nettle tea- possible tomato fertiliser?

weezl74

Hi there,

I've read with interest that a well rotted nettle cocktail can produce a tomato fertiliser with excellent results.

DH and I have acquired a large stash of nettle tea. Which is, in a word, vile.

So (see where I'm going with this?!) does anyone reckon we could turn it into said rotted nettle fertiliser?

Much obliged to you peeps,;)

Weezl x

Lotus-eater

Maybe........... you'd need alot of it. Probably better to make some using fresh nettles, male urine and comfrey if you have it.
Dried nettles would lose some of their nutrients I would be willing to bet.

Trishh_2

Nettle tea is very high in nitrogen so would be better used for green leafy veg like brassica. Tomatoes (and any other fruit) are better fed with a high potash feed like tomorite or similar .. otherwise you may get lots of foliage and not much fruit.
Nette, comfrey or manure "tea" will need diluting ...about 1 part tea to 10 parts water.

weezl74

Trishh wrote: »

Tomatoes (and any other fruit) are better fed with a high potash feed like tomorite or similar .. otherwise you may get lots of foliage and not much fruit.

Thanks Trishh. Any ideas for a home made version of this?

Weezl x

Trishh_2

I haven't found anything more successful than tomorite. Banana skins are high in pottasium so you could shred those up and top dress your plants. Comfrey is good as is manure tea but I prefer to use these for brassica ... squash love manure tea as well. Comfrey is prob the best homemade one. Steep leaves for a few weeks in water, dilute and use for your tomatoes.

weezl74

cool thanks! I love how there's always someone knowledgeable on here. When would you begin to top dress them, mine are 3cm tall and have 5ish leaves each...

Trishh_2

I only start a potash feed once the fruit has set. When you repot, as the plants get bigger, there should be enough nutrients in the compost for a while. Once they go into final planting places/pots and start to flower (a way off yet!) they will need regular feeds to produce plenty of lovely fruit.

weezl74

I'm about to reveal ignorance, but what does it mean for the fruit to have 'set'? This is my first year with toms, and I grew them from seeds from my salad, so I'm pretty impressed they've got this far! I've got 20 little healthy looking plants from half a salad tomato....

Trishh_2

Well done on your seed saving :j Fruit setting just means the flowers have died off and little fruits have formed or "set" behind where they were.

Re. seed saving .. you will prob still have lovely toms but just so you know, a lot of other supermarket bought fruit will have been grown from F1 seed, so you may not always get exactly the same a what the seeds came from. This is typically true of squash and pumpkin etc ... they can cross pollinate and you can end up with some weird and not so wonderful stuff

Seakay

"set" just means "started to grow" ie the flower has been fertilised and a tiny green proto tomato is on the way - here's a tip from the Gardener's Kitchen site:

Tomato Q. Why has my Tomato grown 8 feet tall without any fruit?
A. Because the plants have been fed before any fruit had set, making the plant abort it’s flowers. You must wait until the fruit has set and are swelling before feeding.

Trishh_2

There you go ... a perfect example of why feeding is best left till fruit has set.;)
Thanks seakay.