Container gardening - fertilizing
Mikeeo
Posts: 1
Hello everyone,
I would like to start a post about container gardening.
We want to have some nice plants this year again, most of them tomatoes. Plants did well last year, but not all of them. As we want to have everything nice and healthy, we didn't want to overdo it with fertilizers, which probably backfired. Few tomato plants didn't look that great.
So then I started thinking about improving the fertilizing method, but I need help from those more experienced here 
. I've read that tomatoes don't need that much of nitrogen ...so I've found two products:
Chicken manure pellets with N 7 %, P 13 %, K 2 % and
Sheep manure pellets with N 2,5 %, P 1,5 %, K 7 %
I was thinking about mixing these two together to get something more balanced, because in container there will probably be lack of every nutrient. Other than that, there is Horse manure pellets with N 1,2 %, P 1 %, K 1 % or Cow manure pellets 1,5% N 2,5% P 3% K, but those are a bit lower on nutrients....
What do you think? Which one is better? I would probably want to stick to the mixing of those first two.
Yet there's also the question about the right amount. That's a bit more challenging for me, as the recommended amount differs from product to product (even for those that have quite similar nutrient content) and also I think that the amount of sun is importnat. We grow plants on balcony, so that may also lower nutrients requirment, because the sun shines only once a day there. Last year we used probably something like 0.22pounds (100g) for a tomato plant in bigger containers. This year we will probably use also some smaller ones for bush tomatoes (rectagle planter boxes - more plants in one).
So I would like to ask you, if you think that we should change the amount somehow, or keep it as it is for all plants and all containers even with a different size.
I will be grateful for all advices
Posts
You sound like a beginner to me, so than complicate further, just stick with a liquid fertiliser until you get a few years under your belt. a liquid fertiliser will tell you how much to feed, saving any guess work.They are tomatoes, nothing hard about growing them, they grow as weeds on the banks of our local river.
Keep it simple.
Balanced liquid feed every 10 days, until fruits start to form, then liquid tomato feed once a week.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I agree, for tomatoes you can't go wrong if you use Tomorite and follow the instructions on the bottle. For other veg or flowers use something like Miracle Gro every couple of weeks or so. Pots soon lose their nutrients because they 'wash out' when you water.
Chicken manure pellets (such as 6X) can be useful as a top dressing in the Spring if you've got roses or shrubs in pots.
If you're growing blueberries or other acid loving plants in your pots, use ericaceous compost and each Spring give each pot a sachet of chelated iron. Always water these plants with rain water too.