tomato plants - feed how often?

hi there, joined just now to ask a simple question, i have a mixture of 6 tomato plants, pepper plant and cucumber plant in my greenhouse, all plants are large and giving plenty fruits, at the moment i am using liquid feed- tomatorite (or whatever its called) i am feeding the tomato plants twice a week including the pepper and cucumber plant. is that enough?

cheers

 

Twice a week sounds like a lot to me - but nothing wrong with feeding at half-the-dose but twice-as-often, as JWK says.

I would not apply more [in total] than the instructions recommend - the plants won't use the extra (and probably will be 90% as happy on only half the recommended dose). I put the same tomato fertilizer on my Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers (and Melons and Aubergines) - same dose, same frequency - in case that is of any help.

When you next buy some more the bog-standard own-brand will do - I find that Tomorite is expensive compared to the other brands, when comparing how many diluted litres each brand will make.

 

Any cheaper brand name that you could recommend please Kristen?

 

Try Wilko's own or Tesco's own brand, both in red bottles - and looking strikingly similar to Tomorite - they're usually just labelled 'liquid tomato feed' - I've used both in the past. I'm guessing other supermarkets might possibly sell their own too, I'm just mentioning the ones I've used.

 

I'd look at the brand for the shop you are in as Fidgetsmum has said. I think it might also be worth looking at Chempak Tomato Fertilizer. Its granular rather than liquid, so you do have to dissolve it in a small amount of water first (I swish it around in the watering can using just a litre or two, and then fill up the can). Its fairly common for granular fertilizers to be cheaper - you are paying for water with liquid based fertilizers!

There is another brand that I have used but I've forgotten the name, it was probably Doff. But I really don't think it matters, they are all much-of-a-muchness, and you are only feeding a one-season-crop, so if it is missing some micro nutrients essential for a permanent crop it won't matter too much.

Similar with Miracle Gro - it has no Magnesium (I expect they assume 99% of people will use it for tubs with annual bedding plants), so if you use that on anything "permanent" it needs some Epsom Salts periodically. Tomatoes quite often outstrip the magnesium when they start fruiting and need Epsom Salts anyway, so that needs to be allowed for whatever product you choose. Sorry I'm waflling ...

If you can be bothered you need to do the sums when you are in the shop - if it is a 2500ml (2.5Litres) bottle and you need to mix 20 ml in 4.5 Litres of water and that costs £13.40 then the sums are:

£13.40 cost / (2500 ml bottle / 20 ml dose x 4.5 Litres) of finished diluted solution

13.40 / (2500 / 20 x 4.5) = 2.38p / Litre

If it has the "Makes XXX Litres" on the bottle that's easier - £Price / Makes litres

Just picking some prices off Amazon (bit difficult to deduce the amount that they dilute down to from the pictures, so you would need to check that pls) here's a comparison - cheapest first:

0.47p/L : Chempak Tomato Food 1.2kg makes 1200 Litres (??) for £5.59 (2010 Which? winner)

0.56p/L : Doff 1L Tomato Feed makes 466 Litres for £2.62 (RRP £5.00) (@ RRP = 1.1p/L)



2.2p/L : Maxicrop Tomato Fertiliser 1Litre for £7.28. Nothing online that I could find with dilution rate! only thing hinted at 30ml / 10L, so that would be 333 Litres



2.38p : Tomorite 2.5L Litres makes 562 Litres for £13.40 (smaller packs are relatively more expensive)

4p/L : New Horizon Tomato Food 1 Litres makes 110 Litres for £4.40 (2010 Which? winner)

Westland - couldn't find any dilution rates - just the number of "watering cans" which is a bit subjective!!

So by my calculation Tomorite is 5x more expensive than Chempak ...
Lots of people swear by Seaweed-based fertilizers, but all that tells me is that that works for them it needs a side-by-side test to be able to say "A works better than B".

The Which? test in 2010 did side-by-side (one grow bag per fertilizer type) and found that there were differences in yield between the various brands (although Chempak was both highest yielding and cheapest ), but unless you want absolute maximum yield [one school of thought is to keep irrigation at a low level to induce a smaller, but tastier, crop] I think choosing brand for maximum yield is not critical (the report doesn't say what the yield difference was, they just gave each a 1* to 5* rating for yield, so the differences might have been significant, or they might not ...)

http://www.tomatogrowing.co.uk/TomatoWhichReport.pdf

 

Thank you for your extremely comprehensive breakdown of costs. I am prepared to pay a bit more for a liquid based feed as I just pop out from the sink with an old cut off top of a 1litre milk bottle to pour into the window boxes. I usually give each box 2 litres am and pm with a tsp. of Tomorite in the bottle first. A bit sloppy but I don't think I'm making it too strong. I'm attracted to the Doff ratio and will look out for that brand next,
Jenny

 

5x as much?!!

Although ... if you only use "one bottle" per season it makes little odds I guess. But if you are using it on your Toms and also on all your flowering plants then its worth watching the cost as I expect you will be using more than one-bottle-per-season.

If you are doing it "from the sink" then using granular feed is just as easy, just start with warm water and it will dissolve instantly. The plants won't mind the warm water (provided it isn't HOT as such - hand-hot / 35C will be fine) as it will just warm the soil, which they will like anyway. The packets come with a little measuring spoon, so you just need to work out how much to put into your litre carton (probably only going to need a "pinch" !!)

But it does sound as though you are using more than you need to, if you use it every day, which might cause problems eventually, but certainly will be wasted otherwise - the plants won't take more than they need, and the rest will just leach out (or build up). Every other day would be plenty, I would have thought.

Here's how you calculate it:

If the Instructions say "20 ml in 4.5 Litres once a week" and you put, say, 2L on each box then you need about 10 ml per week (per box). If you water every day then that is only 1.4ml of Tomorite per day - you'll struggle to measure that little! So you could put 2.8ml on every other day, or 4.2ml every 3rd day ... but if you are anything like me you'll forget which day is the next feeding day.

So it might be better to make a dilute solution, and use that daily instead. For example, if you need 10ml per box per week then add 10ml to 60ml [i.e. making a total of 70ml] of water in a bottle (label it clearly!) and that's the ration "for the week", so you then need 10ml of that per day chucked in your carton (and if you forget a day just make sure that the diluted pot is all used up by the end of the week).

If you are going to make a "diluted solution" like that starting from granular will be easy - once you've done the maths - and save a few pennies

I've gone off into "detail mode" again ... sorry!

 

No worries Kristen
no worries....

 

I will reduce feed to once a day Doctor,
as prescribed,
Jenny

 

You going to prescribe them an Apple too? ... actually they'd prefer a Banana skin if you have one lying around.

 

Mine are ripening at an alarming rate Kristen. A bowl full am and a bowl full pm.
Guess what's on the dinner menu tonight?

 

That's a naughty rip - off!! I don'tknow of a 99p store near to me though John,