Kitchen Garden Forum

I did quickly use the search facility but couldn't find the answer to my quick question.

Can I use tomato food to feed my courgettes, runner beans and lettuces? I ran out of the general purpose food a couple of weeks back and one of my pot grown courgettes is starting to look a bit sorry for itself. Do I need to dash out tomorrow for some more or will my tom food do the job?


Many thanks

Yes, yes and no .
Any plant which produces fruit would benefit, IMVHO.

Yes to all three. I've used Tomorite on absolutely everything for many years. For sure, it's formulated to have more potash which favours fruit production rather than leafy growth, but there is a fair amount of nitrogen in there. Myself, I don't like using too much nitrogen on leafy crops to keep their quality.

Hi Elle,
I'm with WestHam Ron on this yes yes and no. Certainly Courgettes and Runner Beans but I should leave the Lettuces to their own devices.
If you feed Lettuces with Tomato Food you are feeding them to go up to seed which is not what you are after. Just let them take their time and you will get very tasty Lettuces.
JB,

Thank you all for your advice, that will save me a few pennies, and probably use up this year's Tomato food! I think I may have planted my lettuces too close together. They are Red Cos, bought as small plants and I put them in to a trough I had spare. They have grown very tall - very tasty and no seeds yet, but very tall stem (not leaves), so I think I ought to give them more space next year.

To be honest I use Tomorite as a feed for just about everything except my azaleas & rhododendrons which get fed with Sequestrin. I do also use Chicken Manure pellets which I scatter around the vegetable patch around this time of year to give heavy yielding plants a boost as using a heavy watering can with a liquid feed is too much like back breaking hard work. I also find the chicken manure pellets useful for mixing in with the compost for things grown in pots like peppers and aubergines, and also my bedding plants in containers as they break down over a longer period..