Somewhere last spring I saw on Pinterest that you should add Epsom salt and eggshells to the bottom of your planting hole when transplanting your tomato plants. I saved up my eggshells for a couple of months and broke them up into smaller pieces. Then when the weather warmed up, I dug my hole for the tomato, dropped in some eggshells and Epsom salt, put a little soil on top, added the tomato seedling, and I had great success! I still have a gallon bag full of cherry tomatoes in my freezer from my harvest last year. And mind you, I didn’t expect anything from my poor, tiny little tomato seedlings, seeing as they were SO tiny when I planted them, I figured that there was no way that they would get big enough to produce tomatoes before the harsh Minnesota freeze came. Cut to August, and I had to cut the tops off of my 6+ foot plants because they wouldn’t stop growing!
This year I was a little more optimistic about my tomatoes, knowing how quickly they could get when the warm weather came around. Despite the fact that I had to plant my tomatoes two or three times this year because of our early warm weather and then harsh cold snap, I knew that my tomatoes would be ok. This year, I totally forgot about adding the Epsom salt, and I only added my crushed eggshells to the planting holes with my tomatoes. My tomatoes were starting to take off and I was excited to see them grow. I have a mix of store bought transplants and some that I started from seed, and I watched for any signs of growth. I have my eye on one particular plant, my Cherokee Purple, that I purchased and am very interested to see how a purple tomato tastes. It was doing great, it grew several inches over Memorial Day weekend, and then, nothing. It didn’t budge at all for a couple of weeks. I thought, what the heck is going on with this plant??
So I put it to the internet and someone thought that it was a magnesium deficiency. The leaves were curling up and the branches were drooping, and it just looked so sad. I looked up sources of magnesium for plants and I found, yup, you guessed it: Epsom salt. I rushed out to my garden and watered the plant in with one tablespoon of Epsom salt dissolved in a gallon of water. In less than 48 hours, the drooping top branch (right in the middle of the picture below) stood STRAIGHT UP. I just couldn’t believe it.
Since then, I have given all of my tomatoes two foliar feedings of Epsom salt. I just dissolved some Epsom salt in water and sprayed it all over the leaves of the plants in the evening. Just look at how well my Cherokee Purple tomato is doing now! There’s almost no more curled leaves and it’s even starting to put out a couple of flowers.
This blog is called “Confessions of a Growing Gardener,” and I tell you what, I will ALWAYS plant my tomatoes with eggshells and Epsom salt in the future!
I hope you learned something new from this post! Please share with your fellow tomato growers! What other tips do you have for growing tomatoes?
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