By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

DIY tomato fertilizer is easy to make, inexpensive and not very time consuming.

Some of the fertilizer recipes below require ingredients that are in your kitchen cabinet or out in the barn while others can be found at the drug store or grown in your backyard.

But regardless of which one you decide to try you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Comfrey Fertilizer

Every garden needs comfrey. This very valuable plant is a very vigorous grower with deep roots that pull up nutrients from the subsoil. These nutrients are then stored in the leaves of comfrey. These leaves can be used as a nutritious mulch, compost activator or fertilizer for your tomatoes and other fruiting plants.

How to Make Comfrey Fertilizer

Harvesting comfrey is the first step in making this organic fertilizer. Comfrey is a very vigorous grower so this step Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

One of our readers recently received seeds from Totally Tomatoes and with them came a note: “We don’t recommend using potting mixes with fertilizer for starting seeds.”

The reader is wondering why Totally Tomatoes make this recommendation.

The truth is that seedlings really don’t need fertilizer until they develop their first set of leaves, and indeed, starting with high amounts of fertilizer can actually cause more harm than good to your tomato plants.

Inorganic fertilizers, in particular, have been known to “burn” seedlings as their nutrients can be released too quickly, inhibiting germination.

Also, if you have leggy tomato plants, Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Nolan

In a minute I’m going to rant about fertilizing your tomato plants, but first I need to cover something that is a little more important.

This topic was supposed to be saved for another couple of weeks, but when I read the news today, I felt that I should go ahead and write it now.

A popular brand of fertilizer products has been recalled and you need to know about it as soon as possible.

The products are all made by the Scotts company, and the specific items that are recalled are: Read the rest of this entry »