The Best Fertilizer For Tomatoes - Helping You Make The Best Choice, Easily

Choosing the Best Fertilizer for Tomatoes

Tomatoes grown in a garden at home are often more flavorful than those that you find at the stores. If you are new to gardening, you might have a lot of questions about growing tomatoes, including what is the best fertilizer for tomatoes? There are several that you can choose from, and each of them have both benefits and drawbacks when it comes to using them.

Before you choose a fertilizer for your tomatoes, it is important to test your soil to see what nutrients it might be lacking in. If your garden’s soil does not have enough phosphorus or potassium, then you will need to add a complete fertilizer to your garden while you are tilling the ground to get it ready for your seeds.

Ground that already has the right balance of these nutrients would benefit from a periodic addition of fertilizer as your tomatoes grow to keep the ground fertile even while your plants draw nutrients from the soil.

Once you see what nutrients are missing from your soil, you need to make sure that the fertilizer you choose does not have a lot of nitrogen. Nitrogen in your fertilizer will encourage the growth of stems and leaves but not of flowers and fruit. Too much nitrogen can even cause the flowers of your tomato plant to fall off of their stems before they can even produce any fruit.

Caution: Using too much fertilizer or the wrong kind of fertilizer can cause your tomato plants to become damaged or even die. 

Fertilizing Tomatoes Throughout Their Growth Cycle

Tomatoes have different nutrient needs throughout their growth, so they may require different types of fertilizer. Before you start choosing a fertilizer, it is important to understand the way fertilizers are rated. The NPK--or Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium--ratings tell you how much of each element the fertilizer contains.

This is important because you want to make sure that you balance your soil out with the nutrients that it is missing without overdoing the ones that are already present. The best kind of fertilizer for tomatoes at each stage of growth will replace needed nutrients to promote the growth of fruit.

When you are getting ready to plant your tomatoes, it is important to supplement your soil with a fertilizer rich in phosphorus. This will help to encourage good, strong root growth for your tomatoes. As with most plants, the root system is important for delivering nutrients to the rest of the plant and for keeping the plant stable as it grows.

Established tomato plants need fertilizer with a good source of potassium. This will help to encourage growth and help the tomato to establish fruit. Wood ashes from a fireplace are a good source of potassium for tomatoes.

While nitrogen is important for tomato growth, most of the time it does not need to be the main component in your fertilizer. It will promote the growth of the foliage around your tomatoes, but not of the fruit itself.

Warning: Do not use ammonia based fertilizers on your tomatoes. These fertilizers are thought to be among the causes of a serious tomato disease called blossom end rot.

Fertilizer Recommendations For Healthy Tomato Plants

Before you plant your tomatoes, the soil needs to be prepared with a combination of well balanced fertilizer. Unless your soil is heavier in one nutrient than in the others, an 8-8-8 combination (that is, one with equal amounts of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus by weight) is ideal.

Throughout the growth of your tomatoes, organic compost is the best fertilizer for tomatoes. You can mix compost three or six inches into the soil with a garden fork or hoe. It is not necessary to mix fertilizer any deeper than that as your tomatoes roots will not go any deeper than that.

You can continue using compost as a side dressing throughout the growing season. Just be sure to keep it at least four to six inches away from the stem of the plant in order to prevent fertilizer burn.

The best time to reapply fertilizer to your tomatoes is when the first fruits are still green and have reached about one third of their full size. You should also reapply fertilizer after you harvest your tomatoes. If you do not use compost as your main fertilizer, make sure that your fertilizer contains enough potassium to encourage your fruit to continue strong growth.

Different climates may require different levels of nutrients for growing tomatoes. Tomatoes in a cooler climate may need a fertilizer with a heavier phosphorus content than a fertilizer that might be used in a warmer climate. So, when preparing the soil, it may be helpful to substitute a 10-52-17 blend of fertilizer for the 8-8-8 mix.

The best fertilizer for tomatoes will help to promote healthy growth throughout the season. Adding the right amounts of fertilizer to the soil while your tomatoes grow is a vital part of keeping both the soil and your plants healthy. Compost is highly recommended as a fertilizer because it has the right combination of nutrients to promote good soil health. It also provides microbes that are beneficial to your plant which will help it fight off diseases.

Caution: Improper use of fertilizer can leave your tomato plants more susceptible to insect infestations and disease. Make sure that you are applying the right fertilizer at the right times for your plants.

Other Tomato Growing Tips

Proper watering is another important part of growing tomatoes. Tomatoes that do not receive adequate water throughout their growth can end up with cracks from going through periods of dryness followed by rushed, large quantities of water. While many people water their gardens with a quick, daily sprinkle, for tomatoes it is a better idea to water them deeply twice a week (unless it rains).

Blossom end rot is another problem linked to uneven watering. It is a sign that the tomatoes have gone through days when the soil is too dry followed by times when the soil is overwatered, which led to calcium deficiencies. Most fertilizers for tomatoes have calcium, but it is also important to make sure that you water your plants properly to help them use this calcium.

If your plants develop a disease that leads to wilting or yellow leaves, it is important to remove these plants from your garden so that they do not infect the other plants. Make sure that you put them in the landscape trash instead of the compost pile so that they do not end up getting recycled into soil that will hold good plants.

You should also not reuse any potting soil that once held a diseased tomato plant. Making sure not to overwater your plants can prevent fungus related diseases. Fungicides can also help with prevention, but will not kill an active fungal infection.

Tomato Fertilizing Chart

Fertilizer type	When to Use	Notes
Compost	Throughout the growing season	Compost can be used to prepare the soil and also as a side dressing throughout the season. Be sure to keep side dressing away from the stems to prevent fertilizer burn.
Store bought fertilizer	Before planting and when the fruits begin to appear; also after you harvest the crop.	Make sure that your fertilizer has the right balance of nutrients for your soil; nitrogen heavy fertilizers will not promote fruit growth.
Ammonia based fertilizer	Never	Ammonia based fertilizers have been linked to blossom end rot in tomatoes and should be avoided.