Tomato 'Moneymaker'
Feeding tomatoes regularly will produce a large crop of sweet tasty fruit
Tomatoes need different nutrients at different times of their life and they are quite greedy feeders so will need a regular application of fertiliser.
You will need:
- Growmore
- Tomorite
- watering can with rose
When they are starting growing, before they first form tomatoes, they need a balanced fertiliser to ensure a nice healthy plant. We incorporated Growmore into the compost in the beds in the greenhouse before they were planted, or you can feed weekly with an organic liquid seaweed fertiliser.
Once they have set their first truss start feeding weekly with a high potash/phosphorous fertiliser, such as Tomorite. Make sure you mix it to the correct strength as if it is too strong it will burn the roots and seriously affect the plant, maybe even causing it to die. Keep feeding until the last tomatoes have started to ripen.
The tomatoes in the growbag are only relying on the added nutrients in the bag until the first truss forms then they will be fed Tomorite, as the plants in the greenhouse.
Don’t feed too high a nitrogen fertiliser early on as the resulting plant will be weak and lush and won’t be able to hold the weight of the tomatoes; the soft growth will also encourage aphids. Nitrogen encourages the formation of leafy growth and if it is producing a lot of foliage it won’t be producing tomatoes.
You can also water fortnightly with a weak solution of sugar in water which will produce sweeter tomatoes. Don’t make the solution too strong as this can sometimes attract ants.
Don't forget to keep pinching out the side shoots, if you don't do this you will end up with a huge leafy plant with very little fruit. Removing the side shoots concentrates the plant's energy into producing fruit. Once the bottom tomatoes have started to turn red remove the leaves from around the lower trusses so as much sunlight as possible reaches the fruit. Continue to do this up the plant as successive trusses start to ripen.
For more information on growing and using tomatoes just read the blog articles or watch the videos on our Youtube channel.
