Stages of Tomato Growth

[airscapes]

This is an informative article dealing tomato growth stages and the difference in hydroponic nutrient need in each stage.   Some stuff is a bit over my head in the charts, but most of the info is understandable and relative to any indoor hydroponic method of growing tomatoes. 

OH state Article

[Sher]

airscapes, I learned that I have been overfertilizing my young tomato plants from that article. That is why they have such a thick, curled canopy.

Thank you!

[airscapes]

I believe that I am also guilty of bumping up the fertilizer too soon..  However, they do not grow Dwarf variety commercially.   The dwarf does have thick hard curled leaves as a normal trait so keep that in mind, this data has to be adjusted for the type of tomato as well.   Only way to know for sure is to spend $ on leaf analysis in each stage, which I keep telling myself I will do this week.  I have the forms and bags, just have to send the leaves and a check.. also wanted to get my tap water and outdoor soil analyzed.. but keep putting it off.

[Sher]

Thanks for the info about the differences in our dwarfs and their plants. It makes me feel better about mine. 

[lynnee]

airscapes, What a helpful article! I'll apply the lessons to my next attempt at growing Green Zebras. My current plants have a lot of vegetation that I could have done without.

Since my overall goal is to figure out how to get maximum veggie production with minimal time expended on maintenance, I found this bit from the concluding paragraph quite encouraging:

Accommodating the different nutrient requirements of the different plant growth stages is an important aspect of this. If a grower has a preferred mature stage (Stage 3) fertilizer formula, but does not have the capacity, or if availability of individual soluble fertilizers is too limited to feasibly create Stage 1 and 2 solutions, a practical solution to providing staged nutrient levels would be to use half-strength of that Stage 3 recipe for Stage 1 plants, and a three-quarter-strength for Stage 2 plants.