The best kind of fertilizer would be one that just adds the nutrients your plants need and nothing else. The reason being too much of an unneeded nutrient can sometimes block the uptake of something the plant does need.
What size containers are you using? If you use store bought potting soil to fill them I can imagine you are spending a small fortune just to fill the containers for 76+ plants. Does the soil you are using come pre-fertilized?
If you get a 55 gallon drum and mix up 50 gallons of liquid fertilizer at a time it doesn't really take that much time. Maybe you can rig something up that feeds the diluted fertilizer to your plants through the existing irrigation system you already made, if that's not practical you can dip the solution out of the drum with a bucket or watering can and water by hand. I think someone called that fertigation.

californian, I like your idea about mixing up 50 gallons I wish i would of thought of that. I have 2 55 gallon drums I collect rain water in i could use.

my entire setup was just over $200 total, including the soil. The soil was a little less than half of the amount.

I got a lot of buckets for free, and some for half price...and the rest I bought for $2.50

If I was going to mix something like miracle grow and pump it through the system I would basically have to buy some kind of a sump pump...either that or have to manually pour it...60 times every time I want to fertilize....

If there is something good like a pellet form that would be easier for me... something like time release...

What I am after is say, what make up of the fertilizer... say 10-10-10 or whatever is good....

Foliage Pro 9-3-6 with a supplent of ProTeKt 0-0-3 upon flower opening all the way through fruit production.

I only use "GSC Organic Tomato Fertilizer" from Gardener's Supply Company (on the web).

With 230-positive user feedback's, tomato grower's are having really good results using it.

You can mix compost and horse manure with your soil. But probably
it is too late now.
Then you could add some time release type commercial fertilizer to it to.
But a combination of top soil/potting soil with compost and horse manue
cannot be beaten. The reason being that they will release the nutrients
slowly and steadily. That it the whole idea about organic growing
when it comes to fertilizing. Nitrogen in inorganic fertilizers
will be water soluable and available all at once. The excess of it will be drained.
And also, if you have too much of it, your plants suckem all up, growing
lots of foliage or even burn.

I don't nessisarily 'have' to have organic... however the ideas though are getting the wheels turning.

My aim though isn't to having something I can certify as organic, but if it works I will do it.

I like miracle grow but if I can avoid carrying 100 gallons of water every few weeks I want to...

If you're asking which commercially sold, bagged fertilizer is perfect for tomatoes - it doesn't exist. You'll have to mix your own from multiple sources.

EG

alamo, check out previous threads from bingster and timmy1 as they grow in containers with manual/automated watering systems and timmy1 uses injectors to feed his plants during the water cycle. Ami

Posted by engineeredgarden 7, nw Alabama (My Page) on Thu, Apr 1, 10 at 9:58

If you're asking which commercially sold, bagged fertilizer is perfect for tomatoes - it doesn't exist. You'll have to mix your own from multiple sources.
EG
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Now we are getting somewhere. Please expand more.

What kind of soil and what kind of nutrients do tomatoes like the best under ideal soil conditions?

And what do I need to mix up to make that happen?

Alamo - I don't respond in this forum very often, because most of my input is hardly acknowledged by a few. But, I freely give information to others that might be needful, so here goes....

As taught to me by an agronomy professor at Auburn University, the main two major nutrients needed by tomatoes are (K)Potassium -(most important), and (N) Nitrogen. Phosphorous (P) is only needed in a small amount, and there's where all of the storebought mixtures usually deviate from perfect, because they generally have way too much.

I'll break down the proverbial "Tomato Tone", and tell you where both old and new formulations are not perfect...

(4-7-10) - not enough N, WAY too much P

(3-4-6) - not enough N, just a little too much P, needs a tad more K

According to Dr. Mitchell, the formulation would need to be around 3-1-4. Here's an organic combination to think about......

1 part alfalfa meal
1 part blood meal
2 parts kelp meal
(mix these by volume, not weight)

This will give you an NPK value of 4 - .5 - 5 , and with the addition of dolomitic limestone, the micronutrients will be sufficient, too.

Hope this is what you're looking for.

EG

>>>But a combination of top soil/potting soil with compost and horse manue cannot be beatenIn my opinion, it can, especially if you're growing in containers...

>>>Foliage Pro 9-3-6 with a supplent of ProTeKt 0-0-3 upon flower opening all the way through fruit production.By the above.

There's lots of useful information I'm looking forward to trying.

