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In order for the tomatoes to give a rich harvest, so that the tomatoes grow tasty and juicy, they need to be provided with proper care, which necessarily includes repeated feeding. The most fertile soil is depleted, gives its nutrients to plants, which means that they need to be replenished for the next crops. Tomatoes respond gratefully to fertilizers, they do not like to starve, they quickly select the elements they need for vegetation from the soil.
When to Feed Your Tomatoes
The beds for tomatoes are prepared in the fall, at the same time the main fertilization takes place. Usually in the fall, the vacated areas of the garden are well dug up, at the same time humus or rotted manure is introduced. Many people add mulch that has rotted over the season, it will have time to completely decompose in the ground before spring. It is best to do a soil analysis, and then add exactly those substances that it lacks for fertility. But most often gardeners simply fertilize the plot with mullein, chicken manure, compost.
In autumn, they saturate the soil with phosphorus and potassium, correcting too dense or acidic. So, clay or loamy soil would be nice to add peat and rotted sawdust. To reduce acidity, you need to add ground limestone, fluff (slaked lime) to it, dolomite flour will also help. Chalk and wood ash are considered lighter deoxidizers. If the beds for tomatoes were not fertilized in the fall, this is done in the spring, digging them up immediately before planting. In the spring, only rotted manure can be applied, not fresh.
The first time the tomatoes are fed 2 weeks after planting seedlings in open ground. Then they are fed at the stage of ovary formation. Foliar fertilization with a solution of boric acid is usually carried out at the flowering stage in order to stimulate the formation of tomato ovaries.
The condition of the soil determines the amount of fertilizing: someone almost every 2 weeks feeds their tomatoes on impoverished sandy loamy soil, while someone does not need to do this at all on fertile black soil.
The condition of the plants will tell you what measures to take, and whether it is necessary at all. If the seedlings grow slowly after planting it in open ground, the leaves turn pale, which means that the tomatoes feel a lack of nitrogen. An excess of nitrogen is characterized by too rapid growth of lush greenery, they say that the plant “fats”. This is also bad, because you can not wait for flowering and fruiting. With a lack of phosphorus, the leaves acquire a purple hue, and with an excess of it, they turn yellow and fall off, the ovaries may fall off. A lack of potassium leads to the drying of the plant, and its excess covers the leaves with matte spots.
When twisting the leaves, plants in the open field are given a dose of potassium and nitrogen, but exclude phosphates. Tomatoes need nutrition, but everything must be done wisely, if you overdo it with fertilizers, the plants will eagerly take them all from the ground, but the quality of the fruit may suffer from this. Experienced gardeners say that it is better to underfeed.
Fertilizers
Tomatoes will grow well and bear fruit abundantly in the open field (or greenhouse) if they receive certain macro- and microelements. Fertile soils contain them initially, and impoverished ones are specially fertilized.
The main among these elements are nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and calcium – they should be received most of all by plants, in particular tomatoes and peppers. Nitrogen is most needed for seedlings of tomatoes and peppers after planting in open ground and when buds are formed. Potassium promotes the formation of ovaries, regulates the humidity of tomatoes.
But perhaps the most important for the vegetation of the plant is phosphorus. Shortly after planting the seedlings, its deficiency will be indicated by the purple tint of the leaves. Calcium is necessary for plants for good development of roots and stems, to protect against diseases. But the balance between the amount of all these elements is very important. There are 2 main types of fertilizers – organic and mineral.
Organic
Organic fertilizers contain all of the above, as well as other elements, in addition to them, they also include organic substances of plant or animal origin, which properly affect the soil, making it fertile. Mullein, bird droppings, peat, silt, compost are all organic fertilizers. When they decompose, minerals are formed, and in the process of decomposition, carbon is also released, which is involved in photosynthesis.
For tomatoes and peppers, manure and chicken manure are very good organic top dressings. They are usually used in autumn. An excellent fertilizer for open ground is compost, it will make the soil lighter and add drainage to it. There is a certain set of organic fertilizers based on folk remedies, which are used with wonderful results after planting tomatoes and peppers. This is a yeast mash, which is taken only 10 g, stirred with 10 liters of water, a little sugar is added, after which tomatoes and peppers are poured over the resulting fermented liquid.
Mullein, manure, chicken manure are diluted with water, allowed to wander, and then the beds are fertilized with the resulting slurry, heavily diluted with water. Green tincture is made from weeds, cut grass, but best of all from nettles: pour crushed grass with water, stirring, insist for several days, after the solution brightens, it is diluted tenfold with water and watered with tomatoes. Green infusion of nettle, mash, and other folk remedies are successfully used to nourish plants after they are planted in open ground.
Mineral
Mineral fertilizers are salts that represent the elements necessary for plants in chemical compounds, most often each of them carries one element. They have their advantages and disadvantages, but they are easy to use – you can buy a package with instructions in the store and do everything that is written. With the help of ammonium sulfate, ammonium sulfate, urea, the soil is saturated with nitrogen, but at the same time it is acidified.
For tomatoes and peppers, this is unacceptable, which means that after applying these fertilizers, lime must be added to make the soil neutral. Urea is also an important source of nitrogen for tomatoes. Superphosphate is the most commonly used fertilizer, saturating the soil with phosphorus, which is then easily absorbed by the roots of tomatoes and peppers. Just do not let them touch – there should be a layer of earth between the roots and the superphosphate powder. 
Complex fertilizer recipe
Complex fertilizers differ in that they contain more than one element. They are usually double and triple – according to the number of these elements. When growing tomatoes in open ground, urea, nitroammophos, potassium monophosphate, and calcium nitrate are most often used. Gardeners praise “Kemira”, “Universal”, “Mortar”.
The beauty of complex fertilizers is that they represent several useful substances, but the balance between these substances is important. During planting seedlings, each well can be filled with such a complex fertilizer: half a kilogram of humus, a tablespoon of wood ash, a teaspoon of superphosphate. This is a proven composition that gives the plant all the substances necessary for its growth. Iodine is useful for plants – it protects them from many diseases, including fungal ones. A solution of iodine in the serum, they say, increases the number of fruits. There are gardeners who, guided only by their experience and knowledge of the soil of their site, make complex fertilizers themselves. This is dangerous for non-specialists – after such nutrition, plants can get too much of one, too little of another element, and the difference between them can provoke a failure to assimilate the third.
Instructions for proper feeding
The condition of the soil determines the amount of fertilizing carried out. Usually at least 3 times per season, plants receive a portion of nutrition, if necessary – more. Top dressing can be root and foliar. As a rule, they alternate.
Foliar is carried out until the moment when the fruits are poured. They give better results. For example, with a lack of nitrogen, which we were informed by pale withering leaves, foliar top dressing with urea will give them the right amount of nitrogen right for its intended purpose – the leaves and stems will consume it during spraying.
Plants should be sprayed early in the morning so that all the necessary elements are absorbed before nightfall, the temperature of the liquid cannot be less than +22 degrees. Root nutrition must be carried out carefully, each plant must receive nutrition. It is best to do this after watering. Experts never tire of repeating that it is better to underfeed tomatoes than to give them too much fertilizer.
Video “Feeding tomatoes”
In this video, you will see how to fertilize tomatoes and what needs to be done to get a rich, generous harvest.
