Top Five Breakfast Foods for Tomato Plants

Tomato plants like breakfast food? Surprised? You shouldn't be. Your plants need food, just like you. We all live on the same planet, so it's not surprising we would be nourished by the same things. You'll see eggshells and coffee grounds at the top of the list here. Still, there are other breakfast foods your tomato plants will love.

Pour your tomato plants a cup of coffee. We all know coffee grounds make excellent fertilizer. I always add mine to the compost heap. What you might not know is that you can use the coffee itself. Next time you have leftover coffee , don't just pour it down the drain. Use it in your compost pile. You can also use it directly on tomato plants once a month.

Lets talk about eggshells. Many people use eggshells as garden fertilizer. The calcium is particularly useful when fertilizing tomato plants. You often see eggshells on the ground in gardens. What don't you know about using eggshells for fertilizer? They're even more effective if you puree them in the blender with our old friend, leftover coffee. Whirl them up for a drink your tomatoes will love.

The whole egg trick. This is the ultimate, timed release breakfast food for tomatoes. My Dad taught me how to make tomatoes scrambled eggs. We always had gorgeous red, juicy tomatoes in our garden. What was my Dad's secret? We lived in farm country. Eggs were cheap. My Dad used to plant a whole raw egg (in the shell) under each tomato. As the egg rotted, it fed the tomatoes multiple nutrients.

Milk does a tomato plant good. Kids didn't finish that glass of milk you gave them for breakfast? Feed them to your tomatoes, instead. That's a straight shot of calcium. This breakfast food is wonderful on watermelon too. That is, you can use it to water your watermelons. Powdered milk sprinkled around tomato and watermelon plants works as slow release fertilizer.

Tomatoes love corn meal for breakfast. We all know tomatoes love sandy soil. It holds in the moisture they crave. What's even better than mixing sand into your soil? Mixing in cornmeal. Cornmeal is often treated with lime, an essential plant nutrient. Not only that, it absorbs and holds water even better than sand. So feed your tomato plants a good breakfast from now on. You'll be rewarded with the healthiest tomato plants ever.

Please note: These breakfast food fertilizers should be treated like any other fertilizer. Too much can have the opposite effect. Monthly feedings are best, with the remainder added to the compost pile.

More from this contributor:

Growing a Community Garden at Work

How to Grow Great Watermelon

How to Grow Great Tomatoes

Source:

Personal Experience