when do you start liquid fertilising?

tomato-joy · « **on:** May 05, 2007, 10:07 »

Most of my seedlings are a few inches high, my tomatoes about 6 - 9 inches high. Do I need to give them occasional nitrate-high feed to encourage leaf growth? Or is it too early for that?

thanks.

richyrich7 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 05, 2007, 10:55 »

NO don't feed your tom's you'll just get leaves and no fruit. Wait till you have moved them to their final planting postion and the 1st truss has fromed then feed with tomorite or equivalent organic fert, which is high in Potash also try feeding with liquid sea weed for trace elements, Noshed had a thread a couple of days ago about it.

Depending on what your other seedling are depends on what to feed them, treat anytihng fruiting like tom's as a general rule, if your eating the leaves then it's in deed nitrogen they need, but not really at small seedling level, what medium have you planted in ? multi-purp compost will have enough nutrient for approx 6 week or so anyway.

tomato-joy · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2007, 12:03 »

that's comprehensive advice - exactly what I (first time gardener) needed.

I'll wait till fruits form before feeding.

John · « **Reply #3 on:** May 05, 2007, 12:33 »

Perfect advice there Rich.

Only thing I would add is to keep tomatoes consistently watered. Letting them dry out and then soaking them results in split skins and greenback.

Shelle · « **Reply #4 on:** May 06, 2007, 17:52 »

Does that advice include chillis and peppers? I have not yet put them into their final pots yet, hoping to do so soon, and was planning on feeding them this weekend. Should I not?

Also what size should the final pots be? I was planning on 4 inch pots, is that too small for final ones? Will be indoors mostly I think as too cold up here (?). To be truthful, I have no idea what I am doing!

They are at present growing nice and steadily on my windowsill, but not really any rom to go outside (I have no greenhouse). Thought it may be ok to stay indoors on windowsill?

How big will they get if I do that?

Sorry!

richyrich7 · « **Reply #5 on:** May 06, 2007, 19:58 »

Never grown chilli's b4 but you should be OK treating most fruiting plants this way.

As for your pot size I think you need to be looking a little larger probably around 10", My peppers usually get around a 12" - 18" tall though on a window sill they may get a little larger.

Shelle · « **Reply #6 on:** May 06, 2007, 20:21 »

Ooops! Okey dokes, will look at getting some larger pots!

Thanks for that advice.

John · « **Reply #7 on:** May 06, 2007, 21:49 »

Morrisons supermarkets sell flower buckets at 8 for 99p. Drill some holes in the bottom and you've got some perfect large pots.

richyrich7 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 06, 2007, 22:47 »

Quote from: "john"

Morrisons supermarkets sell flower buckets at 8 for 99p. Drill some holes in the bottom and you've got some perfect large pots.

Good idea John, I have some of those my son bought home I was playing with the idea of drilling holes 1 1/2" up the side and not in the bottom filling the bottom of the pot with polystrene bits and it acting like a water reserve. What do you think ?

shaun · « **Reply #9 on:** May 06, 2007, 22:53 »

i think its better to burn the holes into the bucket with a hot spike/poker.i'm sure we have been down this road before,
was working on a building site a few weeks ago and the gardeners tunrned up to plant up the show house,they must have had a 100 plants in all sizes of pots and tubs,got chatting to them and they gave me all the empty pots and tubs

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