i think there are as many different ways to plant tomatoes as there are gardeners on this planet
everyone has their own tips and tricks and advice what it comes down to is do you end up
with healthy plants and loads of tasty tomatoes if so share your tricks in the comments below
if not it may be time to reevaluate your strategy i'm working on transplanting some of my tomato
plants today so i thought i'd share with you my top tips for transplanting tomatoes tip number one
if you can at all help it try to transplant tomatoes on an overcast calm day preferably
later in the afternoon now i realize this isn't always possible but it will help lessen the
amount of transplant shock that your tomatoes go through that being said if your tomatoes are
properly hardened off they can put up with a huge amount of stress the last batch of tomatoes that
i transplanted i did so at high noon on the hottest day of the year that we'd had so far
and they looked a little rough for a couple days but they bounced back incredibly and they look
great now tip number two is never handle your plants by the stem so when you remove them
from your transplant pot give it a squeeze and gently remove it from the pot then rough up the
roots just a bit to break up that root ball tip number three is one you've probably all heard
and that is to plant them deep another option is to trench them but both of these methods
get at the same end result which is that tomatoes will put roots all along the buried portion of the
stem giving you a more robust root system now i don't necessarily always do the trenching method
this is where you lay the stem horizontally in a trench with only a small portion of the stem
remaining above ground i will generally only do this if my plants are already growing this
way because i find that i risk breaking the stem when i try to bend them but trenching definitely
can save you time digging especially if you're planting into really heavy ground what i typically
do is just dig a nice deep hole so that i'm able to bury at least a couple inches of the stem
when i do either method i will pinch off all of the bottom leaves and branches so that i have
just a bare stem which is buried under the soil so you can see here's an example of a plant that
is already growing in a way which would pretty much lend itself to trenching i can bury this
whole stem all along here up to the point where it starts to turn upward and this will put roots
all along this buried stem portion so to plant a tomato like this i'm just going to come along
and make truly just a trench here in the ground just a few inches deep to cover up that stem
and i'm going to need a little bit of a deeper section to bury the root ball
again i'm going to gently dislodge that from the pot
rough up those roots just a little
bury that root ball and then i'm going to want to remove
all of these stems and leaves up to that point
and then that stem is just going to get buried under the soil
my other option is just to dig a nice deep hole
again
and i want to bury that up to about
there
and then just back fill with soil
tip three a is to remember when planting to give them adequate space i prefer to space my
indeterminate varieties five feet apart and my determinate varieties three to four feet apart
this can vary a lot depending on how you decide to train and prune and trellis your plants
but keep in mind the finished size of your plants or how big they will grow at maturity
and that providing them with more air circulation typically equates to healthier plants especially
if you're growing in areas where things like bacterial or fungal foliar diseases
are an issue think things like septoria leaf spot, blights, bacterial spot or speck tip number four
is to feed when planting now if you have amazing nutrient dense rich soil
you can skip this step and i'm very jealous of you but for the rest of us giving your tomatoes
a little boost when planting will really help them out my preference is to skip the synthetic
fertilizers which will give your tomatoes an initial amazing boost of growth but at the
expense of their long-term health so often what happens is they'll get this artificial surge of
growth put on a lot of foliar growth look really nice and green but the plant structure itself
is not as strong and that is not good in the long run instead i like to opt for fertilizers with
naturally derived ingredients some examples would be things like bone or blood meal, alfalfa meal,
humic acids, kelp meal and trace minerals if your soil is low in calcium you may also look for a
fertilizer that has that as an added ingredient or add it separately because the addition of calcium
will help fend off blossom end rot now just apply per the instructions on the package this tomato
food that i'm using now i apply while planting and then again when my tomatoes will start fruiting
you might also consider in addition to or in lieu of fertilizer working really nice compost or aged
manure into your soil before planting because that's just going to serve to give your plants
another nice big nutrition boost tip number five water as soon as they are planted my preference is
to bottom water and this is something to keep in mind for the life of your plant especially again
if you're growing in areas where tomatoes are prone to those fungal foliar diseases
because wet foliage can increase the risk of these types of issues and how much you water is going
to depend a bit on how moisture soil is to begin with but i definitely like to give them a nice big
healthy drink the day they are transplanted tip number six is mulch as soon as you plant them i
like to use natural mulch like grass clippings but plastic mulches are also an option with tomatoes
this helps soil retain moisture which not only means less watering for you but it also equates
to more consistent moisture near the root zone which can prevent blossom end rot mulch can also
help prevent some soil borne diseases which are caused when rain water or irrigation makes the
soil splash up onto the bottom of the leaves spreading the pathogens and tip number seven
make sure that your trellis or cage or support or whatever you're going to use to help support your
tomatoes is up before planting your tomatoes or as soon as possible afterward please do not think
i've got my tomatoes planted i'll come back in a week and pop the cages on they grow like weeds
i have had my tomatoes grow so much in a week or two that i've come back later to put the cages on
and i can't even get a cage around my tomatoes without breaking off branches and even if you're
going for the single stake method it's much easier to do when your tomatoes are small
and be sure to pick trellises or supports that are appropriate to the mature size
of your tomato save yourself the heartache and unless you are growing like a micro mini dwarf
do not buy the tomato supports from the big box store because they are completely useless
heavy-duty cages work really really well for determinate varieties but indeterminates take
even more staking power my go-to is the homemade cattle panel trellis but homemade heavy-duty
steaks different types of trellises the florida weave all of these are options
just make sure to have that decision made and have your supplies ready to go before you
plant your tomatoes so those are my top tips for successfully transplanting tomatoes i've got a lot
more to get planted so i'm gonna get going but if you find content like this useful please consider
subscribing to my channel growfully with jenna thanks for watching and i'll see you next time