You Should Bury Fish Heads Under Your Tomato Plants.
In late summer, West Coast fishermen troll for albacore tuna and fill their shelves and freezers with loins full. An added benefit of cutting your own fish is that you have leftover fish heads and tails that go into my freezer in the spring. Come spring, one of these fish heads will go into the ground under each of my tomatoes. While this may seem like a huge hassle to you, keep in mind that most of the fertilizers you buy are fish fertilizers made from the same material. This is why you should consider burying fish heads in your garden.
Plants require a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to grow, flower, bear fruit and produce seeds. This combination is known as NPK and all fertilizers you buy will have a number on the front. For example, a 5-5-5 fertilizer would be a balanced mixture of equal parts nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. A 17-1-1 fertilizer will be almost entirely nitrogen. Although plants need all three elements to varying degrees at all times, they benefit more from each at different stages of their life cycle. Nitrogen is essential to promote green growth. Phosphorus is necessary for the growth and flowering of roots, and potassium promotes fruiting and fruit quality.
Tomatoes are great at growing roots – so much so that when you plant tomatoes, you bury as much of the stem as possible because roots will form anywhere outside the stem. In fact, you can simply cut a branch from an existing tomato plant, stick it into the soil, and it will grow roots. Tomatoes are so efficient at growing roots that the fertilizers we feed them or even apply to the planting hole may not get to the roots where they are needed.
On the other hand, the decomposing fish head is full of nitrogen, calcium and phosphorus, which is exactly what the tomato plant needs. If you bury it deep enough, it will begin to rot about the time the roots meet it in the soil. This will give your plant a boost just when it needs it.
Bringing this to life is also not difficult. Preserve fish heads throughout the year by throwing them in a bag in the freezer. You can also ask the fish department at your grocery store to leave some for you. Either way, when it’s time to plant your tomatoes, dig a hole two feet deep and drop a frozen fish head into the bottom. Fill it with soil to the depth at which you will be planting your tomatoes (this will depend on the size of your tomato seedlings, but plant as much of the stem as possible). Two feet is deep enough to prevent animals from digging them out.
You can also add some slow-release fertilizer and/or lime to the planting hole, but adding additional substances such as banana peels or eggshells is not necessary or beneficial. It’s just that these items will take too long to break down and become useful at the right time. Instead, toss them into the compost.