What is the natural fertilizer for tomato plant in pot?

Jaime BeamerMarch 3, 2023

0 31 6 minutes read

Tomato plants are strong feeders and need fertilizer at all stages of development. Instead of buying bags at the store, learn how to make homemade tomato fertilizer recipes.

The benefit of creating tomato fertilizer at home is that you may tailor it to your plants’ specific needs. It is advisable to get your soil analyzed before planting to discover what nutrients are deficient. After getting the findings, begin adding the nutrients your plants need to thrive.

I tried a few, and they all had too much nitrogen. Nitrogen is great in the early stages of growth, but tomato plants have different nutrient needs as they grow and change into different stages. Later in the growth season, too much nitrogen leads in less fruits!

Instead than utilizing a formula from the internet, here’s how to manufacture your own tomato fertilizer.

Contents

What Nutrients Do Tomato Plants Need?

Gardeners must understand the nutrients that tomato plants need to thrive properly. They need different nutrients at various phases of their development cycles. Understanding their needs as the plants grow helps you understand the best time to apply different fertilizers at each stage.

Tomato plants are big feeders and need fertilizer.

All plants need three main nutrients: nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. Each nutrient has a distinct function to perform in plant growth and development.

Below is what the plants need at each stage of development.

Nutrients Needed During Transplanting

To grow, tomato plants need nitrogen. Don’t add any extra compost to the soil if you applied it when you transplanted the seedlings. Too much nitrogen may cause your plants to burn or get damaged.

Phosphorus is the only item you may need to add to your soil. If your compost contained many banana peels and bones, the compost might be sufficient for the first dose of phosphorous needed. Otherwise, consider putting small amounts of bone meal into the holes when you plant your seedlings. Fertilizer spikes are another possibility.

What to Feed Tomatoes During the Growth Phase

Plants need nitrogen throughout the growth period to help produce all of the structures, such as chlorophyll. Healthy soil and compost should contain all of the nitrogen needed for this phase as well, but if you notice that the leaves at the bottom of your plant turn yellow, you’ll need to add more.

What to Feed Tomatoes When Fruiting

Potassium is needed until the end of the season. At this time, avoid adding too much nitrogen since it will create an overgrowth of leaves and a lack of blooms. Lack of blooms results in a lack of fruit.

Adding potassium at this stage is essential because it promotes healthy, strong growth. Potassium levels must be twice as high as nitrogen levels.

When to Fertilize Tomato Plants

You have to fertilize tomato plants a few times, including when developing tomato seedlings.

Then, carefully put fertilizer or compost into the soil in the hole where you wish to plant your seedling. Compost is usually sufficient for most of the tomato plants’ growing cycles, but it depends on the quality of your soil and existing soil nutrients.

Shortly after planting, tomatoes need more nutrients, but if you used quality compost, then you shouldn’t need to add more fertilizer at this point. Keep an eye on the development of your plants to see if they want any assistance.

It’s time to fertilize your plants again when they begin to blossom and set fruit. Diluted fertilizers work at this stage, but make sure you add plenty of potassium around the base of your soil.

How to Make the Best Homemade Tomato Fertilizer Recipes

Each gardener will gladly offer their favorite tomato fertilizer recipe. However, you’ll soon realize that everyone has a different opinion about what is best for their plants.

It also relies on the resources you have. If you raise chickens, using chicken manure in your fertilizer makes sense, but you must compost it before use on your plants. Rabbits may also provide nutrients to your plants, but only if you have access to rabbit excrement.

Compost is the Base

Any good tomato fertilizer recipe uses high-quality compost for the base. Compost is the most beneficial item for tomato plants.

Ideally, you’ll have access to homemade compost that you put together from veggie scraps and other materials around your home, but if not, look for organic compost at the store. Consider using composted manure instead of regular compost if you have hens or rabbits.

Compost should make up half of your tomato fertilizer; it is an all-purpose fertilizer that contains most of the nutrients your plants need. It’s high in important nutrients, as well as macronutrients and micronutrients. Compost provides nutrition to your plants throughout the growing season.

Add The Nutrients Needed

Now it’s time to add different fertilizers to create the best mixture for each growing phase. A cup of wood ashes, for example, may help boost potassium and phosphorus levels.

Let’s have a look at some of the nutrients you may use to make your own tomato plant fertilizer.

Wood Ash

Wood ash from a wood-burning fireplace is an excellent source of potassium and phosphorus. Be sure not to add too much because wood ash also increases the pH levels in the soil, which can make it too alkaline (depending on your soil’s composition).

Kelp Meal

If you don’t have access to wood ash, replace it with a couple cups of kelp meal to boost potassium levels. Remember, tomato plants need potassium at the last phase of growth during flowering and fruiting.

Cottonseed Meal

Cottonseed meal is another excellent natural tomato fertilizer. It includes nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, therefore it promotes growth at all phases. Cottonseed meal nutrients release slowly, requiring around four months to fully release.

Bone Meal

Bone meal is an excellent supply of phosphorus, which plants need throughout the early stages of development.

Coffee Grounds or Tea Leaves

Nitrogen levels are low in both coffee grounds and tea leaves. Tomato plants need nitrogen at all levels of growth, but less is needed during the last phase.

Alfalfa Pellets

Another method for slowly adding nitrogen to your soil is to use alfalfa pellets. They need to be lightly dampened so that they’re close to falling apart before using them in a tomato fertilizer recipe. To help add nitrogen, thoroughly incorporate the pellets into the mixture.

Blood Meal

If you think that your soil needs higher doses of nitrogen (determined through proper soil testing), adding a half cup of blood meal will do the job. Blood meal has the greatest nitrogen content of any fertilizer, ranging from 9-14%, thus only use a tiny quantity.

Pet or Human Hair

Canine or human hair also works nicely in homemade tomato fertilizers. It contains slow-release nitrogen as well as keratin, a protein required by tomato plants. Make sure you cut up the hair finely so that it mixes throughout the fertilizer rather than clumping up.

How to Make Liquid Tomato Fertilizer

Some gardeners prefer liquid fertilizers, often known as fertilizer tea. It takes time, but it is well worth the effort. Here’s what you should do.

Take one pound of the tomato fertilizer you created and put it in a separate five-gallon bucket. Add a gallon and a half of water to the bucket and thoroughly mix it together. To keep everything properly blended, stir a few times every day. Liquid fertilizers need to steep for a minimum of five days before use.

After five days, drain the liquid and apply the fertilizer to your plants right away. Don’t toss out what you strained out; those solids should be mixed around your plants or added to your compost pile. Never throw away nutrition.