Tomatoes - feeding schedule and plant foods

[cazp]

My tomatoes are flowering now, and I understood they need fortnightly feeding with a plant food.

I have "Miracle Grow Organic choice fruit and vegetable plant food" which are pellets. It says to use 75g for every metre of plant height, 2/3 times during the "growing season"

My questions are (I hope they are not too silly):

What is the growing season of the tomato plant? and do I ignore fortnightly feeding schedule when using this particular feed and adopt the 2/3 times per season?

I assume there is no adjustment for pot size when calculating the feed amount (mine are 30 cm therefore I would use 25g regardless of pot size).

Would I be better of just using a liquid tomato feed every fortnight?

Any advice appreciated.

[oldie]

Personally I'd use a liquid feed, much easier to use. By the sounds of it these pellets are a more general plant food and not a tomato specific one but I have never looked at them as I have plenty comfrey to make my own feeds.

[Tomatoking]

Hi cazp

I would second oldie, a specific tomato liquid feed basically once a fortnight, then once a week as the season goes on.

If your plants are looked after and fed well, you should crop well into the autumn.

Obviously, it all depends on where they are grown and what in. There are organic fertilisers that you can use, but for ease of use for you to start with, you can't go far wrong with good basic tomato liquid feed.

Mr TK

[cazp]

thanks for replies. I went for a dedicated tomato feed in the end as advised (Tomorite). It makes sense to have a more regular and consistent feeding schedule throughout the time the plant fruits.

[Welsh Wizard]

Little point paying for industrially produced fertilizer when you produce several pints of the stuff per day that gets flushed away very wastefully. Urine is liquid gold! I collect it up and mix 1:3 with water, then apply to those hungry plants. Its natural, free, and prevents pollution and uses no nonrenewable fossil fuel to produce. Whats not to like? Purchasing fertilizer for the home gardener,while simulotaneously flushing it away is an irrational act. Minds seem accustomed to this madness via advertising though.

[Nicos]

We've used liquid seaweed which we bought from our local allotment society in the UK.

Not sure if it is quite the right one to use- but we've had fantastic crops in the past!

[Flummery]

Little point paying for industrially produced fertilizer when you produce several pints of the stuff per day that gets flushed away very wastefully. Urine is liquid gold! I collect it up and mix 1:3 with water, then apply to those hungry plants. Its natural, free, and prevents pollution and uses no nonrenewable fossil fuel to produce. Whats not to like? Purchasing fertilizer for the home gardener,while simulotaneously flushing it away is an irrational act. Minds seem accustomed to this madness via advertising though.

This reminds me of when I was about 6. The family next door were posh and had a greenhouse - no-one else in the area had such a luxury. The daughter of the house - a very grown up 8 year old, was showing it to me, together with its amazingly tall (when you're 6) tomato plants. She told me her Daddy watered them "with pee-water". Until I was about 15 I thought she'd meant "pea-water". I assumed they cooked their peas and tipped the water on the toms.

[bramble]

Flum, isn't innocence just great!

[haza1981]

Has anyone ever compared urine to tomatorite? which gets the best crop. Personally I struggle with the though my compost will have urine in nevermind directly feeding it to my toms. Wonder if it affects the taste

[Suky]

Has anyone ever compared urine to tomatorite? which gets the best crop. Personally I struggle with the though my compost will have urine in nevermind directly feeding it to my toms. Wonder if it affects the taste

Never used it on toms but do have a sainsburys tall flower bucket in the shed for when we get caught short in the garden. It then gets emptied in the compost bin. Not being male it's a little harder to pee straight in the compost bin