Tomato Feeding Methods by Charles Maisey

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Feeding Tomatoes

Feeding commences when the Tomatoes have formed to the size of a pea on the first truss.

Feeding Tomatoes is the same for general kitchen use and exhibition.

Cultivation of Tomatoes

The method I prefer has been perfected over the years by trial and error, and I now have a system the plants respond to in a big way. The first month they are fed on a special feed known as ‘Bumper Crop 9-9-40-Mg-Te. Supplied by N.A.Kays Horticultural Products.

Warning! Do not use a full strength solution once a week, but use half strength every time you water.

After the first month, things change in a big way. Your plants are now introduced to three extra feeds, making four in all.

The three extra feeds are ‘Nettle Brew’. This made by filling a water butt a quarter full of nettles, then filling with water and leaving it to ferment for fourteen days. Put through a fine sieve when you take it out of the water butt and feed the colour of weak tea.

Your next feed is Liquid Sheep’s Manure. This is collected and placed in a Hessian sack and into a drum of water and left to stand for a few days and fed the same as Nettle Brew.

The final feed is soot water. This is also placed in a sack and immersed in a tank of water.

The Final Feed is the most difficult one as there are not many coal fires around these days, but you can only try. If not you will have to make do with the other three. Soot however does bring out the lovely rich colour in Tomatoes as it does in Exhibition Peas.

Feed all these the colour of weak tea. It works out a gallon and a half of water to half a gallon of mixture. Feed all of these one after the other and start all over again. The plants then get everything they need until the fruits start to ripen.

To get your plants to stay thick in the stem and all the way to the top you have to top dress your tomato bed with rotten manure. If grown in rings, place on Grow bags. Your compost will have sunk down into the ring so top-up with fresh compost which will encourage root formation further up the stem.

Feed right through the season and ‘Good Luck’

This article originally appeared in the Members Bulletin, the journal of the National Vegetable Society, which is sent quarterly to members. You can Join the National Vegetable Society here

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