Vegetable Gardening Tips, Advice and FAQ's

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Fertilizing and Watering Tomatoes and Corn - Using Cages Recommended?

Q. What is the best way to fertilize tomatoes and corn? Also, what should the watering schedule be for those two? What should the dimensions be for tomato cages?

A. Use Pre-Plant fertilizer - 2# per 30-foot row - mixed into the soil before planting. When plants are showing, feed with Weekly Feed granular fertilizer weekly, at the rate of 16 ounces per 30-foot row. Corn should be fed about 5 times, and tomatoes should be fed until about 6 weeks before the first expected frost in the fall, if you are growing indeterminates, and about 8 times for determinate varieties.

Watering in the raised, ridged level soil-beds or Grow-Boxes (containers should be as often as needed to maintain moisture in the soil. Usually - depending on the soil type you have - you will need to water 3 or 4 times in the early spring, and perhaps as often as every day in the summer. When temperatures are in the high 90's and 100's, when tomatoes are carrying a heavy load of fruit, you may want to water twice a day, to minimize stress on the plants, which can cause blossom-end rot and reduced yields. Remember, you are only watering about 18% of your garden, and by putting 1" of water in the beds, directly at the plant roots you are still using less than 1/2 the water most people use with traditional watering methods.

We do not recommend using cages for growing tomatoes. We prefer to prune sucker stems and grow plants close together, either guiding them up a string, or tying them to stakes. Both of these methods will increase your yields of healthy fruit substantially over caging them and allowing them to grow 'wild".

Last Modified: 2004-04-27 Number of views: 3503