to 6.8 with the soil fertilizer in place. Don’t get stingy on the compost. Space your dwarf plants 12 inches apart and if you have huge trellising tomatoes, 36 inches apart. It is recommended that you plant the seeds by laying them at a 45 degree angle, covering the roots and one half of the plant with soil. The tomato plant will magically turn upright in a few days. You can also grow your tomato plant in a container, but make sure it is at a sunny location and if you want to transplant your tomato plant, you have to put a “tomato cage” over it to make sure it stays up.

First, you should prepare your soil. Follow manufacturer’s instructions. Work your fertilizer to the top 5 inches of your soil, making sure not to add more than you need, and be especially careful with chemical fertilizers. If you have organic fertilizers, you may not need to feed it as often as chemical fertilizers as it takes longer to breakdown. Make sure not to add too much nitrogen or they will be great plants with no tomatoes. You can also apply mulch to control weeds from growing in your now fertilized soil. You don’t want to be bending over backwards tilling, hoeing,or heaven forbid, hand weeding when you can prevent these by applying mulch.