Shannon’s Homemade Monster Tomato Fertilizer Recipe May 7, 2012
Add 1/4 cup of your fertilizer to the hole at time of planting.
My chickens are gifts that keep on giving. Nothing they create goes to waste. In my previous article about composting chicken poo, I mentioned how even chicken waste isn’t wasted, but put to use in my garden. Egg shells can go into the compost pile, too, and they make an excellent, enriching addition–mine sometimes do–but I also use them for an awesome homemade tomato fertilizer. As my husband says, “it creates monsters out of tomato plants“!
Shannon’s Homemade Monster Tomato Fertilizer recipe:
- 2-3 dozen crush egg shells
- 2 cups bone meal
- 1/2 cup Epsom salts
- 14 crushed aspirin (a natural rooting hormone!)
First, wash your egg shells with soap and water and let them dry completely on a window sill before adding them to the mixture. (You can also bake them for a couple of hours at 100 degrees Fahrenheit if you don’t want to wait.) Make sure they are dry and brittle before using them.
Combine ingredients in a resealable container to keep dry while storing. You’re going to need about 1/4 cup of the mix at the bottom of the new hole you’re putting your tomato plant in. Tomatoes need to be buried deep, so plan on digging hole that will cover 2/3 of the plant. This makes for a strong root system, and a productive plant. Don’t forget to mulch your new plants as well. This will help keep moisture in the ground longer, and since tomatoes are prone to several diseases that live in the soil, mulch helps keep the dirt from splashing up on the bottom of the plant’s leave.
Make sure you bury 2/3 of the new tomato plant for deeper rooting.
You can use the fertilizer throughout the growing season by side dressing your plant every 6 weeks. Just sprinkle a handful loosely at the base of the plant and water. Enjoy your monster plants this summer–and think about sharing some of your delicious tomatoes with the “girls” that helped them grow.
Don't forget to mulch your new plant for water retention.
Question: What is bone meal and where can I find it?
Bone meal is available at most gardening centers and in the gardening section of most hardware stores. Bone meal is actually the ground bone of animals. Bone meal provides phosphates to a plant. Phosphates are naturally hard to come by in most soils so adding it at the time of planting insures your plants roots are close enough to absorb it.
I save all my egg shells, put them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake them for about a half hour-45 minutes in a 250 degree oven then run them through the blender until ultra fine. I mix this with the chicken food for extra calcium for my chickies!! It sure helps prevent those soft shells. Yes, I love that I can recycle them like that!!
can you use this on corn
Thanks for this tip!
I love this! Now to get started…. One question, why do you wash the eggshells if they are going into the dirt? Is it bc of the smell during the grinding process?
Hi Bonnie, the whites still clinging to the shell can harbor bacteria, as well as have a sticky texture after being dried. Washing and crushing gives for a texture and clear conscious I’m personally comfortable with.
Cindy, corn doesn’t require the high amount of calcium this provides. Corn also requires a higher amount of nitrogen. I do use my chicken poo compost for my corn though. I give my corn 3 feedings of the compost as it grows as well. You can learn more on composting your chicken poo here on my previous post:
http://blog.mypetchicken.com/2012/04/13/the-joy-of-chicken-poo/
I have used washed and dried crushed eggshells for years now around my plants to keep slugs and snails away, especially for my hostas. Soon I’ll be able to have help from my chicks, I am so looking forward to when they can go outside…
I love my home growen tomato
thank you 
Love the tips on the fertilizer. Thank you for sharing. I do have a question. What do you use as mulch on your tomato plants? Here in the city I only find decorative mulch and I heard that is not good for veggie plots.
I add egg shells to my compost, foliar feed with Epsom salts, and use bone meal as a regular soil additive… but I have never heard of using aspirin as a natural rooting hormone! And, I like the idea of adding extra “help” to the planting hole for transplants… Thanks for the tip!!
By aspirin, you mean ASA but what strength? Regular (325mg) or baby (81mg)? Uncoated (I would presume)…don’t want to over- or under-dose my tomatoes
Are you sure bone meal is healthy? I was thinking of using it for the nutritional benefits until someone told me it is made from animals that may have had cancer and other sicknesses, including mad cow. Is this absurd or not?
I have feed eggshells to my hens for years. I break them and just toss them out right away to them. Some people say that encourages them to eat eggs but never in over 30 years have I had egg eating hens. They seem to know the difference between a firm whole egg and broken pieces of shell. And the egg shells never last uneaten long enough to develop bacteria.
I made a dry recipe with epson salts and another ingredient(bone/corn meal??). I can’t remember the other ingredient or the measurements. Can you help me with this? Thank You
Yeh! Another great use for eggshells. I already use them in my worm bin so they become compost there and also help the worm’s digestive system.
can u use the tomato fertilizer for peppers?
Hi Vicki, you can use this for peppers but I believe the calcium is much higher then the pepper plants require. It won’t hurt the plant, it just won’t absorb the extra.
Hi, I talked with a lady that had been gardening for many years and she used a handful of the cheapest dry dog food at the bottom of the hole when planting tomatoes, said they were 2 or more times as big as without. What in the dog food would cause this?
Question for Bonnie–
Has running egg shells thru the blender dulled the blender blades at all?
Rinse and microwave the shells in a paper cup for about 30 seconds. Works well and fast. Calcium also stops blossom end rot.
Since pets and neighborhood cats like bone meal, be sure to bury it. I use it under the 4-6″ of leaf mulch, kitchen scraps and newspaper I put on when putting the garden to bed for winter. I really like the idea of mixing the amendments together so all the good things go into the soil at once.
What kind of mulch do you use, bark, leaves, hay, or pine straw? I use leaves from my many oak trees, in my flower beds, because its free, but are leaves ok for my raised vegetable garden?
Hi Laura,
You sure can use leaves, they’re one of the best since they are free and they add to the nutrient content in your soil as they break down. I use whatever I have on hand at the time. Sometimes it wood mulch, sometimes it is straw. I even gather leaves in the fall to cover unused beds I don’t plan on planting again until Spring.
What mg of aspirin do you use?
I’ve used the low dose 81 mg before, I couldn’t suggest the high dose aspirin.
How much chicken manure do you use.
My chicken manure goes into the compost pile to age and not go directly into the garden at the time of planting. Fresh chicken manure can burn the delicate plants’ roots. Late winter, I add finished compost to all my garden beds, at least 4 weeks before I plan to start planting. This recipe is an added benefit for more vigor specifically designed for the tomatoes since they are prone to blossom end rot, tomato hornworm damage and cracking.
Have you ever used or heard of using ground cinnamon as a rooting hormone? Was considering using instead of aspirin, any thoughts?
Hi Ann,
Yes, cinnamon is a rooting hormone as well! I choose to use asprin since its created using the same hormone derived from willow bark. Someone once showed me how to collect new spring whips from a willow, scrape the bark and soak the scrapings to release the hormone. It turned out to be a lot of work, but that is a great option too.