Alamo - I'm thinking of trying one of these fertilizer siphons some day. If you don't go with one of the other methods already suggested, is this something you could incorporate into your watering system?

Here is a link that might be useful: SYPHONJECT FERTILIZER SIPHON

EG

Is there a readily available substitute for the kelp meal and how much and how would you apply this? Would you apply it in the hole at planting or side dressing during the growing season?

Thanks,

Mark

Regarding the original question and specifically re: adding fertilizer to the potting mix, I used to add one handful of Epsom salts, one handful of bone meal and about 3/4 cup of 9-12-12 or 10-15-15 beginning halfway up the container, mixing it in as I went, and then top dress the mix with the other 1/4 cup of granulated fertilizer. This is for a 10-gallon nursery tub and growing one vine per tub. I do the planting holes in the raised beds the same way. I don't bother with time release cuz it's too expensive and I side dress at first fruit set anyway, plus another side dressing later in the season, like Labor Day, for indeterminates.

I used to buy the granulated fertilizer at Dollar General, Family Dollar or Walmart, and it used to be packaged for them by some company called Pennington, I believe. It used to come in 5-pound boxes for 2 bucks a box, then it came in 4 pound boxes for $2.50 a box. Now seems like you can't buy the stuff anymore. They got 3-pound bags of something or other at Dollar General this year for I think 5 bucks or so. Too dang high!

Point is, I used to do it on the cheap. But apparently, fertilizer has gonna get higher than giraffe bootay from now on. Oh well. Hey, we're talking tomatoes here, not grandchildren.

So, I ran across a 32-pound bag of 10-18-6 (with 1% iron) at Menards yesterday for 11.99 plus 7% tax, and figure that'll have to do this year for containers, raised beds and midseason side dressing. Might pick up some cheapo 10-10-10 if I run out of this stuff. I'm just not gonna pay what they're asking for Tomato-Toons or Epo-whatever or Organo-warm-&-fuzzy. That's crazy.

Bone meal's gone nuts too. Epsom salts you can still buy at Walmart for I think 3.28 per 2-pound bag. Used to be 2.88 a year or two ago.

I still use a bit of Miracle-Gro type fertilizer too, but now I buy Schultz tomato formula or Blooms Plus so as not to support the evil empire :::smile::: Oh wait a minute. Anyone know if Monsanto has snatched up Shultz yet?

So anyway, I figured 12 bucks plus tax for the 32-pound sack of 10-18-6 was better than 8 boxes of 9-12-12 or 10-15-15 at 2.50 a box anyway. Cheaper I mean. I would like to have a bit higher percentage of potassium, but I guess I can add wood ash. And that's free, by golly.

This 10-18-6 was formulated for turf starter, by the way. You know, to spread with seeds for starting up new grass lawns. I think it'll work fine for tomatoes when I add some wood ash and Epsom salts.

tworivers - To get the desired formulation, I don't know of a suitable substitute for the kelp meal. The kelp and blood can be ordered from here
http://homeharvest.com/orgfertespoma.htm

,and the alfalfa meal can be easily found at your local farmer's cooperative or feed store. A bag is about $6 - so it's really cheap.
I'm not sure if you're planting toms in the ground or swc, but the application rate would be 1 cup (of the blended mixture)per plant. I'd work it into the top 4" layer of soil around the plants, and make sure you mix it by volume - not weight.

EG

engineeredgarden, many thanks for the useful information you posted.

The best tomatoes I ever grew was when we had chickens (on organic feed + free-range). I often gave the plants a dose of chicken manure tea, very diluted and careful not to splatter and get any on leaves.

That year I also had the most beautiful rose flowers. Now the same rose bushes produce pretty flowers, but nothing compared to the extraordinarily beautiful flowers produced w/chicken-manure tea.

From my little experiment, I concluded that yields, being it flower color and size, fruit taste and kg/plant, are directly related to fertility of soil.

Same garden soil, same light, same weather, but chicken manure teas made a huge difference.

So when I read about a tomato variety that has devoted followers who swear by its delicious taste and other growers that call that variety poor tasting, soil fertility probably had a hand in the results.

In addition to the "Old" and "New" Tomato-tones, for 2010 I am trialing Fox Farms Tomato, E.B. Stone Vegetable, Osmocote, and two "bulk" Simplot BEST fertilizers. One is their 15-15-15 Triple Pro:

A 50 pound bag cost me $19.00 at a Landscape Supply company, which works out to be about $0.38 per pound.

