I think that you are fine using ferts in containers because you have to keep up with a regular watering schedule. I believe that using ferts during a drought would cause problems. Container tomatoes need more fertilizers than those grown in the ground because water runs out of the holes, washing nutrients away. We have been having the same temps as you, and I water my container tomatoes twice a day.

I understand that tomatoes stop producing flowers when the temps reach around 90 degrees so I guess there will probably be a gap in production until the temps cool down.

Linda

Just an FYI but dry organic ferts like Tomato Tone are almost completely ineffective in a container. Dry organics require high populations of soil microorganisms to digest and convert them into plant usable forms and those simply do not exist in a container environment. And they are by nature slow release as well so you are looking at weeks before you see any effect, if there was one to see :-)) You are pretty much wasting your time if this is all you are applying.

Go instead with a liquid or fully water soluble synthetic fertilizer - Dyna Gro, Miracle Gro for Tomatoes, just plain MG.....even fish emulsion is a better choice but not ideal.

Gardengal48-

Thanks for the info. I've been using Tomato Tone since I started a few years ago. It was recommended by someone at my local agricultural store and also recommended on another garden forum. I guess this is another example of conflicting information. Perhaps it's just luck or maybe there was plenty of nutrients in my store bought potting mix (I use Black Gold Natural & Organic potting mix) but my tomato and bell pepper yields have been quite good. Last year I got about 28lbs of Purple Cherokee and almost 30lbs of Better Boys. Maybe I could have had higher yields by using a water soluble fertilizer but I've been pleased with the results so far. There's only two of us in the household so we ended up sharing a lot of tomatoes with our family/friends. I also have a few Earthboxes which also uses the organic granular fertilizer (Espoma Garden Food 5-10-5). You add 3 cups of granular fertilizer in a long strip at time of planting. In the earthboxes I get more eggplant, bell peppers and butternut squash than I know what to do with. Two years ago I grew a Sweet 100 in an Earthbox and I got about 800 tomatoes. Eventually the plant fell over on to the ground because the staking system I had in place wasn't prepared for how tall it would get. Once it fell over, it continued to grow on the ground through early October!

But I'll look into the water soluble fertilizer next year. Do you have any suggestions on fertilizing during a heat wave?

labradogs-

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I've been watering much more. Like you, about twice a day. Do you just fertilize like normal when it gets super hot out?

I fertilize at half strength once a week (if I remember).

I grow in 3 gallon containers using Pro-mix for veggies, and my Maglia Rosa's produce until frost :).

Linda

"But I'll look into the water soluble fertilizer next year."

So you intend to go the rest of the growing season without adequate and efficiently active fertilization? That doesn't sound very wise.

labradogs-

I like the half strength idea. Maybe I'll try that until things cool off a bit. Thank you.

gardengal48-

Well, like I said in my response to you, I've been using granular fertilizer successfully for a few years. I already started with it this year and I have a good amount left so I'll continue using it throughout the season. My plants are growing quite well, with many tomatoes on each one. I think the tomato tone is doing it's job and has been. My main concern right now is fertilizing during a long stretch of hot weather. Any input on that?

Perhaps next year I'll look at using a water soluble fertilizer to see if there's any difference between the two. With the Earthboxes, there's no choice but to use slow release granular fertilizer.

juddjonas, if you are growing in containers with typical bagged potting soil, it can't be doing its job!! It is just not scientifically possible. If you are using something other than commercially prepared potting soil you may be realizing some benefit but not its full potential.

There is a pretty reliable rule of thumb for dealing with ferts - organics only for inground plantings and only water soluble synthetics for any containers.

Well, I'm not sure then. I use the same potting mix in both my top watering containers and Earthboxes but with the earthboxes I use Espoma 5-10-5, not Tomato Tone. Many people grow in Earthboxes successfully using granular fertilizer and commercial potting mix.

Are you saying that I can get more than 800 sweet 100 tomatoes from one plant and over 30lbs of tomatoes in a four month growing season if I use water soluble synthetic fertilizer? And why wouldn't Earthbox recommend water soluble if it's a reliable rule of thumb to use water soluble synthetics for any containers?

@juddjonas, I also garden in Earthboxes and have been for about 10 years, using Promix HP, with Epsoma, usually Garden Tone. I use them year round, and they usually have worms in the mix, and I have no idea how they get there, but it makes me wonder if the boxes are as isolated from mother nature as I am led to believe. I bought some biological stuff (Big Foot Organic Mycorrhizal Granular Fungi Mycorrhizae Inoculant for Plant Root Growth Biochar, Worm Castings, Glomus Intaracides 4 oz) to add to the mix this year but forgot to add it!

I thought I was doing great, but a few years ago, I read I was wasting my time with organic fertilizer, freaked out, and started adding water soluble fert as well. I connected a fertigator to my eartbox AWS, and added some hydroponic nutes.

Whew!

I forgot to freak out this year, but there is still time!

It has been around 100 all week and will be 103 today.

In the mean time, things look okay.

These are from last year. Not much ripe here yet.

FWIW, I know I can be doing better, I do see signs of nutritional deficiencies, I do use liquid fert in other containers and I plan to use them on my tomatoes soon.

