Content
The flowering period is one of the most important and responsible when growing tomatoes. If before this it was extremely important for tomatoes to maintain a suitable temperature regime and provide the plants with the maximum possible illumination, then after the first buds appear, proper and timely feeding of tomato bushes comes to the fore. Of course, it was possible to feed tomatoes up to this point, but it was fertilizing tomatoes during flowering is decisive for obtaining a plentiful, tasty and healthy harvest.
What do tomatoes need during this period?
By the time the first flower cluster forms, tomatoes, as a rule, have already acquired 6-8 pairs of true leaves and nitrogen as a nutrient recedes into the background.
This may be the case if the seedlings were purchased on the market and were carelessly cared for. But in a normal situation, at the flowering stage, tomatoes most need phosphorus and potassium, as well as in numerous meso- and microelements such as calcium, magnesium, iron, boron, sulfur and others.
Mineral fertilizers
Currently, the choice of preparations for feeding tomatoes during the flowering period is so diverse that it is not surprising for even experienced gardeners to get confused. What mineral fertilizers make sense to use for tomatoes at the flowering stage?
Since tomatoes are most affected by a lack of phosphorus and potassium, then you can use special fertilizers containing these elements. These include:
- simple or granular superphosphate (15 - 19% phosphorus);
- double superphosphate (46 - 50% phosphorus);
- potassium salt (30 - 40% potassium);
- potassium chloride (52 – 60% potassium);
- potassium sulfate (45 - 50% potassium).
To combine two elements in one fertilizer, you can use monopotassium phosphate. This water-soluble fertilizer contains about 50% phosphorus and 33% potassium. For 10 liters of water you need to use 8-15 grams of the drug. This amount is enough to water one square meter of tomato beds.
If your tomato bushes do not have an excess of nitrogen, then it is quite possible to use various complex fertilizers. They are convenient because all the elements are in them in a proportion and form specially selected for tomatoes. You just need to dilute the amount of fertilizer required according to the instructions in water and pour it over the tomatoes. In addition, feeding tomatoes during flowering should also take into account the introduction of various microelements, so the more of them there are in the selected complex fertilizer, the better.
Listed below are the main most suitable complex fertilizers that can be used for flowering tomatoes with their characteristics.
- Kemira Lux – a completely water-soluble fertilizer that contains: nitrogen-16%, phosphorus-20%, potassium-27%, iron-0.1%, as well as boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum and zinc. Additional fertilizing with preparations containing calcium, for example, wood ash, is required.
- Station wagon — chlorine-free granular fertilizer with a high content of humic substances. Humic substances can improve the composition of the soil under plants and increase the absorption of essential nutrients. Fertilizer composition: nitrogen-7%, phosphorus-7%, potassium-8%, humic compounds-3.2%, magnesium-1.5%, sulfur-3.8%, as well as iron, zinc, boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum. It is also necessary to add calcium fertilizers. Not suitable for foliar feeding.
- Mortar – a water-soluble fertilizer, very similar in action and composition to Kemira-lux.
- Effecton – complex fertilizer of organic origin, obtained by active composting of peat, with the addition of shale ash and phosphate rock. If you do not have the opportunity to prepare such fertilizer on your site with your own hands, then this will be an excellent alternative to a homemade green infusion. Contains all the necessary nutritional elements for feeding tomatoes, including in the greenhouse.
- Senor Tomato – a fertilizer specially designed for feeding tomatoes and other nightshades. Includes nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in a ratio of 1:4:2. There are no trace elements, but it also contains humic substances and Azotbacter bacteria.The latter enrich the soil with beneficial microorganisms and, in collaboration with humic acids, improve its nutritional characteristics. Not suitable for foliar feeding.
You can use any other complex fertilizers that you can find on sale in your region.
It is only important to remember that for feeding tomatoes during the flowering period:
- The phosphorus and potassium content should significantly exceed the nitrogen content;
- The presence of microelements such as calcium, magnesium, boron, iron and sulfur is highly desirable in fertilizers. The remaining elements are of lesser importance;
- It is desirable that the fertilizer contains humates or humic acids;
- It is undesirable for the fertilizer to contain chlorine and its components.
Organic fertilizers and folk remedies
Of course, mineral fertilizers are quite convenient to use and are traditional when feeding tomatoes, but recently more and more attention has been paid to environmentally friendly food products. And tomatoes grown using mineral fertilizers cannot always be called environmentally friendly. More and more gardeners are focusing on the use of natural fertilizers when growing tomatoes. In addition, they have an additional advantage - many of them can be used not only to feed tomatoes, but also to protect them from diseases, in particular from late blight. This disease is a real problem for tomatoes, especially in cool and rainy summers, so the use of natural remedies to help preserve tomatoes from late blight is very important.
