Fertilizing Tomatoes

18 years ago

I bought a Patio Gardening Success Kit self watering container. It has the fertilizer strip and the plastic sheet on top. A week ago I wanted to add some TomatoTone, and I threw it in the watering hole and watered. Later it looked like the bottom leaves of the plants had some fertilizer burn, so I don't want to do that again. But I sure do have a lot more tomatoes on the vine than I did before. I was concerned that I had too much foliage and not enough fruit. Now it seems that the number of blossoms are down, but these are determinate plants so that may be why. My question is should I try to add TomatoTone to the soil under the plastic, or just let the fertilizer strip do it's thing? I looked at their website and there is nothing about it being water soluble.

I am growing a Patio and a Celebrity in this box. I grew a Patio last year in my garden. This one is twice as big and the fruit is twice as big! Last year they were the size of large Cherry tomatoes, this year more like salad size. Last year I couldn't tend the garden for the month of August due to an injury so maybe they would have been bigger if they'd had more TLC and Fertilizer, but it's probably more to do with the SWC.

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Comments (3)

justaguy2
18 years ago
Tomato Tone is not a fertilizer intended to be mixed with water. It needs to be in the potting mix to disperse gradually. You may get some nutrient benefit from adding it to the water, but most of it will just make a sediment on the bottom of the water reservoir.

I wouldn't suggest adding any more fertilizer to the potting mix if you already added the maker's recommended fertilizer and amount. At this stage it sounds like your plants are reducing their production and for many determinates this is normal and more fertilizer isn't likely to change anything.

If you do want to play around with fertilizers just for the heck of it your most rapid plant response is going to come from adding a water soluble fertilizer to the water reservoir. Water soluble fertilizers are generally either liquids or powders intended to be mixed with water before use. The dry, granular stuff is not effective mixed in water.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
18 years ago
Adding to what JaG said: I can't imagine that Tomato-Tone would be effective used as the fertilizer for the 'strip' in SWCs either. Soulble fertilizers diffuse throughout the soil trying to create an equilibrium (isotonicity) throughout the soil solution, but insoluble fertilizers are incapable of performing in such a manner.

Al
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msaunt
Original Author
18 years ago
I think the Tomato-Tone is laying in the bottom and mixing to a degree, because the Patio tomato is getting worse. The leaves are getting dry and yellow, as if they are burned, and it's moving up from the bottom. I'll have to see if I can reach in there and wipe out the reservoir. My alternative would be to top water heavily, I guess, and try to flush it out the bottom. Unfortunately, I can't just tip out 4 gallons of dirty water at 8 stories up! Hmm, big storm cloud just went through. If I just waited and dumped it during a thunderstorm, maybe they wouldn't notice??? nah...

I'll spray the rest of it with some neem oil, but I don't think this is powdery mildew. The other tomato is not this bad. It's bigger, maybe its size allows it to handle the extra better.

Thanks!