[adri123]

Hi

For next season I'd like to get better results from the toms.  This year we had loads of vegetative growth and I wonder if the plants might have been encouraged better towards fruiting.

If there are any toms experts out there with tips on higher yields....?

TIA

Adri

[Kristen]

Less Nitrogen?

I don't feed my plants at all (i.e. they only get whatever basic feed is container in the potting/multi-purpose compost they are planted in & potted-on with) until the first truss has set, and thereafter they only get Tomato feed (High in Potash)

[sunshineband]

Less Nitrogen?

I don't feed my plants at all (i.e. they only get whatever basic feed is container in the potting/multi-purpose compost they are planted in & potted-on with) until the first truss has set, and thereafter they only get Tomato feed (High in Potash)

That may well be the case 

I don't feed mine until they show me some flowers either.

[adri]

Seems there's lots of info about 'generative' vs 'vegetative' growth out there...all rather confusing but I'll read and see where it gets me...

Too much nitrogen sounds right and somehow wrong at the same time...is it that it's not a leafy spinachy type of plant and therefore what would suit spinach/cabbage/greens isn't going to suit toms and other fruiting plants?  That would mean I have to prepare the beds in the Poly very differently for each intended crop...

oooer...

[Growster...]

We found that happened when we grew toms in bags of seed compost instead of gro-bags. Nitrogen = leafy growth.

As most of us say here, just get 'em going in whatever soil and compost mix, but only give them regular Tomorite or similar, and you'll be fine!

[adri]

This year the toms were grown in the raised beds in the PT.  So if that meant they were getting too much nitrogen would they have fared better in large pots of nitrogen deficient multipurpose compost and then fed high potash tomorite when flowering started?

Thought I had the toms cracked when they grew so well but I ended up fighting triffids and whilst there were plenty of fruit perhaps there could have been more IF they weren't grown in the raised beds...

oooer...again...

[mumofstig]

Watering well - flooding the beds several times, should wash some of the available Nitrogen away/further down into the soil.......then only add a Potassium (K) rich feed once fruiting starts

[Growster...]

Adri, you make a  very good point here!

We usually grow the last couple of dozen toms down at the patch, and string them up when we have time. They do get fed, but with liquid manure, and Tomorite when I remember, but other than a squirt of Bordeaux, they get no real TLC at all!

Result? Pounds upon pounds of fruit, some with funny sizes and shapes but with superb flavour - well Alicante never broke records did they, but wow, what a lot for the freezer!

We grow them up the daughters' tubular climbing frame - it's been with us for over thirty years now...

[adri]

Thanks for all the help!!  Very Kind!

@Mum.  I see your advice on flooding the beds and watering to 'wash out' some of the nitrogen and it seems shocking to me.  I'd always thought/read that the more nitrogen you get into the soil the better.  But now that I've seen some of the answers to this thread I see that there seem to be those plants that we want to have lots of nitrogen (leafy) and those (fruiting...including toms it seems) that we want on a 'poorer' soil to then dupe them into heavier yields.

Does that sound about right?

Thanks and thanks again.  I'm not afraid to show my ignorance vast though it is!!!

[Growster...]

Not ignorance at all, Adri!

I always have to check out here what does what, and won't even try to go and sow or plant something without making sure that I'm doing it right, even though I've done the same thing for the last forty years...

There are more people here than anywhere, who want to help, and I'm so glad there are!

[jezza]

hi you need a 11-11-27 fertilizer after the first truss has set ,something like tomorite or phostrogen   jezza

[Kristen]

If you have a relatively Nitrogen rich soil then perhaps feed with a pure Potash feed, instead of a tomato one (which usually has 2x Potash to Nitrogen & Phosphate).

Note that Tomorite is relatively expensive, compared to other Brand X tomato fertilisers, or granular ones (rather than liquid ones).  Cheapest I have found is Chempak, although I can't see an NPK ratio on T&M's website:

http://search.thompson-morgan.com/search#w=chempak

For anyone with only a few plants the cost difference is probably not significant.

[Kristen]

Found an NPK for Chempak High Potash feed of 15-15-30 plus 7 trace elements - so basically the same ratio as Tomato fertilisers.

Sulphate of Potash has an NPK of around 0:0:50, so would not provide any Nitrogen.

[sunshineband]

I use Sulphate of Potash to feed my soft fruit and fruit trees too, as well as a dose of the leeks and onions, where I do not want soft lush green growth either.

Potassium is essential for the plant to make seeds, prefaced of course by flowers and then fruit. If you remember that, you can't go far wrong.

Manure I consider as much a soil conditioner as a source of Nitrogen as it is of variable make up, and tomatoes do thrive on soils where water is supplied to the plant at a steady rate: organic matter in the soil supports this. It is all about balance imho 

[adri]

I think having some sulphate of potash sounds a good idea.

Where do you get it at a decent price?

Adri