Information on tomato gardening is everywhere on the internet these days. But GOOD information is much less easy to come by. - - Welcome!

Dr. Jacob Mittleider is most likely the world’s foremost authority on family vegetable gardening.  He also loves tomatoes, and he is a WIZARD when it comes to growing them. Learn more from his book on tomato gardening called Let’s Grow Tomatoes.

That’s why we set up this website – to help you get PROVEN, ACTIONABLE helps and ASSURE you have a highly successful tomato (and other vegetable) gardening experience.

Vegetable gardening in containers? Gardening by the Foot is a great book for growing ALL vegetables, with everything you need to have success EVERY TIME. Read about it HERE

Let’s Grow Tomatoes is a classic that’s loved by thousands all over the world. It’s only available electronically, but for less than $11you can have it NOW.

The Mittleider Gardening Course is one of the best written gardening books in the world for simple step-by-step instructions and illustrations. Everything you need to grow virtually any vegetable successfully in soil or containers is included. For a paper copy go here, and for an electronic download go here.

While you’re browsing we recommend you look at The Garden Doctor – a three-volume set that is truly unique. Here you will find hundreds of pictures showing what many people have thought were diseases, but are actually nutrient deficiency symptoms.

Deficiency symptoms & corrective treatments are shown and described on many vegetables for all 13 mineral nutrients plants require .

You will become a garden doctor yourself as you diagnose and correct any problems that might show up in yours or your neighbors’ gardens.

All of these vegetable gardening books, and several more, are contained in the Mittleider Gardening Library CD. In this format you can own all 9 Mittleider gardening books plus 9 subject-specific manuals as a Searchable Database for about 30% of the cost of the books in paper.   Get the Mittleider Gardening Library CD HERE.

Growing Tomatoes in Containers - How much Fertilizer to Use

Many people live in apartments, and the only way they can experience the joy of home-grown tomatoes is by growing in containers. We have worked out the math on just how much Pre-plant and Weekly Feed fertilizers to use in 5, 10 and 15 gallon planter pots, or larger containers.  You can learn to make your own Pre-plant and Weekly Feed mineral nutrients below.

Besides tomatoes you can have good success growing lettuce, carrots, beets, bush beans, zucchini and many other vegetables right in containers on your patio or porch – so long as you feed and water them, and have ample direct sunlight.

One cubic foot equals about 7 1/2 gallons, so a 5 gallon pot amounts to 2/3rds of a cubic foot, 10 gallons equals 1 1/3rd, and 15 gallons equals 2 cubic feet.

First of all, if you are growing your own seedlings in flats or trays, use 1 1/2 ounces, or 3 tablespoons of Pre-Plant and 3/4 of an ounce (1 ½ tablespoons) of Weekly Feed in the soil mix of a single 18″ X 18″ X 2 3/4″ flat, which is about 1/2 cubic foot. If you use the black plastic trays common in the USA, use 2/3rds of those amounts, or 2 tablespoons Pre-Plant and 1 tablespoon Weekly Feed. Always water your seedlings with the Constant-Feed solution of 1 ounce Weekly Feed in 3 gallons of water.

Following are the fertilizer amounts to use in the soil of your pots.  Pre-Plant mix and Weekly Feed are both mixed with the soil before planting, and Weekly Feed is applied, and watered into the soil weekly until 3 weeks before harvest.

5 gallon pot - Pre-Plant = 2 ounces - Weekly Feed = 1 ounce
10 gallon pot - Pre-Plant = 4 ounces - Weekly Feed = 2 ounces
15 gallon pot - Pre-Plant = 6 ounces - Weekly Feed = 3 ounces

If you are using larger containers, which we call Grow-Boxes, just multiply the 3 dimensions of the box to determine the cubic feet of soil you’ll have, and use 3 ounces of Pre-Plant and 1 ½ ounces of Weekly Feed per cubic foot of soil.  Some examples follow – we highly recommend 18” widths, as you might guess from the examples we’ve chosen:

18” wide, 8” deep, and 5’ long = 5 cubic feet – use 15 oz Pre-Plant and 7 ½ oz Weekly Feed.

18” wide, 12” deep, and 10’ long = 15 cubic feet – 45 oz Pre-Plant and 22 ½ oz Weekly Feed.

18” wide, 18” deep, and 3’ long = 6 ¾ cubic feet – 20 oz Pre-Plant and 10 oz Weekly Feed.

Instructions for making your own Mittleider Magic Pre-Plant and Weekly Feed are in the books and HERE.

The Pre-plant mix is simple.  Just add three ingredients - calcium, magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salt) and boron (20 Mule Team Borax) - together in an 80-4-1 ratio.  You use lime for your calcium if you receive more than 20″ of annual rainfall, and gypsum if you receive less than 18″.

For the Weekly Feed mix, if your garden’s small and you can’t find all the ingredients listed in the books, a simple alternative is to get the micro-nutrients from the Foundation at www.growfood.com.

Click on Materials, then order the Micro-Mix. When it comes just add 20# of 16-16-16 and 3# of Epsom Salt to one of the 8 ounce packets, and you have a good Weekly Feed Mix.