Oh the best laid of plans! I just got done talking about how I like to plant my tomatoes late
so that I can avoid potting them up multiple times before transplanting them into the garden.
Well these guys were planted April 1st and as you can see they are already getting too big for their
britches. This would not be an issue if I were planning on transplanting these within a week,
week and a half but there are some years where I don't get my tomatoes transplanted out until
around Memorial Day. Now I could plant earlier than that-- my frost free date is before then,
it's just a matter of finding the time to do it, which I'm sure is something
some of you can relate to as well. So today I want to show you what I do when I do have
to pot my tomatoes up prior to transplanting. So let's get started! First let's talk supplies. You
need a pot of some sort. I prefer these Anderson pots because a they're just about the perfect size
for tomato transplants and they are specially designed to air prune roots. So what you end up
with is a vigorous more robust root system when they're grown in these pots. Second you're going
to need a potting mix or soil of some sort. I still for all the mixes I've tried think that this
ProMix is the best ready to use, readily available at my local store mix, you can use just about
anything though as long as the pH is balanced and it offers good drainage. I also use little
tags to keep my plants straight. So I'll do a tag for each pot, and water, and that's all you need.
Now just because it makes this whole process a little easier I like to dump my potting soil into
a large container that I can easily work in and scoop out of and then I just fill up my pots. Now
with these Anderson, pots because they have these big openings it's easier if you set your pot down
on the soil surface to get it started so you're not losing all of your soil out of the bottom
I'll just put a little bit in there. Next I want to take one of my transplants out.
Now these plants look big but they are still very tender they've not been hardened off and
they're just babies. So very very gently want to get in there and get the whole root mass
out. I've got a little extra seedling on there, I'm going to get rid of that guy,
and then I will typically just pinch the bottom leaves off of that plant
I will drop that down in the pot, and you can see
how deep I'm burying these, and that is because these tomatoes will root all
along that buried stem portion and again you'll get a bigger more robust root system that way
And then I just fill it up. And one thing I did want to mention, I am not adding fertilizer to
these as I am potting them up and that is because this potting soil that I'm using already has some
food in it. You could certainly add a low dosage plant food to your plants when you're potting them
if you want to give your tomatoes a little boost and I would typically just use a fertilizer that's
formulated for tomato plants at this time. So that is an option as well. As I mentioned I will
put a tag in each plant so I can keep everything straight and then I will set all of my plants in
this crate. Now another nice thing about these Anderson pots is how handily they fit right in
this black crate. So you can fit 24 plants in a black crate like this makes it really handy
to transport these. So let's get the rest of these potted up. Now the very last and probably
most important step is to water. And I really really saturate these guys and don't worry I know
these look kind of scary and sad and super droopy right now but they will come out of it I promise!
Now just as an example I wanted to show you these guys these were potted up and watered
last night and looked even worse if possible than the last batch I just showed you. They
sat overnight in the greenhouse and you can see how much they are already perking up and starting
to look really good. And that's it! Hopefully I can start getting these transplanted in a couple
of weeks and will really kick off tomato season! Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time