If you’re going to the trouble of growing your own tomatoes at home it is obvious that you are interested in getting the best flavors from your endeavors, otherwise you would buy them from the greengrocer’s. The best flavors come from the healthiest plants and the healthiest plants are those which are fed and watered regularly. Just like us!
So, while we know that we have to feed our plants, we need to know what to feed them. Organic fertilizers are the best. That is, decomposed plant material which you can obtain from your compost heap. You do have one, don’t you?? What better way to get nature working for you than to have your own compost heap in the back yard with all those hard working worms and other soil organisms converting your vegetable scraps into plant food! In addition, you can use animal manure: cow, horse or sheep. However, the problem with these is that they are usually contaminated with seeds after being collected from the paddock. One way to overcome this is to make liquid manure from your animals’ droppings. My father used to use a 44 gallon drum with plenty of manure in the bottom and topped up with water. Give it a good stir before use and it’s ready for the watering can to distribute.
All good fertilizers, both organic and synthetic (man made), should have the correct mix of the three essential elements, N (nitrogen), P (phosphorus) and K (potassium). If you are using a commercial product it will be balanced in the correct ratios for your tomatoes and, indeed, any other vegetable crops you are growing. If you are time poor this is the best way to ensure that your tomatoes are getting a balanced diet. As these commercial fertilizers are dry they need to be watered in, so as soon as you spread it give it a good water to ensure the fertilizer gets down to the plant roots. If it is a synthetic fertilizer, be careful not to place it too close to the plant or in too great a concentration as it can burn the roots. About 6 to 9” away is adequate.
These days, with so many garden products on the market, it is easy to buy organic fertilizers. I use a liquid seaweed based fertilizer now which has all the essential elements plus trace elements together with a liquid fish emulsion which has added calcium, important in controlling blossom end rot, and all the necessary trace elements, such as: copper, iron, cobalt, boron, manganese, magnesium, zinc and sulfur. The plants love it! If you’re growing in an open garden situation, an application every couple of weeks should be adequate during the growing season but if you’re growing in pots, the plants will soon exhaust the nutrients in the soil so an application every week is beneficial. If you add the decomposed vegetable matter from your compost heap you are covering all bases and you should harvest many delicious, fresh fruit!