Humates
These fertilizers of organic origin appeared relatively recently, but have already managed to conquer many. They improve soil structure and promote the development of beneficial microflora. By preserving and increasing humus, they allow you to get a tomato harvest even on the poorest soils. You can use GUMI Kuznetsov (2 tablespoons diluted in 10 liters of water). Also, to fertilize flowering tomatoes you can use Gumat+7, Gumat-80, Gumat-Universal, Lignohumate.
Yeast
Feeding tomatoes with yeast capable of performing miracles. Even those plants that, for one reason or another, were stunted in growth, acquire a healthy appearance and begin to actively set fruit after using yeast feeding. It is the flowering period that is most favorable for carrying out this feeding, since you should not abuse it either - yeast is more of a powerful stimulator of growth and development for tomatoes than a nutrient solution. Their action usually lasts for a long time - from two to four weeks, depending on the presence of organic matter in the soil.
The easiest way to prepare a yeast solution for feeding tomatoes is as follows: dissolve 100 grams of fresh yeast in one liter of warm water, let it brew for several hours and bring the solution to a volume of 10 liters. The resulting amount is enough to process approximately 10 - 20 tomato bushes using the root watering method. Such a large discrepancy in numbers is caused by the difference in watering tomato bushes at the beginning of flowering and during fruit set. At the beginning of flowering, 0.5 liters of yeast solution per tomato bush is enough, and during the second feeding, it is advisable to pour about one liter of fertilizer under each bush.
Ash
Not only wood ash, but also straw and peat ash is a rich source of elements necessary for tomato plants, primarily calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium and others. Therefore, its use at the flowering stage of tomatoes is absolutely necessary. Moreover, it is almost impossible to overfeed it, and you can feed it in different ways:
- sprinkle it on the ground near the tomato bushes in an amount of about a tablespoon per bush every two weeks.
- prepare a solution for root feeding and water the tomatoes with it twice a month.
- manufacture foliar feeding for tomatoes from ash. It will also serve as additional protection against insect pests.
The solution for root feeding is prepared quite simply - you need to stir 100 g of ash in 10 liters of water. When feeding, the solution must be constantly stirred, since ash will tend to sink to the bottom all the time. To water one tomato bush, half a liter of ash solution is enough.
An infusion for foliar feeding is a little more complicated to prepare. First, 300 g of well-sifted ash is dissolved in three liters of water, and the mixture is boiled for 30 minutes. Then it is dissolved in 10 liters of water, a little laundry soap is added for adhesion and left for about 24 hours.
Iodine and dairy products
Using ordinary iodine as a top dressing during the flowering period of tomatoes can increase the amount ovaries, speed up their ripening, and get sweeter and tastier fruits.
The simplest feeding is to dilute 3 drops in 10 liters of water and water the resulting solution on flowering tomatoes at the root.
If you dissolve 30 drops of iodine in one liter of milk or whey, add one tablespoon hydrogen peroxide and dilute all this in 9 liters of water, you will get a wonderful solution for foliar treatment, which will not only provide additional nutrition to the tomato bushes, but also protect them from late blight.
Boric acid
When growing tomatoes indoors, many gardeners are faced with the fact that the temperature in the greenhouse during the flowering of tomatoes is very high. Under these conditions, tomatoes bloom but do not set fruit. Gardeners in the southern regions of Russia face a similar problem, where temperatures can already rise above +30°C in May. In order to help tomatoes during this period, spraying plants with boric acid has long been used.
To prepare the required composition, 10 grams of boric acid powder are first dissolved in a small amount of hot water, then the volume is adjusted to 10 liters. This solution can be used to treat greenhouse tomato bushes from the very beginning of budding until the formation of ovaries every week. In open ground, the treatment scheme is similar if the weather is hot.
Herbal infusion
If you are faced with a choice of which fertilizer is best to use to feed tomatoes during flowering, then making a herbal infusion would be a good choice. There are many recipes for its preparation.Here is the most complete complex recipe, which includes the maximum number of ingredients and due to this can be used both for nutrition and for protecting tomatoes.
A 200 liter barrel is filled with:
- 5 buckets of any herb, preferably nettle;
- 1 bucket of mullein or 0.5 bucket of bird droppings;
- 1 kg fresh yeast;
- 1 kg of wood ash;
- 3 liters of whey.
Top up with water and leave for 1-2 weeks. Then 1 liter of this infusion is used to water one tomato bush. This fertilizer contains almost everything that tomatoes need and in the most easily digestible form.
Conclusion
Thus, the choice of fertilizers for flowering tomatoes is almost inexhaustible; everyone can choose something that suits their taste. After all, almost all fertilizers can be mixed together in different proportions, depending on what is more available on the farm.