Here is the Link:

http://www.simplot.com/turf/best/products.cfm?content=products&prodid=140&cat=1

I am also trialing their "All Seasons" 19-6-12 CRF on tomatoes, peppers and corn as well:

This is the same NPK as the Osmocote Plant version, but at only $0.60 per pound in the 50# bag.

Here is the Link:

http://www.simplot.com/turf/best/products.cfm?content=products&prodid=124&cat=13

My suggestion to you folks is to forget the normal Garden Big-Box stores and search out these Companies who supply Landscape Turf products for golf courses and ballparks. MUCH CHEAPER!!!

Raybo

Yeah, the 10-18-6 lawn turf starter fertilizer I bought from the garden center at Menards (a big box store) was 40c a pound!

Check the analysis, you need calcium to grow tomatoes.

timmy1,

Thanks re: calcium. I forgot to mention I only use SWCs and add 3 cups of Dolomite Lime in the 31 gallon Containers, along with the fertilizers.

hoosier, are you sure the NPK of the fertilizer you bought is right for vegetables? I would think the Triple Pro 15-15-15 at roughly the same price would be a better match, especially reflecting on the Study EG cited in a post above.

Raybo

ppod - you're quite welcome. I agree - the soil fertility makes all the difference in the world, and plants need varying quantities of all 16 nutrients.

I often hear friends at work say "my tomatoes didn't do good last year" - blaming the failure on variety of tomato, weather, and all kinds of crazy stuff. If only they had provided the ideal growing conditions for them, things would have been much different.
Anyone that just applies 13-13-13, 8-8-8, etc. each year doesn't realize that phosphorous gets bound up in the soil, and becomes excessive after repeated applications.

EG

timmy1,
Thanks re: calcium. I forgot to mention I only use SWCs and add 3 cups of Dolomite Lime in the 31 gallon Containers, along with the fertilizers.
_________________________________________________________

Ok if your source water has high pH. With the Dolomite your driving the pH of the media down and adding one heavy shot of calcium at first.

I prefer to add calcium nitrate in the nutrient solution so it's available as they grow. I use a pH down to acidify the nutrient solution.

Thanks EG. I have two 4'x 28' new raised beds this year so I think it's a good time to experiment with a few of the options in this thread.

Find out where the pros buy their fertilizer and buy there. Buying in these little retail containers with a fancy name is a very expensive way to buy fertilizer. Here are some prices I paid, the price may have gone up since then. Buying the pure stuff lets you apply just what your plants need.

80 pounds gypsum $4.55
50 pounds Ammonium Phosphate 16-20-0 $13.00
50 pounds potassium nitrate 13-0-46 $26.32
50 pounds urea 46-0-0 $13.00
50 pounds calcium nitrate 27-0-0 $12.38
50 pounds Ammonium Nitrate $13.00
Chelated Micronutrients $4.00

I also look for broken bags of fertilizer that they are selling cheap. For instance I got $80 worth of bone meal, superphosphate, vermiculite, and organic tomato growing fertilizer for $17, just put the contents in 5 gallon buckets and threw away the ripped bags. Less than ten percent of the contents were missing.

The cal nitrate should be 15.5-0-0-19

They make a 27-0-0?

timmy1, now that you jog my memeory that was actually something called CalNitro, which the guy said was a mixture of Calcium Nitrate and ammonium nitrate. I had actually wanted to buy some more ammonium nitrate but the salesman said it was illegal to sell pure ammonium nitrate anymore because it could be used for making fertilizer bombs if mixed with fuel oil, so it had to be diluted with something else.

BTW, if anyone just needs very small quantities good old Miracle Grow is fairly cheap, I just bought 6.25 pounds for $8.87 at Lowes. It dissolves in water and can be used for foliar feeding too, and has micronutrients in it. I definitely wouldn't buy fertilizer online, the shipping would probably be as much as the fertilizer.

That's quite an ambitious project you have planned there brings back memories of my container garden but not near the amount of plants as you will have. It was a lot of work mixing the soil and keeping it watered everyday sometimes twice a day if it was very hot out. If you can get some fish/kelp emulsion to mix with water and spray the leaves with it helps a lot or some homemade "manure tea". Wish you all the best in this endeavor.

A fertilizer injector could be the way to go. you can read more about how they work here:

Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizer injectors