What Is the Best Fertilizer for Vegetables Like Ampalaya, Tomato and Eggplant?
The best fertilizer for vegetables like ampalaya, tomato and eggplant is a program, not a single bag. Work in compost or decomposed manure before planting, give complete fertilizer 14 14 14 at planting, then side dress small doses of urea and muriate of potash every few weeks through the harvest. Ampalaya, for example, gets 20 grams of 14 14 14 per hill and then 10 grams of urea per hill every two weeks. anee.io, a farm app built for Filipino farmers, dates every side dressing from each lot's own planting day.
Ampalaya, tomato and eggplant do not stop at one harvest. They flower and set fruit for weeks, and every picking carries nutrients out of the field. So they need small, steady doses through the season, not one heavy dose at planting that the rain washes away.
Below is a full program for each crop when you have no soil test. With a test, follow the laboratory's numbers instead.
- Organic matter first: 20 bags of decomposed manure per hectare for tomato, and 10 to 20 tons of compost for ampalaya.
- Complete fertilizer at planting: 1 tablespoon per tomato plant, 20 grams per ampalaya hill, or 16 20 0 for eggplant.
- Side dress through the harvest: urea for leaves and growth, muriate of potash once fruiting starts.
- Bury or cover every dose, away from the stem, in moist soil.
- Go easy on urea for tomato, since heavy nitrogen raises the risk of blossom end rot.
What is the best fertilizer for vegetables that fruit for months?
Here are the three programs side by side. Rates are per plant, per hill or per 10 meters of row, because that is how the programs are written.
| Crop | Before or at planting | Side dressing | Harvest starts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ampalaya | 10 to 20 tons of compost or decomposed manure per hectare, then 20 g (2 tablespoons) of 14 14 14 per hill | 10 g (1 tablespoon) of urea per hill at 3 to 4 weeks, repeated every 2 weeks for 2 to 3 more rounds | 18 to 20 days after blooming |
| Tomato | 20 bags of decomposed manure or commercial organic fertilizer per hectare, then 1 tablespoon of 14 14 14 per plant | Urea and muriate of potash at 10 to 15 DAT and again at 30 DAT, about 1 tablespoon of each per plant | 55 to 65 DAT |
| Eggplant, no mulch | 0.5 kg decomposed chicken manure and 0.4 kg of 16 20 0 for every 10 m of row | Urea 6 g per hill at 3 and 9 WAT, potash 3 g per hill at 6 and 12 WAT, 14 14 14 at 8 g per hill at 15 WAT | 46 to 50 DAT |
From grams per hill to bags per hectare
Ampalaya hills go 1.5 to 2.5 m apart in furrows 2 m apart in the dry season. At 2 m by 2 m, a hectare holds 2,500 hills. So the basal dose of 20 g per hill comes to 50 kg, or one bag. Each urea round of 10 g per hill comes to 25 kg.
For eggplant, count rows instead. A 100 meter row needs 4 kg of 16 20 0 and 5 kg of decomposed chicken manure at planting. The usual one hectare budgets differ from this arithmetic, so treat both as a guide. For ampalaya they list 3 bags of 14 14 14, 1 bag of urea and 20 bags of organic fertilizer. For eggplant, it is 3 bags of 14 14 14, 2 of urea and 20 of organic.
Why do fruiting vegetables need potash and steady feeding?
Nitrogen builds vines and leaves, but fruit needs potassium as it fills. That is why the eggplant program turns to muriate of potash at the fruiting stage. The tomato program also pairs potash with urea at each side dressing. Besides, harvest all fruits from eggplant to prolong the fruiting period.
Tomato needs extra care with water and nitrogen. It is very sensitive to flooding. Blossom end rot comes from a shortage of calcium in enlarging fruit, often with uneven watering. It advises against heavy nitrogen fertilizers such as urea.
Our guide to fertilizer for tomatoes goes deeper on this crop, and it also covers fertilizer for potatoes.
That is blossom end rot, not a pest. Keep soil moisture even with mulch and regular watering, and do not push the plants with extra urea.
How do I side dress without burning the plants?
Feed the seedlings lightly
At 10 days after emergence, drench eggplant seedlings with a starter mix. Mix 2 tablespoons of 16 20 0 or 14 14 14 in 4 liters of water, then water again.
Keep fertilizer away from the stem
For eggplant, drill the fertilizer in a shallow furrow about 20 cm from the base, or dib it in midway between plants.
Bury or cover each dose
Cover ampalaya side dressings with fine soil. For tomato, bury urea and potash about 1 inch deep and 3 to 4 inches from the stem.
Water right after
Irrigate the furrows so the fertilizer dissolves and does not sit against the roots.
How does anee.io keep a long feeding schedule?
Eggplant alone can need a side dressing at five different weeks. In the Protocol Builder you write each dose once, on its day after transplanting. When you plant, the cropping calendar dates every dose from each lot's own day zero. A lot planted two weeks later keeps its own timing.
The NPK Plus calculator checks your vegetable plan for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Anee, the smart farm technician inside anee.io, can look at a photo of a sick leaf or fruit and answer in Tagalog or English, using credits. Our guide to crop monitoring for vegetable farmers covers the daily checks.
Sign up free, add your vegetable lots and transplanting days, and let anee.io schedule each feeding until the last harvest.
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