Good thing there are only two of us!

nanelle_gw-

Your plants look amazing! I really like to see other peoples gardens. So it sounds like there are some people out there who don't believe in organic fertilizer. I'll continue to use the Tomato Tone in my top watering containers and GardenTone in the Earthboxes. So you do use liquid fertilizer in your other containers? What are your thoughts on fertilizing during a long stretch of heat?

@juddjonas, thank you!

With temps 85 and above I wouldn't spray anything on the leaves, and I do worry when the water in my hose or jug of mixed fertilizer is too hot, but the main problem is it's too hot to get out there! Where I am it cools down a LOT in evening, so I do most things then, or in the morning.

I haven't worried about adding liquid fert to the reservoir, but its never too for ME to start worrying!

Last year with some occasional liquid fert "snacks".

I grow peppers in five gallon buckets and use liquid fert in those.

In Texas we are hoping for temperatures in the upper 80's to low 90's. If in a container just keep fertilizing as you have been. Just make sure you water enough to provide drainage out the holes so you do not have a salt build up.

I use 1 teaspoon of miracle gro per 2 gallons of water once a week and make sure I give them a good soaking. You could get by with more but sometimes you get real big plants.

I don't get what the controversy is about. They put slow release fertilizers in potting soil, which is supposed to last three months. I would say it doesn't last quite that long, but you can jolt a plant into growth with a high N fertilizer either factory made or organic, any time you want, (that's what fish emulsion is). The question is, should you? And if you should, when, under what conditions? I'm always cautious about adding a nitrogen fertilizer, since the growth it stimulates isn't necessarily good. Plants hopped up on N are deer candy, tend to attract bugs and aren't as resilient as those grown with lower N. High N stimulates weed growth. I've had the best results with a weak solution more frequently rather than a strong solution once a month or every two weeks. Seems to me that would more closely mimic the slow release of nutrients found in natural conditions. Finding the right ratio is tricky though, depends on the product.

I pinkmountain-

I’m using Tomato Tone which is NPK 3-4-6. . My container tomatoes all have 15-20 fruit hanging, some baseball size. They all seem to be doing well with the exception of a magnesium deficiency (from what I was told on another question I posted) based on how the lower leaves look. I’m probably over thinking everything with regards to fertilizing during a heat wave. Since I started gardening, every year I get some kind of garden anxiety but everything seems to turn out pretty good in the end. This is the third year using the same potting mix so I’m thinking I probably should stick to the same feeding schedule.

I've ben told anxiety is excitement without air! Maybe we should breathe.

The problem is that things like tomato tone (Espoma/organic fertilizers) need soil organisms to breaks it down so it becomes available to the plants to use. though they will still feed the plants, it''s not optimal. look at the back of the bag, you'll see water soluble and insoluble ingredients. the insoluble is the percent amount that isn't available until bacteria breaks it down over the coarse of weeks/months. most container mix is primarily peat, which means soil life (bacteria) is very low so most of the fertilizer insoluble content does nothing for the plant. i'd recommend you feed compost/tea in your pots in that case..

better yet, just use a organic water soluble fertilizer..miracle grow makes one called "performance organics" which works very well, it comes in a cardboard box like their traditional fertilizer and cost almost the same as their synthetic fertilizer.

I picked some of these a bit early, when the just started to color.

I understand my Epsoma is not working as well as fertiler could, and I'm going to fertilize with a liquid fert tommorrow, but some of these weigh more than a pound. This is Dwarf Wild Fred grown in an Earthbox with another dwarf.

My previous comment was about fertilizing the soil (not about doing foliar sprays). If you do a foliar spray, you should probably do it when the sun isn't out, especially if it's super hot outside. Otherwise, it could potentially burn the leaves (and that would stress the plant).

Mokinu- Thank you for the information. I really appreciate your input.

I will continue to fertilize like normal. My tomatoes are doing well although fruit set has been slow to non existent lately but I think that has to do with the extreme heat we've been having. But the existing tomatoes continue to get larger and some are ripening.

Stevie- Next year I will consider a water soluble fertilizer and see how that goes compared to the Tomato Tone.

I've been reading a lot about growing tomatoes lately and it seems that feeding tomatoes can be a controversial subject. Some successful growers only top dress with compost and get an abundance of tomatoes, others use a regular feeding of miracle grow, some use water soluble, others use granular slow release. I guess in the end you have to use what's right for your soil, climate and growing method.

"I guess in the end you have to use what's right for your soil, climate and growing method."

And that is the way with any sort of gardening. It is never a "one size fits all" situation.

Cool information Mokinu! Thanks for sharing.

Does anyone here do the ground up banana peel technique for adding low dose potassium? I haven't been able to get my compost bin up and running yet and I normally add the peels to the compost, but we eat a lot of bananas and I found some information on this while doing my own research about how to fertilize my tomatoes mid season. I don't normally do special tomato fertilizing but this year I planted a veritable tomato jungle so I know they are going to be feeding heavily.

Here's some of those tomatoes picked three days ago. They are almost all different varieties from the Dwarf tomato project.