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Should You Fertilize Tomato Plants?

Gardening Guide: The Everything Tomato Guide: All You Need to Know About Growing, Harvesting, Cooking, and Eating Delicious Tomatoes

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Should You Fertilize Tomato Plants?

By Bill Dugan, Editor and Publisher

Fertilizer pellets added to soil around tomato seedling

Tomatoes need lots of nutrients to properly grow, and fertilizers can provide the extra nutrients that tomatoes need to grow quickly and fully.

The use of tomato fertilizer depends on the current nutrient content of your soil. To be certain, the best thing is to have your soil tested. If your soil is correctly balanced or high in nitrogen, you should use a fertilizer that is slightly lower in nitrogen and higher in phosphorus, such as a 5-10-5 or a 5-10-10 mixed fertilizer. If your soil is lacking in nitrogen, use a balanced fertilizer like 8-8-8 or 10-10-10. If you can’t get a soil test, just go ahead and use higher phosphorus tomato plant fertilizer—unless you’ve experienced past problems with sickly tomato plants.

Too much nitrogen will give you lush, green tomato plants, but very little fruit. Using straight-up phosphorus, and not a complete, mixed fertilizer, can solve this problem by minimizing the effects of too much nitrogen in the soil.

Fertilize your tomatoes when you first plant them by mixing the tomato-plant fertilizer in with the soil at the bottom of the planting hole. Then place some unfertilized soil on top before placing the tomato plant into the planting hole. If raw fertilizer has direct contact with the plant roots, it can burn the tomato plant.

As soon as your tomato plants start bearing fruit, you can fertilize again right after watering the plants well. Failure to water the plants first can cause the plants to absorb too much fertilizer all at once and burn them. When fertilizing, stay at least 6 inches away from the base of the plant—fertilizer running off onto the stem can also burn your tomato plants.

Add light amounts of fertilizer every one to two weeks during the growing season until the first frost kills your plants.

Do you fertilize your tomato plants? What type of fertilizer do you use? How often do you fertilize? Please tell us exactly how and when you fertilize your tomato plants.

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balanced fertilizer, fertilizer, to water the plants, tomato fertilizer, tomatoes

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

  • Curator’s Corner
  • Introduction
  • Feature Articles

  • Types of Tomato Plants: Standard, Hybrid and Heirloom
  • Preventing Cross Pollination of Heirloom Tomatoes
  • Classifications of Tomato Plants: Determinate vs. Indeterminate
  • Varieties of Tomato Plants
  • Growing Tomatoes from Seeds, Cuttings, or Seedlings
  • Growing Tomatoes in Open Land, in Containers, or in Raised Beds
  • Soil Requirements for Growing Tomatoes
  • The Right Sunlight for Your Tomatoes
  • Should You Fertilize Tomato Plants?
  • How and When to Water Tomato Plants
  • Harvesting and Pruning your Tomatoes
  • Storing and Preserving your Tomatoes
  • How to Spot, Treat, and Prevent Tomato Diseases
  • What to Do About Pests that Can Harm Your Tomato Plants
  • The Right Way to Weed Your Tomato Garden
  • Tomato Rot: How to Identify, Treat, and Prevent Blossom-End Rot
  • Essential Tools and Equipment for Growing Tomatoes
  • Plant Profiles

  • Green Beefsteak Tomatoes
  • Red Beefsteak Tomatoes
  • San Marzano Tomatoes
  • Roma (or Plum) Tomatoes
  • Grape Tomatoes
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Recipes

  • Balsamic Bruschetta
  • Tomato Salsa
  • Authentic Italian Pizza Sauce
  • Fried Green Tomatoes
  • Stewed Tomatoes
  • Salsa Seafood Soup
  • Roasted Tomato Sauce
  • Cherry Tomato Salad
  • Additional Articles

  • Nutrition Facts about Tomatoes
  • Home Remedies & Health Benefits of Tomatoes
  • Resources about Tomatoes
  • Tomatoes Glossary
  • Related Articles

  • The Biggest Basil and Tomato Companion Planting Benefits
  • 7+ Perfect Plants for an Edible Front Porch Garden
  • The Best Vegetables to Grow in a Greenhouse
  • The Best Grow Lights for Tomatoes and Peppers
  • The 15 Best Beefsteak Tomatoes To Grow in 2023
  • How to Prune Tomato Plants, Peppers, Cucumbers and More
  • How to Stop Vegetable Blight from Ruining Tomatoes
  • Yellow Leaves on Tomato Plants? 5 Reasons and Remedies
  • 5 Tomato Canning Supplies to Preserve Sauce Longer
  • How to Ripen Tomatoes Quickly Three Ways
  • How to Kill Aphids on Tomato Plants with Stuff from Your Pantry
  • Gardening Equipment Every Tomato Gardener Needs
  • How to Grow Your Own Pizza Garden for the Best Pizza Parties
  • How to Avoid Tomato Blossom End Rot
  • How to Make Chicken Cacciatore in a Crock-Pot
  • The 5 Best Tomatoes for Salsa
  • The 10 Sweetest Tomatoes to Plant

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