Biggest & best tomatoes using fish heads, aspirin & water tubes

We pinched the yellowed leaves off the bottom half of the stem to increase the stem length as tomatoes need to get buried very deep.

Now the stem portion that is buried will form roots, giving the plant the best foundation possible and allowing the plant a greater ability to absorb these nutrients and water.

Plus a larger root system near the soil surface will mean that more heat will be available to the plant, producing earlier tomatoes.

Place your plants on their sides for a day or two prior to planting so they naturally bend towards the sun.

I don’t like to get wet.

But when I’m thirsty, I want a big drink of water to hydrate me. No need to get wet.

Tomatoes feel this way too. Their leaves and branches shudder at water touching them but their root systems are thirsty and desire to be quenched.

Enter PVC tubing!

After drilling holes into the PVC tubes for drainage purposes, you will bury these tubes into the ground and plant your tomatoes around them.

Water will be poured into the top. But first, compost is added directly into these tubes not only to slow the release of the water, but to feed the plants with compost tea.

As water is poured into these tubes, it absorbs these nutrients from the compost to feed your plants.

Insider tip: You don’t have to use 4-inch diameter tubes as we did, you could use 6 or 8-inch tubes. Then you wouldn’t have to water as frequently.

We redid our ditch and had leftover drain line. And Tom doesn’t let anything go to waste! 

So each plant gets ten holes each.

You can adjust this number based on how big your holes are (Tom drilled with a 1/4″ drill bit) and how much water you want to leak out.

Obviously, the bigger the hole, the faster the water will seep out of the tube. 

Most plants don’t like just sitting in standing water and once your tomato roots get deep enough they will absorb this water as well.

Twelve plants in total will thrive in this trench.

They are tightly packed so hopefully we will be able to encourage upward growth!

The more fertilizer love they get, the more flowers they produce and the more fruit you’ll get in the form of big, luscious tomatoes.

Fish has loads of nitrogen which encourages lots of leaf and branch growth making the plant flourish. Of course you don’t want too much nitrogen as that could result in large beefy plants with no flowers to form tomatoes.

But fish parts seem to strike the perfect nitrogen balance as it also provides lots of minerals and vitamins, too.

Plus, tomatoes need lots of water. Adding tons of water depletes soil nutrients so we’re putting them back in using various amendments.

The various fish parts like the bones, heads and guts (sorry, this is grossing even me out) contain lots of these beneficial nutrients that decay fast for a quick boost of nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium for your plants.

As the protein of the fish breaks down all these super nutrients are released into the soil directly to your plants supporting root and foliage growth.

Insider tip: If you freeze the fish before using, you won’t have to deal with any unpleasant smells! 

Tom and family are big into fishing as are his co-workers so getting fish was a breeze for us.

But you could contact your local restaurant and ask what they do with their leftover fish parts. Most are happy to oblige after a few blank stares!

Eggshells provide this boost of calcium to the soil to be soaked up by your plants as well as helping level off your soil pH.

Eggshells do not break down well on their own so use your hands to crumble them first and spread around the tubes.

They also help fend off blossom-end rot in tomatoes and other nightshade fruits! Here’s another fantastic way to use eggshells. 

Except the tomatoes are keeping leaf spot and blight at bay.

The salicylic acid of aspirin mimics a hormone in tomato plants. The hormone naturally triggers a defense response in tomatoes.

So you are tricking your tomatoes into triggering a defense response by giving it aspirin before diseases arrive.

There are two basic ways to use aspirin

1.) Put them whole down your tubes (or place a few whole in your tomato/nightshade hole prior to planting)

​2.) Make an aspirin spray to squirt on your tomato plants 2-3 times monthly. We use 1 (325 mg.) aspirin per 1 gallon of water. {You will need to grind them up first for the spray}

End result:

Bigger yield due to stronger, thicker tomato leaves that are less susceptible to the spores of diseases.

Salicylic acid encourages plants into releasing their natural defenses against harmful fungi, bacteria and viruses. 

When added to your garden, leaves feed earthworms and beneficial microbes. They also lighten heavy soils and help sandy soils retain moisture.

A fabulous source of carbon, leaves balance the nitrogen in the compost pile around your tubes.

We got lazy and dumped them in whole, but ideally they should be chopped first. The more rotten…the better!

We typically chop ours by riding them over with the lawn mower and then dumping them into the garden. 

You’ll want to add some topsoil to cover your amendments and then plant your tomatoes. The topsoil will also help stabilize those pipes prior to planting.

We want those roots to grow strong and deep first! Those lower leaves would have gotten buried sapping strength from the plant that now we’re forcing to the roots.

Insider tip: Before dropping the plant into the hole, first gently loosen the root ball with your hands untangling a few roots if possible. This gets the plants acclimated and ready to grow quicker! 

This first gets added directly into the tubes. Then pour water into the tubes. As the water funnels through the tubes and leaks into the holes, it absorbs much of the nutrients from this compost.

Essentially, you are watering with compost tea! Are you ready to grow the biggest and best tomatoes ever?

And those plants produced lots of big, bold and beautiful tomatoes for my family, neighbors and friends!