Bone meal is a fertilizer, and its main components are steamed animal bones, which are processed in a granule or powder form. These forms help the nutrients and minerals in the fertilizer absorbed in your plants more easily.
Bone meal provides a great source of phosphorus to grow strong roots, so it’s most suitable for root vegetables, including carrots, onions, garlic, etc. Besides, it contains other substances like nitrogen and potassium that crops need to develop well.

So, can you use a bone meal for tomatoes? Does this fertilizer work well with your tomato plants? For fertilizing san marzano tomatoes in previous article ? Let’s scroll down to find the answer!
Can You Use Bone Meal For Tomatoes?

Yes. To have healthy and juicy tomatoes, you need to use several fertilizers and composts to give your crops more beneficial nutrients and minerals and resist harmful insects and diseases.
Bone meal is one of the most advantageous fertilizers for tomatoes, other fruits and root plants. This organic fertilizer helps enhance the earth's quality and speed up the growing process because it provides a huge amount of phosphorus and potassium.
Moreover, adding bone meal increases the fruit yield and size, which will bring you a fruitful tomato crop. So, you can use this fertilizer for your tomatoes and learn how to maximize its benefits by reading through the information below.
How to Use Bone Meal for Tomatoes?
Before adding bone meal, you should check the pH, and earth quality as bone meal needs soil with a pH lower than level 7.0. The soil between 6.0 - 7.0 is also perfect for the bone meal to draw nutrients.
If the small test proves that the soil is balanced at 7.0 pH, you can follow several approaches below to maximize the advantages of bone meal for your tomatoes:
The first way is to use the bone meal near the roots. Add about 5ml (one teaspoon) of bone meal directly to the base of the planting holes before putting tomato seeds in. Mixing bone meal with soil is advisable to make the soil nutritious.
The second way is to put the bone meal on top of your tomatoes. Sprinkle several teaspoons (no more than 3) around planted tomatoes and blend them with the earth with a rake.
Remember to water your planting earth immediately so the fertilizer can effectively leach into the soil microbes.
When To Use Bone Meal For Tomatoes?
When preparing tomato seedlings, you can add bone meal to make your crops grow faster. However, remember to add this fertilizer at the time of transplanting or planting. It is an ideal period for tomatoes to absorb all the good nutrients.
Further, you need to blend bone meal into the earth before planting to make it fertile and contain enough nutrients that tomatoes need to develop their fruits. Tomatoes can uptake good substances quickly, so you should feed them more often.
What Happens If You Use Too Much Bone Meal?

Adding Too Much Bone Meal Helps Mycorrhizal Fungi Grow Faster
Although the bone meal is an organic fertilizer and considered safe for plants, it still contains potential risks when you overuse it. The successive amount of phosphorus in bone meal absorbs and accumulates in the soil, leading to the imbalance of good earth microbes and destroying your tomatoes rather than supporting them to develop healthily.
Additionally, overfertilization will produce too many nutrients and minerals that your tomatoes cannot absorb immediately. It will overload your plants and make them unable to digest what they need the most. It becomes a waste and wipes out all your efforts as your crops cannot grow faster if fertilized with too much bone meal.
Overusing bone meal also links with mycorrhizal fungi’s growth, making it difficult for your tomatoes to develop their roots.
Last but not least, the high level of phosphorus is a threat to aquatic life because it seeps through the upper surface of the saturation zone (water table) and then flows to the river and stream. Finally, it pollutes and destroys the aquatic ecosystem and other surrounding environments.
Is Bone Meal Good For Blossom End Rot On Tomatoes?

Unfortunately, using bone meal to handle blossom end rot on tomatoes is not a completely effective method. Calcium deficiency is a common cause of blossom end rot, which often happens in the developing tip of the fruit.
Therefore, adding bone meal to the soil gives your tomatoes sufficient calcium to prevent this frustrating problem in fruiting crops. You can mix bone meal into the soil where affected tomatoes are placed or add it to the water source and spray it over the plants.
Another condition that leads to blossom end rot’s occurrence is the instability in soil moisture. However, a bone meal is not a good choice for your tomatoes in this case. It doesn’t provide moisture to the earth, so you may want to find other alternatives to deal with this issue.
Conclusion
Using bone meal for tomatoes brings many benefits as it helps your tomato plants grow faster, produce juicy fruits, and enhance the soil quality for the next crops. Furthermore, it makes your tomatoes resistant to some harmful diseases and develops strong health during the growing process.
However, overusing bone meal will cause drawbacks more than benefits to your tomatoes. Therefore, you need to know how to apply bone meal correctly to increase its advantages and collect bountiful crops.
Hopefully, our article provides detailed information you need to know to garden your tomato crops effectively and collect beautiful fruits.
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