Having trouble finding the taste and flavor of a good tomato at the grocery store? This complete growers guide for tomatoes will ensure your tomatoes are more flavorful, larger in size and promote excellent health for you and your family.
Tomatoes require a long growing season, and are best started indoors 6 weeks before transplanting. Once you believe the final frost is over, they are ready for transplanting.
Begin by sowing seeds ½” deep in a well-drained, soil or soilless starting mix. For maximum germination, use a humidity dome to start your seeds, this keeps the moisture and heat consistent during the germination process. You can warm the soil using a heating mat made specifically for germinating seeds. Warmer soils will promote faster germination. Keep soil moist, while awaiting germination. Watering regularly once seedlings break through the soil. Standard germination time is approx. 1 week.
Start with quality seed. Successful germination rates start with high quality seed.
Purchase a heating mat. This will greatly increase germination rates for your seeds.
Your lighting cycle should be on 24 hours of light during germination and seedling stages.
What products are good for my seedlings, clones or early plants? Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrhizae. Enhances root production and development at all stages of growth, from veg to bloom.
Tomatoes have two stages of growth. A vegetative stage and a flowering or fruiting stage. The nutrients a tomato needs will be based on the stage of growth you are in. If you tomato has fruits or flowers, there is no need to use vegetative nutrients.
If you are using a nutrient like Grow Pack, we can guarantee there will be no deficiency during your vegetative growth cycle. We have provided a tested and proven nutrient plant for tomatoes during the VEG stage:
SIMPLE RECIPE – Veg
Use each product weekly during the vegetative stage.
Grow Pack A used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Grow Pack B used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Cal Mag used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Each product needs to be applied as a root drench. Neither product is intended as a foliar spray.
ADVANCED RECIPE – Veg
Use each product weekly during the vegetative stage.
Grow Pack A used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Grow Pack B used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Cal Mag used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Extreme Blend used at 1/4 TSP Per Gal as a foliar spray
Cal Mag and Grow Pack need to be applied as a root drench. Neither product is intended as a foliar spray.
Grow Pack:
Grow Pack has all 3 nitrogen forms listed above, also contains highly pure minerals and natural additives that combine the benefits of both organic and conventional nutrients for the Growth/Vegetative stage. Plant growth like you have never seen before. The right nutrients at the right time using only one product.
“I get better yields and this product is much much cheaper. Best switch I have made in my gardening.”
Why do we recommend the Grow and Bloom Packs for Tomatoes? You are able to combine all the essential and supplemental nutrients your tomatoes need with one simple nutrient application, applied weekly. The Grow Pack is a blend of all of our soluble products that we offer and provides all the nutrients you plants need in the correct proportions. This only requires you to add and purchase one product to ensure you find success gardening.
What other products are good for the vegetative stage? You can browse all of our grow/veg enhancers.
During the vegetative stage is the best time to foliar spray your plants. A foliar spray is applying nutrients to your leaves and stems by spraying your plant instead of root drenching to apply nutrients.
Foliar sprays are 8-20 times more effective when applying nutrients. Some great foliar spray products are listed below. Our most popular foliar spray during the vegetative stage is Extreme Blend.
Think of foliar sprays as a snack for the plant between feedings. The same concept as a child returning from school hungry and wants an afternoon snack. We recommend foliar spraying every 2-3 days. This will ensure the plant is happy until the next weekly feeding of nutrients.
One of the most common problems when growing tomatoes is Blossom End Rot (BER). This is caused by a lack of calcium for your plants. Calcium is king in the nutrient world. Once the plant has calcium it can then focus on obtaining other nutrients.
Avoid Blossom End Rot by using a calcium product in your soil amended ahead of time or apply a calcium product weekly throughout the plants life cycle as listed in the recipes above. The choice is yours in how to handle this problem. Just know if calcium is present in your weekly feed program, you will not experience Blossom End Rot.
Both the vegetative and flowering stage require calcium for plant production. Providing calcium during both Veg or Bloom is easy as using our Cal Mag Plus.
Symptom
Blossom End Rot
Solution
Calcium Magnesium Plus
Yellow flowers will develop on your tomatoes over time when they are large enough. These flowers will develop regardless of the lighting cycle you are in.
For example, indoor gardens during a flowering stage will have a 12/12 lighting cycle. Meaning 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. A vegetative stage will have 18 hours of light and 6 hours of darkness.
You will see these flowers develop in a 18/6 light cycle and a 12/12 light cycle. The main advantage to have a 12/12 light cycle is larger fruit set. The 12/12 lighting triggers the plant to produce fruits and flowers. 18/6 lighting is triggering more vegetative growth, such as leaf and stem development.
These flowers will grow over time into your tomatoes. Your tomatoes start growing green in color and will ripen into the classic red color tomatoes are famous for. Color will also be based on your strain or variety of tomato you are growing.
SIMPLE RECIPE – Bloom
Use each product weekly during the vegetative stage.
Bloom Pack used at 1 TSP Per Gal
Cal Mag used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Each product needs to be applied as a root drench. Neither product is intended as a foliar spray.
ADVANCED RECIPE – Bloom
Use each product weekly during the vegetative stage.
Bloom Pack used at 1 TSP Per Gal
Cal Mag used at 1/2 TSP Per Gal
Bud Hardener used at 1/4 TSP Per Gal
All products listed above need to be applied as a root drench. None of these products are intended as a foliar spray.
Bloom Pack:
Helps stimulate fruit and flower development in all stages of bloom, for an increase in the size and mass of flowers/fruits.
Whether you are in Early Bloom, Mid Bloom or Late Bloom, for best results use all of our Bloom Packs in conjunction with our Cal Mag Plus during your bloom cycle regimen.
“I have used house and garden for years. I changed to the early, mid, and late bloom products and have loved the results.”
What other products are good for your blooming plants? You can browse all of our bloom enhancers.
Resin and Oil Production
Here at Kelp4less, we believe the plant knows how to produce more resin and oils, it just has to have a well fed balance of nutrients at the right time, which will allow it to increase it’s oil and resin production. Our Grow and Bloom Packs are specifically designed to enhance taste, oils and resin.
