FALMOUTH, Maine — If you started a vegetable garden for the first time this year, you’re not alone.
Garden centers in Maine report the busiest season anyone can remember. At this point you are beginning to harvest some crops and on others, like peppers and tomatoes, the fruits are just starting to form. You’re probably pretty proud of yourself. Congratulations! But you need to know that your work is not done yet.
When a plant is growing new fruit, it begins to pull even more nutrients from the soil, and if the nutrients aren’t there, the fruit will suffer. Now is the time to fertilize your veggie garden, so that those fruit continue to flourish.
There are plenty of fertilizers out there, but some specific products may be hard to find because of production problems caused by the pandemic. But Terry Skillin of Skillin’s Greenhouses in Falmouth, says don’t worry, there are plenty of other products you can use.
“Don’t be fooled by the labels,” Skillin says. “You need to look at the ingredients.”
Let’s take Rose-tone for example. Many people think that is specially formulated for roses and won’t help other plants. That’s not true.
"You can use Rose Tone on your tomatoes and you won’t grow roses on your tomato plants," Skillin says. "In fact rose fertilizer contains many of the ingredients that tomatoes love.“
“Look for the three numbers. They all have three numbers on the package. The first is nitrogen, the second phosphorus, the third is for potassium. Tomatoes love calcium and magnesium. Those are in Rose-tone.”
Another alternative for your magnesium loving tomatoes: Epsom Salt. Really? Skillin says for a 3 foot tall tomato plant you take less than a teaspoon of salt and sprinkle it around the base. It has all the magnesium the tomato could want.
Skillin says it’s not a bad idea toward the end of the season to take a soil sample and send it in to the state Cooperative Extension. “It’s good to know exactly where your soil is and what it needs so you can add those ingredients for next season."
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