I could use a little bit of guidance here for fertilizing my veggies monthly. Until the compost in my tumbler is ready, I am using Espoma Plant Tone to feed.

The problem is that my simpleton brain can't translate the application instructions to my veggies, especially considering that some of my plants are larger than others, and the fact that some are in containers and some are in beds.

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In various size fabric pots I am growing eggplant, peppers, parsley, basil, and string beans.

In my raised beds I have cucumbers (which I have already started harvesting), zukes, yellow straightneck squash, carrots, dill, basil, parsley, as well as beets and bush beans (which I just planted about a week ago and are both doing quite well so far).

Regretfully I don't have the time to push aside the mulch covering each bed/pot so I am top dressing the fertilizer in a band on top of the mulch surrounding each plant.

This weekend I top dressed the larger plants (eggplant/zukes/squash/string beans) with 1 cup of fertilizer EACH. For the cukes I used about a half cup per plant. For the row plantings (herbs, carrots, beets, bush beans) I used about a cup per entire row.

1) Is this too much? Not enough? What is considered too much and damaging?

2) Would anyone care to share their feeding system if applied at regular intervals and without having to put too much thought into the application amounts?

3) For my tomatoes (some in raised beds and some in fabric pots) I use 3 tablespoons of Tomato Tone in a narrow band along the drip line. Should I stick with this product or would Plant Tone work just as well?

4) When my compost pile is done and I top dress my plants (mulch will have to be removed I assume) do I need to adjust my monthly feeding schedule? Or should that have no effect.

5) Are questions 1 thru 4 above a moot point because once again I am overthinking the process?