My name is Kouadio Koffi Lazare and I am a farmer in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) West Africa.

I bought Hazera tomato seeds: Smadar, Tycoon, Ofri, Galilea, Lirit and melon seeds: Segev, Silan. Can you send me fertilization instructions for tomatoes and melons?

George

Dear Koffi Lazare Kouadio

Tomatoes:

I will give you the general guidelines and principles for fertilization of tomatoes grown outdoors, although each variety is slightly different.

The soil must be rich with natural manure, free of wild seeds or herbicides or poisons.

The P and K levels should be high (N will be applied during the season). The P and K levels must be higher than 30 ppm.

The first 10 days the focus should be on irrigation, with the fertilization beginning later, after the roots have spread. During the season you can begin with an N quantity of 1-1.5 pure N/ha/day. You should increase the N quantity every week up to the picking period. During the picking period, you should reach 3.5-4.kg net N/ha day.

P during the period of flowering- fruit set should be about 1 kg per day/ha

K is the most important element for high quality: firmness, dark red color etc.

3 weeks before the fruit color begins to change, you should fertilize with K – about 3-4 Kg of pure K/Day/ha. Three weeks before picking until the end of the season is very important for the quality of the tomato.

Melons:

The melon you are growing is Ananas type, and it needs less irrigation within the season and fertilizer than the Galia type. Especially after netting and until the picking period, you must take care to avoid fruit cracking by irrigating and N fertilizing than needed. Ananas melons should be grown in rich soil, with fertilization with about 1.5 kg pure N / HA only at the beginning of fruit netting, not later.

The main component is K, used to ensure firmness and a high level of sugar. You need to fertilize 1-2 times with about 2-3 Kg pure k/ha. If your climate is rainy during the growing melon period, you must try to avoid cracking and fertilize more with K.

Wish you successful growing,