Tomato food

[Ron and Jean]

Does anyone have a good recipee for tomato food? I wouldn't want to make anything too stong and burn the roots, so I have been using shop bought stuff in my grow bags.

[Urban Ayisha]

do u compost in your kitchen? i use the run off liquid from our home composting as a general fertiliser on all veggies. i think there maybe specific elements that make up the commercial tomato food but this stuff seems to do pretty well! hope that helps

[Ron and Jean]

We don't have a run off from the compost heap as it is a plastic bin with no base. I wondered about using a comfrey and nettle liquid but I didn't want to experiment and get no tomatoes.

[Millymollymandy]

I think (from reading this forum!) that people use the comfrey more for feeding things like toms as I think it is higher in potash which toms etc need. Nettle tea would be high in nitrogen which is the wrong thing to feed toms as you'd get loads of leafy growth to the detriment of flowers/fruit.

Wood ash might be good as it's high in potash. I haven't tried it on toms myself, though I always sprinkle it around the roses and the fruit trees in mid summer, after having given them a general purpose commercial organic feed in the spring.

I don't know how quick acting ash is though. Toms are so precious and so difficult to grow that I am afraid that I am using Wilkinsons (not at all organic ) liquid tomato food!

[Peggy Sue]

Comfrey is well documented as good for toms, I use it, and also just started using the veggie water from cooking as I read thats good too. Seems a waste to buy stuff whn you can use what you have doesn't it.

[Odsox]

Not sure where you live Ron & Jean but seaweed is good for tomatoes too.
Wash the salt out and then put in a water butt the same as comfrey.

apparently onions benefit from wood ash too

So do gooseberries, but only in the spring.

[Millymollymandy]

I think it means gooseberries in the spring because after they've fruited there's not a lot of point. Other things like roses etc can have wood ash in the summer.

But Tony will probably be along to advise you better (or otherwise!!!) soon.

[Odsox]

I'm having a wee blonde moment here Odsox, does that mean only gooseberries like ash in the spring or it should only be applied to anything in Spring?

Sorry, maybe I should have qualified that a bit better
Gooseberries love wood ash but if you give them some after early summer they will make lush growth which will make them very susceptible to American Mildew, and if you get that the spores can overwinter and cause problems next year.
Perfectly fine in the spring when they are just coming into leaf and will spur them into growth.

[ina]

Not sure where you live Ron & Jean but seaweed is good for tomatoes too.

And if you live in a seaweed free area, you can buy liquid seaweed extract. If you dilute that well, it can't do any harm to anything!

[Ron and Jean]

We do live on the coast although we are downstream from Glasgow so I am not sure how clean the water is. If I wash seaweed and put that with the comfrey in a big bucket of water (not got a water butt yet) how often do I use the mix. Once a week like regular tomato food or each time I water them? Any thoughts on adding Nettle?

[Peggy Sue]

Personally I add nettle because it ahs deep roots and lots of minerals, whether it's actaulyl a good thing to do or not I've got no idea