Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - How Often do you ferilize and what mix works for your grow bags

IronPete · July 19, 2018

I am growing this year in containers only due to this being a rental and only having a deck and a little lawn space that I can use. I started my plants indoors and when I planted them out the peppers and tomatoes got Jobes plant spikes for tomatoes (not sure the mix now as I have used them all up but they were for tomatoes). Like you, Jet, I then did nothing for the first 4 weeks and that plants loved it. I have now switched to an every 2 week feeding of Plant-Prod 15-15-30 that has the full suite of micro nutrients and is designed for tomatoes and peppers. I also have a similar package of Miracle-Gro (18-18-21) that is also designed for tomatoes. I will probably alternate their use every 2 weeks as I have no real idea what the differences are. The soil I used is a soil less Miracle Grow with extra moisture retention. I did not treat it as I had trouble finding the calcium and what not and was not sure what I should be adding so next year I will likely follow your mix recommendations from above.

For all other plants in the garden (all in containers) I just water with the tomato miracle gro that I am using for the tomatoes and don't worry too much otherwise.

I have grown in containers before but had a variety of problems that I eventually figured out the origins of. I don't have a great understanding of fertilizers for containers but do understand the basics of N-P-K and their various effects. I am starting to understand micronutrients a bit.

I am glad there is a thread for fertilizers for containers. I wish there was a simple book or a good sticky on here that explained it for people that don't have PhDs in plant biology. Between all the 'organic' vs 'non-organic' stuff it gets confusing. Especially when as Worth pointed out in a post on another thread by attempting to be 'organic' we can often be unwittingly causing environmental damage upstream as the makers may be harvesting product or producing it in a way that isn't so great for the environment.

I just want to grow nice, tasty tomatoes and veg with as little unnecessary additives as possible but without opening myself up to BER, plant diseases, etc.

Thanks;

Pete

July 19, 2018	#6
IronPete Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Charlottetown, PEI, Canada Posts: 302	I am growing this year in containers only due to this being a rental and only having a deck and a little lawn space that I can use. I started my plants indoors and when I planted them out the peppers and tomatoes got Jobes plant spikes for tomatoes (not sure the mix now as I have used them all up but they were for tomatoes). Like you, Jet, I then did nothing for the first 4 weeks and that plants loved it. I have now switched to an every 2 week feeding of Plant-Prod 15-15-30 that has the full suite of micro nutrients and is designed for tomatoes and peppers. I also have a similar package of Miracle-Gro (18-18-21) that is also designed for tomatoes. I will probably alternate their use every 2 weeks as I have no real idea what the differences are. The soil I used is a soil less Miracle Grow with extra moisture retention. I did not treat it as I had trouble finding the calcium and what not and was not sure what I should be adding so next year I will likely follow your mix recommendations from above. For all other plants in the garden (all in containers) I just water with the tomato miracle gro that I am using for the tomatoes and don't worry too much otherwise. I have grown in containers before but had a variety of problems that I eventually figured out the origins of. I don't have a great understanding of fertilizers for containers but do understand the basics of N-P-K and their various effects. I am starting to understand micronutrients a bit. I am glad there is a thread for fertilizers for containers. I wish there was a simple book or a good sticky on here that explained it for people that don't have PhDs in plant biology. Between all the 'organic' vs 'non-organic' stuff it gets confusing. Especially when as Worth pointed out in a post on another thread by attempting to be 'organic' we can often be unwittingly causing environmental damage upstream as the makers may be harvesting product or producing it in a way that isn't so great for the environment. I just want to grow nice, tasty tomatoes and veg with as little unnecessary additives as possible but without opening myself up to BER, plant diseases, etc. Thanks; Pete __________________ Thanks; Iron Pete "We can agree to disagree."