Homegrown tomatoes offer a delightful taste that surpasses any store-bought fruit. Their thick, juicy, and plump texture, combined with their sweet and slightly acidic flavor, makes them a highly satisfying fruit (or vegetable, depending on your perspective) to grow from the start of the gardening season.

Put These 12 Surprising Things in Your TOMATO Planting Hole For The Best Tomatoes Ever

If you’re growing tomatoes in containers and desire sweeter-tasting fruit, here’s a helpful trick that truly works. Sprinkle a small quantity of baking soda around the base of your tomato plants. As the baking soda infiltrates the soil, it will reduce the acidity levels, resulting in tomatoes that are more sweet than tart. This technique is particularly effective and is definitely worth trying!

For a considerable length of time, fish heads have been utilized as a natural fertilizer in gardens. Their effectiveness in enhancing tomato growth is not a myth and has been verified. The process works because the decomposition of fish heads releases numerous essential nutrients, including nitrogen, potassium, calcium, phosphorous, and several trace elements.

One potential issue with burying fish heads is that they may attract critters, which may dig them up. To prevent this, bury them deeply, at least a foot underground. Alternatively, you could drop the fish heads into the planting hole whole, or use groundfish scraps. For an even more potent solution, mix 2 cups of groundfish scraps with 1 cup each of water and milk.

To enhance plant immunity and prevent diseases such as blight, consider dropping 2-3 aspirin tablets into the planting hole, either whole or ground. The presence of salicylic acid in aspirin is the reason for its effectiveness in this regard. Using this technique can also increase the yield of your plants. Additionally, you can make a solution containing aspirin and spray it onto your plants for further protection.

Tomatoes are prone to magnesium deficiency, making it beneficial to add 1 or 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt at the bottom of the planting hole when transplanting seedlings. This is true whether you’re planting in containers or a garden bed. It’s important to cover the Epsom salt with a thin layer of soil to ensure that the roots are not in direct contact with it.

Kelp meal is an excellent source of micro-nutrients and trace elements that provide complete nutrition for plants. Adding kelp to the soil can give tomato plants a turbo-boosted start, promoting healthy growth. Slow-release kelp fertilizer is particularly beneficial as it provides the plant with sufficient nutrients over time, preventing shock that may occur when using excess fertilizers. One cup of kelp meal is typically sufficient for each tomato plant at the time of planting.

Like kelp meal, bone meal is an excellent addition to the tomato hole when planting. Adding a handful or cup full of bone meal can help promote blossoming and quality fruit production in tomato plants. This is because bone meal provides the much-needed phosphorus nutrient, which is crucial for healthy tomato growth.

When transplanting tomato seedlings, consider adding well-composted coffee grounds to the planting hole to improve soil composition and provide a source of slow-release nutrients to your plants. Coffee grounds are an excellent source of fertilizer and can also be used as mulch.

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