Reduce Nitrogen Fertilizer When Tomatoes Begin to Flower

July 23, 2018

Once vegetable crops or blooming plants mature and begin to flower, dial back the nitrogen fertilizers. Too much nitrogen at this stage encourages plants to put the energy into more leafy green growth instead of flowers and fruit.

These plants are beginning to set fruit. As more fruit begins to develop, I’ll start fertilizing plants again.
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

When plants enter flowering mode, you can switch to a low-nitrogen fertilizer or hold off altogether until baby buds and fruits begin to appear. When fruit is about 1/2-way developed, you can begin adding balanced fertilizer back on a week (liquid) or monthly (granular) basis so that resources go to fruit development. 

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