I have grown in pots and Earthboxes for the past several years. For the most part, I have a soiless mix, mostly peat, some pine bark chips and perlite and some type of container mix. I use ogranic ferts all the time because I reuse my mix and dont want it to get overly salty. My tomatoes taste fine and I get plenty of them. Would organic ferts work better in the dirt? Undoubtedly. I can only tell you what is working and has worked for me. Judging by the apparent health of your tomatoes, it is also working for you.

I heard that to much Nitrogen will cause a plant to be lush & fruitless.
I have never seen this happen.

It certainly can happen and I know folks who have grown humongous tomato plants with zero fruit. Probably more likely with big applications of chemical Nitrogen.

The concerns about using organic ferts in a container environment is the typical lack of microorganisms in regular potting soil necessary to digest and process the fertilizers. There will be some present but generally not in the quantities necessary for the organic fertilizer to be used/metabolized efficiently. So one runs a risk of the container grown plants NOT receiving the nutrient needs they require. That's why the suggestion is for a liquid or water soluble fertilizer for container plants, however there are few organic ferts that are the slightest bit water soluble and they tend to offer less than a full range of nutrients.

In this case, non-organic fertilizers tend to be a lot more efficient at delivering the goods :-)

Agree 100% with gardengal48. Well said.

It all depends how complicated you make it. Organics fertilizers can do very well in containers, just some thought has to go into it.
Most people do not want to spend much time learning to be productive in organics. So they reach for an inexpensive alternative that has very fast results and works.
All I"m saying is it can be done both ways and I don"t have time to prove one over the other.

Ron

Ron, please explain to me 'zactly how organic ferts get mineralized in a container potting soil that lacks any significant populations of the soil organisms to accomplish that feat. Or, what organic fertilizers you've encountered that are sufficiently water soluble to bypass the microbes yet still provide a full range of both macro and micro nutrients.

Organics fertilizers can do very well in containers, just some thought has to go into it. I'd amend that to read "organic fertilizers can do OK in containers" but to get the best performance from your plants without jumping through major hoops you might want to consider something that accomplishes that task more efficiently.

gardengal48, Try doing a research on Neptunes Fish and Seaweed Fertilizer.

I don't have a lot of time right now to explain the different types of organic fertilizers and how they make the nutrients available to plants.

Do the footwork and educate yourself, read.

Here is a Boysenberry grown with ALL ORGANICS in a container. :-)

{{gwi:31645}}

need micro organisms ? use aerated compost tea......bingo bango instant bacteria