Transplanting and Fertilizer

[whoose]

How long after transplanting should I fertilize? I use Tomato Tone. I have a green house and my plants are all over 12 inches now after being in the ground for 2 weeks.

[kath]

The advice I got that's been working for me is to sprinkle the amount of fertilizer you're using in a circle at least 3" from the stem around the newly transplanted tomato, scratch it into the surface of the soil, cover with a bit of mulch, and water it in. This is inground planting, though. I've used Fertrell Lawn & Garden, TomatoTone, PlantTone, GardenTone, and others and have never noticed much difference.

[TomatoDon]

Regardless of size, I water them in as I plant them with a mild dilution of Miracle Grow and a little Super Thrive and have never had a problem. Mine seem to do better that way.

[PaulF]

Using a soil test as guide to treat the entire garden, I never put extra fertilizer on or around tomato plants during the transplant stage. If later in the year the plants look like they could use some help, that's when a little Bloom Booster liquid fertilizer is added at the base of the plant. Most years nothing extra is added.

[Tracydr]

I throw a handful of a mix of lime,alfalfa meal,granular molasses and kelp meal into each hole as I plant. When I spray for bugs I always use a small glut of fish emulsion in the mix. Seems to work pretty well.
If I can manage the army worms and stink bugs this year should have a really good year.
I tilled in some dotting gin compost in my new garden this year and it seems to be really helping.

[RayR]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

I throw a handful of a mix of lime,alfalfa meal,granular molasses and kelp meal into each hole as I plant. When I spray for bugs I always use a small glut of fish emulsion in the mix. Seems to work pretty well.
If I can manage the army worms and stink bugs this year should have a really good year.
I tilled in some dotting gin compost in my new garden this year and it seems to be really helping.

Dry organic fertilizers can take a few weeks for nutrients to start to become significantly plant available but a liquid organic fertilizer like fish hydrolysate or emulsion can speed things up because they have more nutrients in plant available ready form plus they also stimulate the microbes to multiply and break down the insoluble dry organic fertilizer components. I'm a big fan of fish hydrolysate, that's a regular part of my feeding from the seedling stage throughout the season.

[GreenThumbGal_07]

RayR: "Dry organic fertilizers can take a few weeks for nutrients to start to become significantly plant available but a liquid organic fertilizer like fish hydrolysate or emulsion can speed things up because they have more nutrients in plant available ready form plus they also stimulate the microbes to multiply and break down the insoluble dry organic fertilizer components. I'm a big fan of fish hydrolysate, that's a regular part of my feeding from the seedling stage throughout the season."

I used Down to Earth 4-6-2 dry fertilizer with the "scratch in" method a couple of weeks after transplanting, plus a generous watering-in with Alaska Fish Emulsion 5-1-1.

The plants set into brand-new potting soil were happy from the get-go (they had that "Yeah, baby!" look of happy transplants). The other two, put in old used potting soil from two years ago, just sort of sat there for a couple of weeks. After the fertilizer application, in just a few days they now have a "Hey! I'm waking up!" look to them; their leaves have straightened out a bit and they look a tiny bit more green. I think they'll be OK.

Dad always used fish emulsion on his tomatoes. It's tried and true stuff.

[zipcode]

Transplant time (or after) is the time to use that high P fertilizer, since that's when most is needed, for the development of roots.

[brownrexx]

My soil test tells me that I already have an excess of nutrients in my garden soil so I do not add fertilizer except for a small amount of feather meal for Nitrogen which I place in the hole at planting time.

I made the mistake of using bone meal one time and the skunks dug up my plants that night to get to the bone meal. They don't seem to care about feather meal.

[b54red]

I always prepare my beds and if I can wait a few weeks before setting out the plants. I like to leave them alone except for watering if wilting occurs for the first week or two to give the plant time to start sending out as many roots as possible. If they are starting to grow well and have a nice deep color then I wait til the first blossoms to fertilize with TTF. If they are pale and not growing well after 10 days or so then I will give them some Vegetable Formula from Urban Farms to green them up and get them growing then go to TTF when they start blooming. Once blooming and fruit setting gets started I will fertilize every 10 days or so with TTF and make sure they never get too dry as blossoms drop quickly when the soil is too dry down here.

Bill

[bigbubbacain]

Originally Posted by b54red

I will fertilize every 10 days or so with TTF and make sure they never get too dry as blossoms drop quickly when the soil is too dry down here.

Bill

Forgive me for asking, what is "TTF"?

[biscuitridge]

Texas tomato food

[greenthumbomaha]

I've always put granular fertilizer in the bottom of the planting hole and smushed it around a bit before inserting the transplant. Another poster (and some instructions) suggest mixing in the top 3 inches of soil.
Is there a difference? Have I been missing the mark all these years?

- Lisa

[clkeiper]

we sprinkle about 5#s (HyRbrix) down a 100' row and rake it in before planting. then we water in with a 12 45 10 transplant solution.

[eyolf]

I'm guessing TTF is "Tones' Tomato Food.

As regards fertility/ fertilizer, I won't reccomend my plan for folks with a longer season....

But I try to overfeed my babies at first, creating a zone about as big around and nearly as deep as a five-gallon pail of wonderfully rich, compost infused goodness in our gravelly glacial soils. This gets burned up, hopefully, by about August 1, leaving my babies hungry for nitrogen, but not for phos and potassium. Sensing the end of rampant vegetative growth, the bio alarm clock goes off and they work on making babies.

I would suspect that folks whose growing season doesn't jump on the bus and head south in September would be better served with a steadier diet that didn't literally eat up all the candy (nitrogen) by August.

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