This Unlikely Fertilizer is the Key to a Huge Tomato Harvest

What's the secret to growing the best tomatoes? And the biggest tomatoes? It's all about what you feed the soil, not the plants.

And the best fertilizer for tomatoes is an unlikely source from your kitchen or market: fish heads!

Here's how to use fish heads (and similar organic nitrogen sources like shrimp shells) to boost plant growth and give you lots of flowers and fruits all season long.

Step 1: Dig the hole

01.

In your freshly prepared bed, dig a 1-foot-deep hole. You want enough room to throw a bunch of soil amendments down the tomato planting hole, as well as bury the stem up to its lowest set of leaves.

Step 2: Add your fish head

02.

First down the hole, and our secret ingredient when planting tomatoes, is a fish head. Yes, a raw fish head! (Fresh or frozen works equally well.)

Step 3: Continue adding amendments to the hole

03.

Next to go down the hole are two aspirin tabs (for a shot of immunity) and a handful of crushed eggshells (for a calcium boost).

Step 4: Bury the tomato plant

04.

Before your tomato plant goes in, pinch off the lowest two or three sets of leaves on the stem.

Gently loosen the root ball with your hands and lower the plant down the hole. The soil line should be right at the last set of leaves; the rest of the stem gets buried, as new roots will grow from any part of the stem below ground.

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